Page 87 of To Belong Together
“I want to.” The corner of his mouth lifted. He was way too good looking. Too good to be true.
When he reached for her hand, she shifted her arm away and started up the walk. “Six is really early, and you’re still recovering from your accident, so I don’t want you to feel obligated.”
He hadn’t replied before they reached the front step, and she forced herself to turn to him.
His expression was set, serious and intent. “Time with you is not an obligation.”
The simple statement rocked her composure. Was it the intensity in his words? The fact that he would eventually change his mind? Because it’d been ages—since before Dad’s decline—since she’d felt as if anyone really enjoyed her company.
Could John really…?
Before tears won, she nodded and forced a smile. “Okay. I’m not packed or anything, so I’ll probably have Susanna take me to get my car, then I’ll sleep at my own house. Pick me up from there. If you’re sure.”
“Very.”
She clutched the doorknob, nodded again. “See you then.”
She pulled open the storm door and let it form a partial barrier between them. His eyes narrowed and his shoulders dipped, but if she’d blinked, she wouldn’t have spotted either.
He turned back onto the walk. “See you in the morning.”
She exhaled, and tears dropped to her cheeks. Her regret over pushing him away mixed with a sense of rightness. How could she enjoy anything as much as she enjoyed John while Dad was missing?
Still, John had to be feeling the rejection right now, and he didn’t deserve that after how much he’d given her today.
“Hey, John?”
He pivoted, still taking slow steps backward, toward his car.
“Thanks for everything.”
“The least I could do.” He assessed her one more time.
If ever he’d only shared the tip of the iceberg, she suspected tonight was the night, and she respected him all the more for the restraint. She needed to find Dad, needed impossible answers about why he’d disappeared, and with that hanging over her, she couldn’t think clearly about anything else. Least of all John’s inexplicable interest in her.
She waited until he’d pulled out to open the main door.
As she crossed the threshold, sobs from farther inside demanded her focus.
Panicked questions cut through the fog of her jumbled thoughts. Had Dad been found? And somehow, no one had told her and John?
She hurried to the living room.
Mom sat, back curved, tissue pressed to her face. Susanna rubbed her shoulder and made calming noises—ineffective ones, judging by the mountain of tissues on the coffee table.
“What happened? Is it Dad?”
“No news.” Susanna pried her eyes off Mom to search the coffee table. She lifted a folded paper and extended it toward Erin.
As Erin unfolded the letter, Mom shuddered and focused on her, calming some.
So whatever the paper contained, Mom seemed to have some hope Erin could help.
Please, God, let that be so.
She struggled to focus on the type before her.
The bank would foreclose on the house unless they caught up on all the missed payments plus attorney fees in the next couple of months. Mom and Dad would be kicked out of their home of forty years.
