Page 48 of Devlin

She walked back into his apartment, set her glass on the counter and grabbed her bag before heading to the door.

Devlin walked her down the stairs and out of the building without saying a word. The silence accompanied them on the very short drive to her dad's house.

"Wait," he said, as she put her hand on the door. "I'm not in love with Amy."

"Okay," she said carefully, seeing the unusually hard lines around his mouth and eyes.

"But you were right, Hannah. I'm not looking for arelationship, and you are. You want that picture in your head: the man, the house, the dog…"

"I actually like cats."

"Over dogs? No way."

She felt the tension ease between them. "Cats are wonderful."

"They don't care about you. Any lap will do."

"Not true. I do want another relationship, Devlin. But I'm not in a hurry to get into one, not at all. It's been arough year, and I am happy to be on my own. It gives me a chance to figure out what I really want, not just in a man, but in a job, in a place to live, in my other relationships."

"That's good."

"It is." She gave him a smile. "I like you, Devlin. I'm wildly attracted to you, but it's probably also good that you remembered your early meeting, before we did something we'd regret."

"I don't think we'd regret it. I'm attracted to you, too, but I don't want to hurt you, Hannah."

"I don't want to hurt you, either. I wouldn't want you to fall in love with me and then have to say good-bye," she teased.

His grin came back. "I appreciate you watching out for my heart."

"That's what friends do. Good night." She got out of the car and hurried into the housebefore she changed her mind and told him to hell with the future or possible regrets; they had right now, and that was enough.But would it be enough?Probably not.

When she entered the living room, she saw her dad standing at the window. He turned to her with a worried expression in his gaze.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"What were you doing with Devlin?"

"He gave mea ride home from the party." She didn't bother to mention the last hour hanging out in his apartment. "Why do you look upset?"

"I'm not upset; I'm worried. He's not for you."

She was surprised by his terse words. "I didn't say he was for me, but I thought you liked him."

"I do like him, but he goes through women like water. I think it has something to do with the woman heloved and lost. But that doesn't matter when it comes to you. I don’t want him to hurt you."

"I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself."

"I know you think that, but I also know that you've always had a sweet spot for Devlin."

"That's not true."

"I saw it years ago—that night I brought him home from the bar. You were very concerned about him."

"Because I couldsee how drunk and sad he was, and you wouldn't tell me what was going on."

"That probably wasn't fair, but I didn't want rumors to get started, and I wasn't sure you could keep it to yourself."

"Well, that was all a long time ago. And you don't have to be concerned. There's nothing going on between Devlin and me. We're just…friends." She felt a little depressed as she said the words,because despite her very recent speech to Devlin on the same topic, she didn't really want to just be friends, even though it was all they could be. "Speaking of friends," she said, changing the subject. "I didn't realize that you and Mom used to hang out with Claire and Graham. Devlin showed me a bunch of photos of the four of you together. When did that end?"

---