Page 82 of Third Chances (Men of Manhattan 2)

"Just go."

He took a step toward me. His face was softer than it had been a second ago. After everything he just said to me, how could he feel compassion toward me? He clearly loathed me. So why did it look like he wanted to comfort me?

I took a step back. I didn't want his arms around me. I didn't need someone to tell me it was going to be okay. It wasn't okay. Nothing was okay. "Don't touch me."

He stopped. "Okay. I didn't mean to make you cry." He ran his hand through his wet hair. He looked so smug and sexy. He was such a conceited asshole.

"You'll lose him, you know. If you do nothing, you'll lose him."

Rob's face hardened again. "Still, you haven't asked me about him. Still, you're pointing fingers, when you know nothing about his past. I'm not as blind as you think I am. He's fine. And if he wasn't, I would know. I'm not dumb enough to lose him. Now please, just leave us alone." He turned and walked back toward the trail.

He left me feeling even worse about last night than I already did. And more alone than I had ever felt.

***

I slowly opened the door to my room. It looked like everyone was still sleeping. I closed the door as quietly as I could.

"I'm not dumb enough to lose him." Rob's words wouldn't stop echoing around in my head. I had believed Derek was better. I was dumb enough to lose him. My whole body was cold and it wasn't because I was soaked. I just felt so defeated. Was Rob actually right? Was it my fault that Derek was gone?

"Hey," Kristen said. She yawned and sat up. "Walk of shame much?"

I tried to laugh. It came out sounding forced and foreign to my ears. "No, I slept here last night. I just went for a walk his morning."

"Mhm. I see that Rob has already removed your bracelet this morning. What did he make you do?"

"No, actually. I just haven't put it on yet." I gestured to my bracelet which was still sitting on the nightstand.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yep." I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "Everything's good." I needed to stop dwelling on what Rob had said. He didn't know anything about me. And he never would. Screw him. "What are we doing today?"

"Zip lining."

"Really?"

"Don't look so freaked out. It's super safe. It's going to be fun. Tell me how last night went."

"Umm...good."

Kristen laughed. "That didn't sound convincing at all. Did he try to pressure you to have sex or something? I know how weird you are about waiting until the fifth date or whatever."

"The sixth date. And no, nothing like that." He probably wouldn't have had to pressure me. But now I was so relieved that we hadn't taken it that far. I needed to change the subject. "'I saw James with his shirt off."

Kristen's eyes lit up. "Did you drool everywhere? I remember watching him on his runs. Every now and then it would be so hot that he couldn't wear a shirt. He's so sexy."

"You're such a stalker." I said it even thought I had done the same thing with Rob. I made sure to read on the green at the same time every day in hopes of seeing him.

Kristen laughed. "I'm an observant person is all."

I sat down at the small table in our room. "Do you know anything about his past?"

"Who, James? Yeah, I know all about him. What do you want to know?"

Of course she did. "Did he used to have a drug problem?"

Kristen sighed. "That's like the one thing I don't know everything about. I think it's kind of buried. Rich people can do that I guess. All I know is that he has kind of a sad past and he never really talks about it in interviews. He's made it clear that he didn't love his first wife, though. He was depressed or something and his family pressured him into marrying her I think. I do know that he's been arrested a few times. But I don't know what the charges were. Did you know that he got fired from his first teaching job for punching the dean?"

"Seriously? And you knew all this and still liked him?"

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