The Family Gathering (Sullivan's Crossing #3)(33)

Sid’s eyes popped up from her plate. They were round and startled. “Huh?”

“Yeah, some of their couple friends do that and I guess Connie has been through the certification program. Friends they sometimes hang out with have had foster kids and Sierra thinks it’s a good idea. I’ve seen her with Cal’s little girl—they’re both great with kids.”

“Wow,” she said. “You make it seem like the whole family is virtuous.”

“It’s a trick, Sid,” he said. “You’ll fall in love with me because I gave Sister Mary Jacob a hundred bucks.”

She made a pffftt sound with her lips. “Not for a hundred bucks I won’t.”

When he walked her to her car, he grabbed her hand and she allowed it. When they were beside her car he swung her around and pulled her against him. Closely against him. She looked up at him.

“You said I would always be safe with you,” Sid said quietly.

“Try to get away,” he said.

She pulled back and was instantly free.

“I’m not taking hostages, Sid.”

Without warning she flung herself against him, into his arms, dug her fingers into the thick hair at the back of his head and smothered him in a kiss so sweet he was breathless. For a second, shock kept him from reacting. Then he circled her waist with his arms and held her, moving over her mouth with passion and urgency. The taste of her, more chocolate than anything, turned him on and blew his mind. If there had been a private room nearby, maybe she wouldn’t have been all that safe. And neither would he.

“Whoa,” he said, tightening his arms. “You are definitely worth waiting for.”

“I think you’re manipulating me,” she whispered against his lips.

“I wouldn’t even know how,” he said, kissing her again. And again, that kiss was hot and crazy. He really wanted her. And yet this was not the time or place. “We’re in a parking lot,” he said. “We have three choices. We can climb in my truck and make out, we can go somewhere and be alone or we can table this for a while.”

She relaxed in his arms. “I’m taking door number three. Under the circumstances.”

“I have my own place.”

“My brother is probably expecting me.”

“I still have my own place,” he said.

“It’ll keep.” She gave his cheek a pat. “I’ll go to the wedding with you, but only so you don’t have to be embarrassed by having a nun for a date.”

“Okay,” he said hoarsely. “Can I at least have your phone number now?”

*

Sid was a little dreamy while driving home. She was having a conversation with herself. Aloud. She’d been doing this since grade school. Eventually she was overheard, especially in the computer lab, and learned she wasn’t the only person who did that. She’d ask and answer the questions as they came. Usually mathematical or theoretical, but ultimately questions in every category. It was how she worked things out.

What do you think you’re doing, Sidney?

She was hooking up.

But she wasn’t good at hookups. She hadn’t had very many. And the one she did have turned into a husband! A very bad husband. She wasn’t about to let that happen again. She wasn’t crazy.

That looked a little crazy out there in the parking lot, spread on him like butter on bread. But she couldn’t help herself. She liked him.

Did she ever like David in that way? She couldn’t remember. She’d asked herself a hundred times—was her heart broken because she loved him so much or because he’d betrayed her in so many ways?

In the beginning, before they married, she was very taken with him. He was sweet and attentive. There was her father’s death, and David really hung in there.

Uh, he went to the funeral and then didn’t he have finals? Or midterms? Or whatever it was, it was so critical.

Everything was so critical...

But she had signed on for it.

She thought that’s what people did for each other.

He kept saying, “I’m not doing this for me, Sidney. I’m doing this for us.”

There was never any “us.”

She gave him seven years!

She supported him for seven years but she was doing exactly what she wanted to be doing.

Was that the problem? The weak link? That she was so involved in her work?

I hate to break it to you but he could have started being unfaithful before you were married and how would you know? her inner voice asked. Did you ever once check?

Oh God, I can never be in a relationship again because I can’t be one of those women who reads his texts in the dark of night or follows him to see if he’s really going back to work!

Then the idea of a garbage collector makes perfect sense...

But he’s not really a garbage collector. Well, he really is, but that doesn’t mean anything at all—it’s his job, not his identity.

Was that where she’d gone wrong with David? Putting too much importance on the importance he put on himself? Didn’t her degrees take as much dedication and time and intelligence? She was a scholar! A scientist!

He said she was dull. Boring.

That was name-calling.

It was true.

Sid took a deep, calming breath. There were three things that decimated her about her failed marriage. That David had lied to her for so long and she’d been clueless, that she suddenly realized that not only was she completely alone, she’d been completely alone all along, and third, there wasn’t much about her to be attracted to—she was boring. A completely boring computer nerd. That she was a computer nerd on the cutting edge of cyberscience, information technology and artificial intelligence didn’t make her a more interesting person. If she and David went out with his friends, doctors who could accomplish complex surgeries and save lives, doctors who would cure diseases, they would invariably ask her, “Listen, I’m having this problem with my operating system...” or, “I don’t think I have a good cloud coverage setup...”