Page 11 of Love Without Demands

“No, a couple years ago, I was trying to decide whether to stay in or not, and then my father died. That made my decision for me. I needed to be there for my mother.”

Her hand rested lightly on my shoulder, and I felt that zap of something electric again. “I’m so sorry you lost your dad. That must have been hard. What brought you to New York?”

Well, that was a loaded question I didn’t care to discuss right now, so I stuck with a partial truth. “My sister, Quinnie, is here. Her husband is a surgical resident at Sloan Kettering, so he works long hours. It’s nice to be close to her and my niece, Noelle.”

“How old is Noelle?”

I could feel my smile widen like it always did when I talked about my niece. “She’s four and a total ball of energy. She believes she’s a princess but she refuses to wear dresses.”

“That’s okay. If she’s a princess, she can wear whatever the hell she wants.”

“That’s what I told her,” I said with a chuckle, flicking on my blinker to change lanes.

“Did you say your sister’s name is Winnie?”

“Quinnie,” I corrected. “It’s short for Quintessa.”

“Is she your only sibling?”

Such a complicated answer…

“We have a younger brother named Eli. He’s twenty-two but still lives at home. I don’t think Mama will ever get rid of him.” I said that last part on a chuckle. “What about you?”

“No siblings. I’m completely boring.”

“I doubt that.”

“Is your mother doing okay now?”

“She is. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have left. It’s still hard, of course, but she has Eli, and she’s started going to a book club and making more friends.”

“That’s good. Okay, enough sad stuff,” she said, clapping her hands once. “Tell me a happy thing.”

Startled a little at the change of subject, I glanced at her and questioned, “A happy thing?”

“Yep. Whenever anything sad or upsetting happened when I was little, my mom said we had to counteract it with something nicer. So she made me tell her a happy thing.”

“Oh, um, let me think.”I just met the most beautiful girl who makes me smile more than I have in years.But I couldn’t exactly say that to her, so I said, “I got accepted as a reserve officer for the police department.”

“Really? That’s so awesome, Cruz.” She touched my arm again, just an encouraging squeeze, but I fucking loved it.

“Yeah, I want to join the unit that does SWAT work. I’m actually meeting with the guys from one of the teams this week to see how we get along. Just for drinks, nothing formal.”

“You’ll be great. I’m sure they’ll love you,” she said as her phone began to ring. “Oh crap, I forgot to call Dwight when I landed.”

Who the hell is Dwight?

“Hi, honey. Sorry I forgot to call,” she answered into the phone, and disappointment shoved my heart down to the vicinity of my stomach.

Honey. She has a boyfriend. Or a…I checked her hand and was pleased when I didn’t see a ring. I’m not sure why it mattered. Boyfriend, fiancé, or husband… it was all the same to me. I would never touch another man’s girl, no matter how attracted I was to her.

“Okay, that sounds good. I’ll see you then,” she was saying. “Love you too.” Lehra hung up the phone and smiled over at me. “Sorry about that. What were we talking about?”

“Oh, I was,” I scrambled to think of something, “about to ask you to tell me a happy thing.”

She tapped her bottom lip with a french-tipped finger. “Hmmm, my happy thing is that it’s only a week till Christmas, and it’s my second favorite holiday behind Halloween.”

“And are you spending Christmas with your… with Dwight?”

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