I blinked at him and shrugged. “Pretty much.”
“I would never cheat on you. We live across the street from each other, so you’d never have to get jealous wondering where the hell I am or who I’m with. Coaching Josh, we’d get to spend our weekends together. See? That sounds perfect to me.”
I was dying, slowly. Why did it feel like I was picking at threads that didn’t exist?
His mouth perked up even more, so much he was practically beaming.
“I have the boys, Dallas—”
“So?”
I hated when he used my words and tactics against me. He said the word like it was nothing. Like my worry about Josh and Lou wasn’t even a consideration into our relationship or whatever it was he wanted to have with me, and that unsettled me more than anything else he’d said before.
As I took a step back, he let my wrist go and I turned my back to him, reaching for the clippers in one of the drawers. This was happening. This was really happening.
“You told me you trusted me,” he reminded me.
I was sure my face was pink as I turned to him, the device in my hand. It wasn’t until I was right in front of him again that he spoke up once more, his fingers reaching out to touch a spot just above my knee.
“You can tell me anything.”
That was what scared me. It was the truth. I’d always felt like I could tell him anything. Now more than ever that seemed terrifying.
Like it could make me or break me.
So I told him, looking him in the eye before I took a step that brought me so close his breath hit my forearm as I leaned over him. I started with the clippers, going over the rounded surface of his head. “You just got divorced. I know you already said you wouldn’t cheat on me and that you know exactly what you’re doing, but… I don’t… this is serious to me. I don’t like or love just anyone, Dallas. I know you can’t promise you won’t break my heart someday, but—”
“This is serious to me too. I won’t break your heart, Diana. I’ve never been scared to work for things or wait for them. I know you, and I know that you’re it. I just had to wait to get divorced so I could do this right for you. Life is so fucking short, Peach, and I’m too old to not know and go for what I want. And you know what I want. What I’ve wanted. For a long, long time.” He paused. “You.”
Shit, shit, shit. There was only one more thing I needed to tell him before I forgot. And it was the most important one. “Okay. I want to get married someday. I’m not saying tomorrow or six months from now, all right? And I’m not sure I want to have kids anytime soon. Can you deal with that?”
Something nudged at my thigh. I could see the back of his hand, feel him rub his knuckles up and down. His hand drifted up another inch. He wedged his hand in more so that his palm gripped the back of my thigh. Those eyes I was more than a little in love with burned my retinas. “I’d be happy with just two boys.”
Was I tearing up? Was that why my eyes were watery? I blinked and the tears didn’t go anywhere.
And Dallas’s sweet expression didn’t help any. “You are the toughest person I’ve ever met, Diana, but you’re also the most vulnerable, and that drives me fucking crazy,” he said to me. He squeezed my thigh, his voice low and almost feverish. “I know you can take care of yourself, but I want to be there to help you out. I need you more than you need me, and that’s okay,” he told me.
This man was going to be the death of me. For the seventh or eighth time in my life, I had no idea what to say or even where to start.
That big hand squeezed. “Just like I tell the boys, we don’t play for one single run, we play to win the whole game. And I’m in it to win it.”
I clenched my hand around the clippers. “But there’re so many other teams to play against.”
The corners of his mouth curled, and one of the fingers on my thigh did a caressing little line. “The only team I’m ever going to worry about is the best one. I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”
*
It wasn’t until closing time, after Sean and I had cleaned up, while he was busy counting out the register at the end of the night because he claimed he was faster than me at it, that I went to my tip jar. But it wasn’t the bills in the blue Mason jar that caught my eye. It was what looked like a few folded pieces of paper inside that had me reaching for it.
If someone had left me an IOU or a business card, I was going to scream.
Turning the jar upside down, everything came out. There were dozens of papers inside, each about three inches long and one inch wide, I opened one genuinely wondering what the hell someone had put in there.
But I knew the instant I unfolded the first one who had done it.
Everything about you makes me smile. -Uncle Fester.
I laughed out loud and picked up another one the instant I read the last letter of the first. Uncle Fester. Fucking Dallas. Fucking Dallas. He had no idea what he did to me. I only made it through another three before I started tearing up.
Really. I love you. Love, Professor Xavier Before He Lost His Hair
In all the ways that matter, you can be my #1 – (infinity). Deal? Love always, your poor bastard
I love you. —Your born-again virgin Catholic convert, Dallas
Chapter Twenty-Five
I was sitting on the edge of the couch, slipping my heels on when I zeroed in on Louie, who was sitting beside me on the couch dressed up in an outfit I’d found on sale around Labor Day. But it wasn’t the navy blue pants or vest he had on that caught my eye, or the fact he was matching for once in his life when he wasn’t wearing his school uniform. It was the red spot on the collar of his white shirt that had me reaching to pinch the tip of my nose.
“Louie.”
“Huh?” he asked, his body hunched over with a tablet on his lap as he played whatever it was he was playing.
“Did you eat something after you changed?” I’d specifically told him not to eat anything because I knew him.
“No,” he answered quickly, his attention still below him.
Sliding my heel down into my nude shoe, I gave my toes a wiggle to make sure my foot was in there as deep as it would go, telling myself not to freak out over his shirt. It had been inevitable, hadn’t it? Hadn’t I known this was going to happen and tried to prevent it? With a deep breath, I glanced back at his shirt and stood up, tugging on the skirt part of my dress. “Gooey, did you get something from the fridge?”
“Apple juice.”
I pinched the tip of my nose again. “Did you grab the ketchup bottle by any chance?”
He stopped playing his game to glance up and give me a curious expression. “How’d you know?”
“Because there’s a big red stain on your shirt, Goo.”
Louie’s hands immediately went to his chest and started patting around as he tried to find the spot. “I didn’t eat anything!”
“I believe you,” I moaned, trying to think if he had any other dress shirts that he hadn’t out grown.
He didn’t, and we didn’t have time to wash this one. Ginny’s wedding was in half an hour.