Page 20 of Bidding on a Second Chance
She checked on Teddy in his cardboard playpen and then headed toward the back room.
Graham had a dresser flipped to hand-sand the grooves in the legs. He glanced up, spotted her, and straightened. He ran a hand over his shirt, sending up a puff of dust and hope.
She even liked sawdust when it was related to Graham. This was so bad.
His eyebrows lifted, silently asking why she’d come.
Right. She was on a mission. “I’d like to pay you for clearing my driveway yesterday. Does thirty dollars sound fair?”
He grunted and took the sandpaper back to the dresser leg. “Nope.”
She tightened her fingers around the rubber grips on the scooter. “Thirty-five?” He’d been out there less than thirty minutes. Surely, the first offer had been generous? Although his big truck probably burned a lot of fuel.
“You’re not paying me.”
“I want to. It’s only fair.”
He rose to his full height. “Fair?”
The ice in his eyes triggered an involuntary swallow. “Is something wrong?”
He laughed ruefully and returned to work.
She may have offended him yesterday by projecting her own feelings onto him. Still, this reaction seemed a little extreme. “I’m paying you, unless I can find some other way to cheer you up.”
“I don’t need cheering.”
“Tell that to your scowl.”
He bared his teeth in a smile that would’ve reduced a child to tears. His usual smile brimmed with kindness and joy. The scary grimace confirmed something really had gone off course. Perhaps the problem had nothing to do with her at all.
“Does it have to do with work?”
He grunted again.
“Cody?” Men weren’t famous for friend drama, but there was a first time for everything.
“Did you know one of the last times I talked to my mom, she said staying in touch was ‘too hard?’” Though he aimed the gruff statement at the dresser, his accusatory tone hit the center of her chest. With his head bent toward his work, she couldn’t read his expression.
Was he angry with her for what his mother had done? As far as she knew, they hadn’t spoken in years. Had the woman gotten in touch more recently, stirring things up again? “You were a kid at the time, right?”
“For my thirteenth birthday, she took me to see a movie and let me drink so much soda I was sick the rest of the day. A month later, I called her about coming to see one of my games, and she said it was too hard for her.”
Protectiveness welled inside her. She had heard this story while they dated, but the repetition didn’t take the edge off. She and Bryce struggled sometimes, but she couldn’t imagine giving up on him, especially if he were inviting her to spend time with him. And he was her nephew, not her own son.
How those words must’ve cut Graham. She’d experienced the hurt of losing a parent, but he’d suffered an additional blow—his mom hadchosento sever the relationship. “I’m really sorry she did that. No child should be abandoned. Is there … Is there any way I can help?”
Her ideas, to listen or to send him on an errand that might distract him, might not help much, but he must have some reason for bringing this up.
He tossed the sandpaper onto the dresser and crossed his arms. “She said it was too hard and disappeared. And you keep saying it’s too risky, but lifeishard and risky. Relationships mean staying committed, despite the difficulties.”
Exactly why she hadn’t made a commitment, at least not one with a ring involved. Her heart pumped fast and ineffectively, the edges of her vision swimming. She hated that he felt the pain she could see in his tense posture, in the line between his brows. She hated more knowing she had been a part of it. And yet, pain had been unavoidable. That was why she’d refused his proposal in the first place. “What are you asking?”
Graham’s jaw worked. “I’m not asking to get back together. But I do need closure. You said Bryce hates me, but that’s not a true obstacle, or you wouldn’t have put him on my team. You said my job was too dangerous, but you knew what I did for a living before we started dating. You mentioned your own clumsiness, but I don’t follow how that could have any impact on us. I don’t even think you’re afraid of commitment. You stick by your family through thick and thin—you visit Ryan in prison, you’re raising Bryce. So tell me. Why did you truly decide I’m too much of a risk?”
“Because you’re right. I do believe in commitment. I stand by my family—Grandma, Grandpa, Bryce, and Ryan. But I’ve lost people too, and I don’t want to lose more. So romance? I don’t have the capacity to deal with that pain when I can opt out.”
“Losing me didn’t cause you pain?”
