“Sorry,” he murmured, getting in line beside her as a museum worker talked to the group about aviation, then let each boy take a turn pretending to fly a plane in the cockpit that had been built into the side of the building, to give the kids a lookout over Columbia during their “flight.”
Riley had never been in a plane. She’d never had reason to, so she was as fascinated as the boys. Or would have been had she been able to keep her eyes off Justin.
He’d pulled his phone out again, checking to see if he had any new messages.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
He turned toward her but didn’t meet her eyes. “Fine.”
“Was that the hospital earlier?”
“The hospital?”
Whoever it had been, the call had had his eyes darkening.
“No. Why?”
“You seem distracted. I wondered if something was up with a patient.”
“No. Everything’s fine as far as I know.”
“Good.”
Only, everything was not fine, because he’d gone from lots of PDA to barely acknowledging that she existed.
Then again, it might not have anything to do with the text and everything to do with the conversation they’d been having.
Justin was great with kids—obviously he wanted children. At some point he’d have to move on in order to have those things. Maybe it wasn’t fair of her to hang onto their relationship knowing she didn’t want them.
Why had she given in to her desire to spend time with him? Let him become a part of her daily life to the point where she couldn’t imagine a single day without him in it?
Her heart hurt at the thought that soon she wouldn’t need to imagine it. Because Justin was going to leave.And soon.
She felt it with every bit of her being.
Felt it and needed to brace herself for it.
He was tense the rest of the afternoon. He had been since his off-the-wall comment, but whoever had texted him had totally pulled him out of the game. And not just with her, but the boys, too.
He said all the right things, smiled at all the right times, but his eyes were far away, as was his mind.
At last, Riley hugged the boys goodbye, got into Justin’s Jeep, and was grateful the wind made it difficult to talk, because that at least gave them a reason for silence.
When he pulled into her driveway she turned to him, searching for something to say that would erase whatever had changed between them.
“Thanks for going with us today,” he said.
At least he was talking to her. “You’re welcome. Thanks for inviting me.”
Ugh. They sounded awkward?
??like two strangers forced into each other’s proximity.
“Did you bring clothes to change into for our run?” she asked.
They’d planned to go to the park and get in a few miles, then head back to her place to clean up and go to dinner.
Justin grimaced, then shook his head. “Something’s come up. I’m going to take a rain check on our run and our dinner plans.”