A Marriage-Minded Man / From Friend to Father. Karen Templeton

      “Funny, I would’ve never pegged you as somebody who’d judge a person without having all the facts.”

      The frown deepened. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”

      “Frankly, yeah. Because apparently what I said, about how I’ve changed? Didn’t even register. And excuse me, but it’s just the tiniest bit annoying that you’re assuming a lot based on what basically amounts to hearsay.”

      “You’re saying…the gossip’s untrue?”

      He hesitated. “Not all of it, no. But…” Digging his fingers into the back of his neck, Eli tried to pull in enough breath to ease the tightness in his chest. “But what you hear…I’m more than that, Tess. I swear.”

      “Then if there’s some salient fact I’m missing, by all means, clue me in.”

      A couple of beats passed before Eli walked over to an old futon on the other side of the room and sat on the arm. Unfortunately, this wasn’t just any random piece of furniture, but the very one where they both lost their virginity many moons ago. When Tess sucked in a breath, Eli softly laughed. “Yep. It’s still here. Even if the two kids who enjoyed each other on it aren’t.”

      “Eli…don’t—”

      “You know, I still see glimpses of the crazy, funny girl who could light up a room just by walking into it. Not to mention the one who never had a bad word to say about anybody. It’s not that I don’t understand why she doesn’t come around much anymore,” he said quietly, “but I sure do miss her. Like I said, I know I hurt you back then. And I don’t even expect you to accept my apology. But seems to me that girl wouldn’t still be obsessing about a failed high school romance.”

      Tess gave him a long, penetrating look, then let out a sigh that seemed more perplexed than mad. “First off, that girl? I’m not all that sure she ever really existed. Secondly, I’m hardly obsessing about our breakup. What still bugs me, though, is that you never gave me an explanation. Not even when you called to apologize the other day. So, combined with your reputation? The anthill’s looking pretty good.”

      Eli’s brow knotted. “You never asked.”

      “I shouldn’t have had to ask! Because I deserved an explanation. I deserved…” She pushed out a breath. “More. And I’d expected more from you. Hence the mop. And the anthill thing—”

      “I was scared, Tess. That’s it, bottom line. I was terrified out of my skull.”

      “Of what? Me? That’s—”

      “Hell, yeah, you. I had no idea it was possible to feel so strongly about somebody at, what were we? Seventeen? And I couldn’t deal with it. So I snapped.”

      For a moment—barely—he thought he saw a glimmer of sympathy in her eyes. “For heaven’s sake, Eli, it wasn’t like I expected us to get married or anything.”

      “Logic didn’t even enter into it,” he said, getting to his feet. “All I knew was, things were happening way too fast, and I wasn’t even remotely ready. And I had no earthly idea how to tell you that.”

      She glanced away, like she was trying to process this. But when she looked back, the sympathy had gone buh-bye. “And somehow this translated into going after Amy Higgins?”

      Cripes, it was like having a conversation with two different people. He half expected to see her eyes glow red.

      “It was sorta the other way around, truth be told. I swear,” he said when she huffed out a sharp laugh. “But it never felt right. We broke up, like, a month later—”

      “Yeah. I remember. I also seem to remember you recovered from her quickly enough, too. And the one that followed. And the one that followed after that—”

      “Didn’t take you long to hook up with Enrique, either, as I recall.”

      She flinched, and Eli finally got it, that this wasn’t only about the two of them. That somebody else far more recently than him had hurt her, too—

      “Actually, it was more than a year,” she said in that wind-outta-her-sails voice.

      And once more Eli happened to be in the line of fire, just like he’d been the other night.

      “But from everything I heard,” she said, “your pace sure didn’t slow down any—”

      “You were away for several years, don’t forget.”

      “True. But when I returned…well, let’s just say the broken heart trail didn’t seem to be in danger of stopping anytime soon. Oh, come on, Eli,” Tess said, revving up again, “you know you can’t go anywhere in this town without running into somebody hot to tell you the latest, good or bad. And people have long memories, especially those well-meaning souls eager to assure me—even after all this time—I was better off without you, that the boy who skipped on me just kept on skipping, from one chick to another like rocks in a creek.”

      Her words pelted him like sleet, stinging all the more because they were truer than he wanted to admit, inflicting enough pain to make him say, “Wow—you must’ve been really out of it to end up in my bed.”

      Color flared in her cheeks. “Already established that,” she muttered, this time making it all the way to the door, and Eli wondered if he’d ever learn to think before he spoke.

      “It’s okay, I completely understand,” he called after her. “But if you get desperate, you know where to find me.”

      After one final, flummoxed glance, Tess walked out, slamming the door shut behind her.

      Which Eli stared at for a lot longer than he should’ve probably, but the feeling-like-dirt feeling had come back with a vengeance, clobbering him upside the head over and over and over. Because no matter which way you looked at it, Tess was right. If not about all of it, about enough to completely justify her attitude. Because he had hurt her, he hadn’t bothered to tell her why and he’d definitely provided plenty of fuel for the gossip mill these past several years. So from where he was sitting, he had some serious atoning to do. And some lame “I’m sorry, I’m not that man anymore” wasn’t gonna cut it—somehow he had to prove to Tess he’d changed.

      For his own peace of mind, if nothing else.

      Mulling that over, Eli trudged back to work, letting himself get caught up in his tasks until, maybe two hours later, the phone rang.

      And yeah, he might’ve smiled for a second when he saw the caller ID, relishing the victory. Except underneath the relishing, something else kinda hummed. Like the sound from those overhead wires they said messed with your brain or something.

      “Garrett’s—”

      “Fine, so you win. I’ve called every carpenter within fifty miles, and there’s nobody else available unless I want to bring in somebody from Albuquerque, and no way are the Harrises gonna fork over the extra cash for that. So when can you meet me at the house to give me an estimate?”

      “You sure do cut to the chase, don’t you?”

      “The groveling stings less that way.”

      Eli chuckled. “In an hour good for you?”

      “That’s fine. Long as you don’t mind the kids being with me.”

      The humming got louder. “Not at all,” he said, looking out the wood-dust-coated window. Telling himself he was strong enough to avoid that particular pull. That if he wanted an opportunity to prove himself, this couldn’t be a better one. He smiled. “Especially since you clearly need a chaperone. Or two.”

      “Bite me,” she said and hung up.

      Chapter Five

      An hour gave Tess just enough time to pick up her kids and put her pride back in the dungeon where it belonged.