The Hero (Thunder Point #3)(48)

“Hey, I don’t usually see you this time of day,” he said, sitting in front of her.

“I’m usually long gone by now, but I’m covering for Ashley until four or so. She’s been out on the bay with a couple of her friends and Eric, her father.”

“That must be kind of interesting, being reunited with her father.”

Gina laughed. “There’s no ‘re’ about it—Eric took off when I was three months pregnant. We were kids...he ran far and fast. I found him last spring when I was looking for medical history for Ash—I realized I knew nothing about his side of the family and thought I’d better get some basic information. That got the ball rolling and they wanted to meet.”

“I didn’t realize,” Scott said.

“I raised her alone, with the help of my mother,” she said.

“What’s it like, seeing him again after so long?”

She shrugged. “He just says a quick hello if he’s going to be spending a little time with Ashley. And he’s not too intense about it—he sees her every couple of weeks. They’re developing a nice friendship, I think. But for me? Amazing how much water has gone over the dam. Life goes on.”

Not always, Scott thought. “You know, you and I had a couple of dates, right before you married Mac...”

She smiled. “We did.”

“Got any girlfriends? I’m not doing that great in the dating department. And I’d like my life to go on...”

She tilted her head and smiled sympathetically. “Scott, are you sure you’re ready?”

“My wife died almost four years ago....”

“I know. But everyone is different. Maybe it’s taking you a while—no shame in that. Be patient—when the perfect woman comes along, everything will fall into place.”

“How am I going to know the perfect woman if I don’t even date a potential perfect woman? I was just building up to asking Devon if we could go out to dinner and someone jumped in line ahead of me!”

Gina laughed.

He put his elbow on the counter and leaned his head into his hand. He groaned. “Shit. I’m pathetic, right?”

Gina poured him a cup of coffee. When he finally looked up, she was smiling. “Scott, you’ve known Devon for a while now. She’s worked for you for over a month. You keep her three-year-old in your home. If you had the hots for her, it wouldn’t have taken you this long.”

“It takes hots?”

She nodded gravely. “It takes hots. Right now you’ve got a real cozy deal—a nice new clinic, a good babysitter, from what you say an excellent clinic manager, plenty of time with your profession and your family, everything covered, everything handled. You’re free and clear—when the right woman shows her face, you’re ready. You’ll know it in minutes. Until you’re really ready, you might not recognize her.”

“What makes you think I’m not ready?”

Gina smiled. “You really want to hear this? Be sure, because I’m not real crazy about saying it.”

“Lay it on me. Please.”

She put her hand over one of his. “Our two dates? Were very enjoyable. You’re a very good date. And I was interested in your life, your relationship with your wife, and your kids. But you talked about your wife through two entire dates.”

He was stricken silent for a long moment. Really, he was shocked. Had he done that? He rubbed the bridge of his nose with a thumb and forefinger. “Jesus, did I do that? Aw, I’m sorry, Gina.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I was in love with Mac. I had been for years. I just didn’t think he felt the same way, which is why I was very happy you asked me out to dinner. And I mean it, I enjoyed myself. I like you. But I knew right away, you’re not ready to move on. Scott, I think you need to give yourself permission to accept some things—your children are young. You were with your wife for a long time before they came along, before she died. I know you’d like to be in a nice stable relationship again and I know you’re frustrated, but you’re not ready. You still want to be with your wife. Until you run into someone who makes you see a whole new possibility, a whole new kind of life, it just isn’t going to happen. And lucky for you, too, because if you force this you and the new wife are going to have a third person in your marriage.”

He just looked down. “You might be right. But this is getting old.”

She surprised him with a laugh. “Tell me about it,” she said. “I spent sixteen years between lovers.”

“I don’t have that kind of time,” he said glumly.

“Oh, Scott, you have as much time as it takes. Let yourself off the hook. It’s okay if it takes a while to be ready to move on.”

“Got any suggestions on speeding up the process?”

“I’m sorry. No. But can I reassure you about one thing? As long as it took you to ask me out, as long as you’ve been working up to asking Devon out, neither of us was The One.”

“Really? And how does that explain Mac?”

“Well, the short version of that story is that not long after we met, he kissed the daylights out of me and we were both a little overcome. I was ready for that, more than ready. But Mac, whose wife had left him with three small children, was terrified. And he had this secret plan—he was going to use sheer willpower to keep away from any kind of romance with me until he felt safe, like until our girls had graduated from high school and were college bound.” Then she smiled very widely. “I think my couple of dates with you might’ve made him decide to take a risk or two. When it came down to a choice between being together or being alone and safe, he took the chance.” She sighed. “We were in love from the start. We just had lives that were too complicated.”