She gave her friend a wobbly smile. “Even when logic tells you the truth, it’s amazing what you can convince yourself of when you want something badly enough.”
“What if he was willing to wait for you?”
At the male voice, Carly spun. “Stone!”
Carly’s gaze cut from the handsome doctor standing before her to the African American nurse, who just shrugged.
“I’ve got work to do and am not needed here,” she said, then left the room, leaving Carly and Stone alone.
Heart pounding, Carly soaked in the man she’d been talking about. “I didn’t know you were behind me.”
“Obviously.”
“You really need to stop eavesdropping.”
“It seems we’ve come full circle.” His gaze bore into hers. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“You mean wait until my mother dies?” Her question sounded crass, but wasn’t that essentially what he was asking? “That’s morbid. I couldn’t do that.”
“Obviously there’s a lot of things you couldn’t do. Like tell me the truth, for instance.”
“I didn’t lie to you.”
“You didn’t tell me about your second job, that I was interfering in your life.”
“I did tell you,” she corrected.
“Not until it was too late and you’d pushed me away.”
“You wouldn’t have listened. I told you repeatedly I didn’t have time for a relationship, but you thought you knew better and wouldn’t listen,” she reminded him. “I… I got sucked into the magic of being with you and it almost cost me everything.”
“By my letting you sleep when you were so exhausted you could barely hold your head up?”
“I shouldn’t have slept.” At his tightened expression, she clarified. “If I don’t work the extra job, I can’t afford Joyce. If I can’t afford Joyce, my mother would have to stay at home alone or go into a nursing facility. Neither of those options appeal. I have to work. When I am with you, I don’t work.”
Finally seeming to grasp the stark reality of her situation, he raked his fingers through his hair. “You could have told me, Carly. Why didn’t you?”
“Tell you I was in dire straits financially and worked two full-time jobs, plus took care of my invalid mother?” She shook her head. “What man would have stuck around for that?”
“Which seems a moot point since you didn’t want me to stick around and told me to leave.”
“My telling you to leave just sped up the natural progression of our relationship.”
“The natural progression of our relationship was that I’d leave?”
“Are you saying you wouldn’t have? We both know you deserve better than what I can give you, that you’d have tired of me soon enough.”
Not looking away from her, he shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know, will we?”
“I guess not.” Unable to bear the intensity of his gaze, she glanced at her watch. “Sorry. My break is over. I have to go clock back in.”
“Work waits.”
His sarcasm wasn’t lost on her. He didn’t understand. No one could. Not really. She lifted her chin, held her head high, and told herself she was better off without him.
“It always does.”
* * *
“Joyce, I’m home,” Carly called when she got home that evening. She’d worked over an hour beyond her shift, but hadn’t minded the extra work. She’d welcomed it. Just as she welcomed the insurance claims she worked on night after night until she fell asleep in exhaustion.
She needed exhaustion to keep her mind off Stone.
Off their conversation.
He wouldn’t have waited for her. He hadn’t even answered her question when she’d asked if he would have.
Of course, he wouldn’t have. He’d have grown tired of coming second to her mother, to her having to work all the time and not being able to meet his needs, to go to normal social functions with him.
“Joyce?” she called again, stepping into her mother’s room.
Her mother was asleep, as was the person sitting in the rocking chair.
He wasn’t Joyce.
Stone sat in the chair.
What was he doing there?
* * *
Stone opened his eyes, saw Carly standing over him. He hadn’t meant to go to sleep, but hadn’t slept well much at all since Carly had pushed him out of her life.
“What are you doing here?”
“To answer your question.”
“What question?”
“The one I didn’t answer at the hospital today.” He stood from the rocking chair, but didn’t move towards her. “I wouldn’t have left you, Carly. Not in a million lifetimes.”