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She turned to me slowly, and I could see the answer in her eyes, even before she shook her head.
Damn.
I’d thought I was the one who had trouble with commitment, the one who had trouble giving time to my partner.
I hadn’t realized Chloe would be worse.
48
SEAN
The next two days after my frustrating end to my date involved me working from home.
This was partly because Helen was back. She was staying with us for the night, hoping to introduce Matt to Lucas and for us to get to know one another.
I’d expected it to sting, going out to dinner with Helen, Matt, and Lucas. It was a restaurant just down the street from where I’d taken Chloe to on our first unexpected date. I had looked over my shoulder at The Hilford, wishing I were there again with her, before Lucas called for me to hurry up and join them at their table.
I missed Chloe terribly, but my pride was too strong, and I was too stubborn to ask her how she was doing. Our conversations, when we did have them, had been brusque on my part and professional on hers.
Except for one text she sent me, asking me how I was.
I was too furious with myself to respond reasonably. I cared, dammit, and she had walked out on me.
I was in too deep while she was unaffected.
The other thing that hurt me today was the fact that Lucas chose to sit between his mom and Matt. Not Helen’s incessant hugs and kisses to Matt, which I’d come to see as a constant reminder of how easily he fit into their world.
Lucas didn’t seem to mind his mother’s overbearing affection for her fiancé, I noticed. While I couldn’t help but feel Helen’s affection should have been focused more on Lucas than Matt at the moment.
I watched Lucas’s face light up when he explained to her that he had a new friend now.
“Brianna,” I supplied.
“Is that so?” Helen asked, looking from me to Lucas and back at me again. She gave me a funny look, almost as if she didn’t expect me to know much about Lucas’s friends.
“Dad’s the reason I met her,” Lucas explained to his mother. “Dad took me biking in Central Park, and it was the best, Mom. Hey, we should do that tomorrow! All of us. It’ll be exciting.”
She gave me a wary look, and I remembered her dislike for biking.
“We can talk about that once we’ve taken a look at this,” she said, reaching for one of her bags. She pulled out a wrapped present. “I have tons of presents for you—one for each week that I missed you.”
We wouldn’t be biking tomorrow—I knew that.
Lucas shrieked with excitement and unwrapped his presents—a boomerang, as well as seven other toys that he didn’t care for. I saw the warm hug he gave his mother. He didn’t care what gifts she got him or if he couldn’t go biking, as long as he was with her.
“You’ve got a look on your face,” she muttered to me when Matt stepped out to use the restroom. Lucas was busy with his new toys and wasn’t listening.
I felt myself bristle. I wouldn’t tolerate her criticisms.
“What look?”
“That look you have when you’re doing something against your better instinct. Who is she?”
I froze. I’d forgotten how well Helen knew me. “I don’t know what you mean.”
She snorted. “So, it is definitely a woman then.” She was silent for a bit and then snuck another look at me.
“Something’s different,” she mused as she continued to gaze at me. “You look like you’ve gone beyond casual hookups and into lovesick territory.”