Page 31 of The Problem with Dating
I almost winced but caught myself in time. “When I find out if Echo’s as serious about me as I am her.”
Sayer and Nate both shook their heads. “Bad idea, man,” Nate said.
“Have you learned nothing from me and Nate?” Sayer asked. “I mean, seriously?”
“It’s different,” I argued. “Mom loves me more than she loves you two. She’ll understand.”
“You really are a dumb fuck,” Say replied sardonically.
“Me?”
“If Mom really does love you more than she loves us, she’s going to be doubly hurt that you kept this from her,” Sayer continued. “Digging your own grave, buddy.”
“Mom will understand,” I insisted, ignoring some of the truth in his words.
Nate shook his head sadly. “Nothing is guaranteed with dealing with batshit crazy, Gid.”
Goddamn it.
Chapter 17
Echo~
Not the Saturday I had planned, that’s for sure.
The past week has been nothing but working on my floors, eating, and sex.
Mind-blowing, earth-quaking, out-of-this-world sex.
Gideon was everything you’d think he’d be when you looked at him. The tall, dark, handsome, tatted-up god that could rock your world, that was Gideon, and then some.
After Nathan and Gideon had finished laying everything out yesterday, it had been the perfect excuse to spend the entire afternoon and night at Gideon’s. It was the first time I had stayed all night, and it should have scared me that it had felt so comfortable, but it hadn’t. I had woken up in his arms, gotten tangled up one more time before starting our morning, and then he had walked me back to my house.
At this point, it was probably a guarantee that our neighbors knew something was going on between us, but I didn’t care. I didn’t mind being neighborhood gossip if that gossip tied me to Gideon Hayes.
Before kissing me goodbye at my door, Gideon had asked about my plans for the day, and when I had told him I had a lot of preparation to do before Monday, he had promised to make himself scarce and had told me he’d call me tonight.
It had been nice, uncomplicated, and just perfect.
Now I was back at MacArthur’s, looking for deals on lawn mowers and whatnot. Now that my house was coming along nicely, thanks to Gideon and Nathan, I needed to start really thinking about maintaining my yards.
“Echo?”
I was in an aisle of weed eaters when I turned around and saw Louise walking towards me. It was good seeing her again, and I imagined with both her husband and son owning the business that they did, she was probably in here a lot, running errands for them or whatever.
“Louise,” I said, smiling. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Well, I was actually across the street, you know, picking up a couple of things, when I saw you walking in here.”
“Oh. Did you need some help with something?” One of the town’s grocery stores was located across the street, and I hated to think she might be lugging around something heavy.
She waved my concern away. “Oh, no, honey,” she rushed out. “I was wanted to come over and see if you wouldn’t mind having lunch with an old woman?”
“You are not an old woman,” I immediately countered. “You’re perfectly lovely, Louise Hayes.”
She grinned. “Are you terribly busy?”
I wasn’t terribly busy, but I had really wanted to put a dent in my errands and preparation for work Monday. But the thought of turning Louise down hurt my heart. Even though she had three sons, two of them were busy with their own families now, and that probably created some loneliness for her. Even if Gideon didn’t have a family, lately, he’s been dividing his time between my place and sneaking in a couple of hours at work with his dad. He told me that his dad’s been was holding down the fort these past couple of days, so I wondered if Louise really was feeling lonely lately. Gideon had warned me that he was going to have to make up a lot of this week’s work time next week, so that was more time Louise was going to go without seeing one of her sons.
