sure I have no idea,” Flo said, handing over the phone. With a pointed look at Tess’s abraded neck.
“Hot shower,” she whispered.
“Whatever,” Flo said, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her.
“Are you insane?” Tess said into the phone. “Why on earth—”
“Just making sure you’re okay.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“And maybe that’s not an opening you want to be giving people, just at the moment. But that’s neither here nor there. We need to get together. To talk.”
“Eli…Last night…Nothing’s—”
“Gonna happen. I know that. But there’s stuff I need to get off my chest.”
She tensed. “Then just say it.”
“Dammit, Tess—where’s it written you get to call all the shots? You don’t have to accept my apology—”
“For what?” she said, thinking, All the shots? How about any of the shots? “Last night?”
“Hell, no, not for last night. Got no regrets about that. Never will. No, for what I did a dozen years ago.”
Her chest cramped. “Eli—”
“I’m not offering up any excuses. But I’m truly sorry, Tess, for hurting you. I was then, even if I couldn’t get over myself enough to say it. As for the other stuff…well. I’m not gonna make any excuses for that, either. But I want you to know…I’m not that person anymore.”
“Why would I believe that?”
“I don’t know,” he said, sounding…tired. Sounding much too much like a man looking for comfort…making her much too much aware how willing she’d be to give it. Maybe. Under other circumstances. Like if they were two different people who didn’t have some really bad history between them. “I don’t suppose I’ve exactly given you—or anybody else—cause to believe I’ve changed,” he was saying. “But last night…I guess it shook loose some stuff in my head I didn’t even know was there. Ah, hell, I’m not even sure what I’m saying.”
“Then don’t,” she said, fervently wishing he’d stop. Now. While she still had a grip on her anger. On her control.
“No, I’ve got to get this out.” He paused, then said, “It’s just…being with you again reminded me of what we had, I guess. What I threw away. But it’s not like I was having some kind of let’s-go-back-to-high-school fantasy or anything, okay?” Another pause. “Can I be honest?”
“I thought you were.”
“Okay, more honest.” He blew out a breath, then said, “Look, there’s been a few women in my life—”
“A few?”
“Yeah, well, there were a lot of nonstarters in there. Even so—and I know this isn’t gonna win me any points—most of ’em were…diversions. I’m not proud of that, but I never led any of ’em on, either. Given ’em any reason to think I was offering anything more than I was. I might’ve been a jerk, but I’ve always been an up-front jerk. But here’s the thing, and I know this is gonna sound like a line, and a lame one at that…but it was different with you—”
“Oh, Eli, for God’s sake—”
“I swear, Tess,” he said, forcefully enough to shut her up. She could count on one hand how often that’d happened. “You weren’t a diversion, you were a helluva lot more than that. And I’m not sayin’ that to get you back into my bed, or my life or anything. I know you weren’t looking for anything last night except what happened, and that you’re not likely to be looking for anything in the near future. Least of all from me. And that’s okay, because I’m not, either. But I just couldn’t stand the thought of you goin’ for another second thinking…I don’t know. That I didn’t respect you or something. So. We clear on that?”
Another shudder of something damn close to terror snaked down Tess’s spine. She had absolutely no idea how to respond, not to this…this take-charge person who in no way, shape or form resembled the laid-back, goofy Eli she remembered.
“Yeah, Eli,” she said, startled to realize her voice wasn’t steady. “We’re clear.”
As mud.
“Good. Then I’ll let you get back to it. You have a good one.”
Still wrapped in her towel, Tess sat on the edge of her bed for a long time after Eli hung up, feeling a little like she’d just seen a spaceship land outside her window—a combination of disbelief, apprehension and curiosity, all underpinned with the sneaking suspicion that life as she’d known it would never be the same.
Although there was no earthly reason for her to feel that way. Even if Eli had somehow done a one-eighty, what difference did it make? Like he said, she wasn’t even remotely interested in starting up something. With anybody. Because hope don’t live here anymore, she thought, tossing the phone onto the bed.
She dressed on autopilot, pulling items out of drawers and closets without thinking. Or, apparently, looking. Not until she returned to the kitchen, and her aunt’s eyebrows shot up, did it hit her she was wearing her fave suede skirt, the designer boots she’d scored on eBay, a dressy sweater.
In other words, she’d dressed for work.
On Saturday.
It’s official, cookie, she thought, dropping onto a kitchen chair—you’re losing it. Or already had. Not that she’d never worked on Saturday, if that’s the only time a client could look at houses, but when was the last time that had happened?
At the sound of the chair opposite dragging across the tiled floor, she peered over at Flo, whose heavy-handed makeup was not holding up well in the daylight. Something about the glittery eyeshadow.
“Okay,” Flo said, “I was gonna keep my mouth shut—don’ you roll your eyes at me, young lady—but firs’ you get a call from Eli Garrett, an’ now you come out here dressed like Miss Hot Shot Real Estate Lady when you haven’t been to work in a month—”
“The two are not related.” She didn’t think.
“Maybe not. But somethin’ is going on with you. An’ I’m not leaving this house until I find out what. You can start by telling me where you really were las’ night.”
Tess looked around. “Where’re the kids?”
“Out back, playing. Micky’s keeping an eye on the baby. An’ don’ change the subject.”
“Hard to do when I don’t even know what the subject is.”
Leaning back, Flo crossed her arms across her breasts, such as they were. “I got one word for you…Eli?”
“What makes you think—?” Her aunt laughed. “Glad you think this is funny.” Suddenly starving, Tess got up to pour herself a cup of coffee
