“What are you doing?” she asked.
Standing in front of her open fridge, he looked over his shoulder. “Making us breakfast. Your eggs are about to expire.”
“Sorry?” she said, shaking her head, then tilting it sideways on a silent sigh when he bent over to check out her vegetable bin. Too nice. Way too nice. And so not fair that all the sexy ones are jerks.
Abruptly he straightened, pointing to the bar stools at her counter. “Sit, please.”
Mojo sat obediently, wagging his tail, looking up at David adoringly.
“Traitor,” she muttered to the dog. “I want you to leave, David.”
He deposited all the cooking materials on her counter, ignoring her.
“I’m not hungry. Stop that,” she snapped when he broke eggs into her mixing bowl with the finesse of a chef. “What the hell are you doing?”
His jaw clenched. “I cook when I’m tense.”
“You’re tense.” She made a scoffing sound. “Please.”
“No, I’m actually scared to death.” He looked up, met her eyes. “I’m not lying.”
He looked utterly serious and she felt her resolve weakening. “Hell of a line,” she said. “I must be the most gullible woman alive. Come on, Mojo.”
Her dog hesitated, staring up at David. Biting back a really vile oath, she tugged on Mojo’s collar. “I said, come.” Finally he followed, looking back over his shoulder as if to ask why the new guy wasn’t coming. Olivia stood on her patio, tapping her foot impatiently. Finally Mojo padded back and she let him into the house. David was still there, inspecting a clear carton of mushrooms with a grimace.
“It’s been a while since you shopped,” he said.
“I’ve been busy.” She slid onto a bar stool. “Say your piece and then leave.”
He dropped his gaze to the cutting board, chopping the few vegetables that hadn’t gone bad. “I said someone else’s name that night. I’m sorry. You don’t know how sorry. But I need to know if I did anything else.”
She frowned at him, Brie’s and Paige’s words coming back. I wonder what he thought he’d said. Or done. “Like what?”
“Like, get rough. Or ask for something you didn’t want to do.”
And? So it really hadn’t been a statement of disregard. “No,” she said softly. “What did you think you did, David?”
He gripped the edge of the counter with both hands, bowing his head. “I didn’t know. At first I thought you were just embarrassed, but you never called and months went by. I wondered if I’d done something to… turn you off.”
“You did. You said another woman’s name when I was giving you a great orgasm.”
He lifted his face, his eyes tense. “Other than that.”
“That was enough. But to set your mind at ease, no, you didn’t push me or try to force me to do anything I didn’t want to do.”
His shoulders sagged. “Good.” He turned from her, pouring the eggs into a pan.
He was still nervous, she realized. Unbelievable, but apparently true. She made coffee, then turned to watch him cook. “Why didn’t you call?”
He shrugged. “I’d go from fear of what I’d done to fear that you had someone else back home to fear that what I had done hadn’t been… good enough.”
“You’re kidding,” she said and thought she saw a glimmer of a smile curve his lips.
“Okay, maybe not that last part. But I did worry.” He did something with his wrist and the omelet in the pan slid and flipped. “And I did try to forget about you.”
“You did?”
“You were here, I was there. Then Evie called, asking for help with her leaky roof.”
Seven months ago. “She said you dropped everything and came to help.”
“She thinks I’m some white knight, so don’t tarnish my armor. The truth is, I dropped everything and came right away because it was what I’d been waiting for.”
She frowned slightly. “What you’d been waiting for? What does that mean?”
He wasn’t looking at her and she suddenly wished he would, that she could see his eyes. “Do you believe in signs, Olivia? Fate? Miracles?”
“Once, I’d have said no. But now, yes, I do.”
His glance was sharp. “What changed your mind?”
Olivia’s answer took no thought at all. She knew the moment she’d begun believing in miracles. “Meeting Mia when I did. I needed her and she needed me. I’d just come out of a bad relationship and a week later found out that our father, the father I’d never known, was dead. Mia was already in love with Reed. I was so jealous. She asked me if I was involved with anyone and I told her no. I didn’t want to admit I was a failure.”
“I can understand that feeling,” he said ruefully.
She thought of the name he’d groaned, knew that Dana was happily married to someone else. If there had ever been a relationship between Dana and David, there wasn’t now. “I guess you can. Anyway, you remember when Mia was shot by that guy?”
“He was an arsonist,” David said, slanting her another glance. “Ironic, huh?”
Or fate. “Yes, very. The guy shot her just a few days after I met her, took out her kidney. She’d only had one.”
“And nobody was a match. I remember. We all got tested.” David turned to stare at her, his eyes narrowed. “Then all of the sudden, Mia got a mystery donor. She never told us who it was. We all thought it was anonymous.” He leaned closer until he was inches from her face. “It was you, wasn’t it? You saved her life.”
Olivia’s cheeks warmed. “Your omelet’s burning.”
He turned back to the stove. “It was a damn nice thing to do, Olivia. You should be proud of yourself.”
“I didn’t do it to be proud. I did it because she needed me. Nobody ever really had before. So to answer your question, yes, I believe in fate.”
He shut off the burner. “Evie needed me, too. I wanted to help her, of course, but I’d been looking for some kind of sign. I’d told myself it was just one weekend, that you’d probably found someone else, but I couldn’t get you out of my mind. Evie’s leaky roof was the sign I’d been hoping for. ‘Go to Minnesota,’ in blinking neon. I wanted to see you again, and find out if you did have someone else. And to find out what I’d done.”
“And then you got in a killer’s way and ended up in the hospital.” She put plates on the table and looked back to find him staring at her, his eyes no longer unreadable. They were hungry and hot and for a moment she had to concentrate on breathing.
“I knew it was you the moment you walked into my hospital room,” he said fiercely. “I could barely see a thing, but I could smell you, just like I’d smelled you on my pillow, and I wanted you then. But it was the wrong time.”
She swallowed hard. “And?”
“And… after that it never seemed like the right time. Evie got taken and everything was crazy. Then you and Noah found her.”
“And the body pit,” she murmured.
“Then you were busy, stressed. Pulling bones out of that damn pit. I didn’t want to make it worse, but I guess I did.” He brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek, a fleeting touch that made her want more. “I couldn’t let another day go by with you thinking I didn’t want you, that you didn’t matter. That you were just a substitute for someone else. I’m sorry I hurt you.”
She held his eyes, hoping she wasn’t a total fool for believing him. “I could have called, too. I should have.”
He smiled and her heart rolled over in her chest. “Sit down. You need to eat.”
She did, not realizing how hungry she’d been. She thought about what Paige had said the morning before, about taking a risk. What’s the worst that could happen? Dana. He’d said her name. There had to be a reason. There had to be some feelings still. A man didn’t love for that long and just turn it off because he met someone else.
You did. It was true, she admitted. When she met David, all thoughts of Doug had fled, as if he’d never been. But I said David’s name. He said Dana’s. And if at some point his lost love was free? Been there, done that. She was gullible, but she hoped she wasn’t a fool.