Craig Harmon was more interesting than television. Angie was still in LA, out with some friends. They’d invited her along, but they were at a wine bar and since she was consuming zero alcohol for the foreseeable future...
Besides, they weren’t her friends. Or even their mutual ones. Angie was catching up with the high school friends who’d seen her through the worst year and a half of her life. The time when Amelia had hardly seen her.
Because of choices Amelia made.
“Have you ever made a choice that you so deeply regret you can’t let it go?”
She lurched, almost dropping the phone. Had she spoken aloud? She actually did a double check on her last few seconds to reassure herself that she had not opened her mouth.
“Why do you ask that?” Her tone was a little sharp. She didn’t apologize.
“Because if you had, you might be a little better able to understand.”
Yes, she’d made a choice, which had led to continuously bad ones. She’d hurt those she loved most, those who’d stood by her her entire life, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to forgive herself. Or trust herself, more like it.
No, that wasn’t right, either. She’d made other choices since, and because of them, she did trust herself. She was never, ever going to allow a man to have control over her again. Not ever.
She was her mother’s daughter. That wasn’t her fault. Couldn’t be helped. But knowing that she, like her mother, had an inexplicable need to please the man in her life, to subjugate self and other loved ones, to sacrifice the feelings of others to fulfill his needs, to put him first no matter what...she could be accountable to that knowledge and keep herself from hurting her loved ones by staying away from any form of long-term commitment to a man.
“I’m listening,” was all she said, forgoing the idea of tea for the moment. She hadn’t really even had dinner yet. The couple of blended fruit pouches she’d consumed on the drive home didn’t count. She’d been dreading the conversation with Dr. Harmon. Hadn’t had much of an appetite.
Which seemed a bit extreme to her at the moment.
In the dark, safe in her home with the ocean in front of her, a simple phone conversation couldn’t hurt anything.
Chapter Four
He was a doctor. Healing people was his business. When had Craig himself become the one in need of healing? How had he let himself get to this point?
Shaking his head, Craig sat with Talley, not allowing himself to take comfort from her presence anymore, but rather, watching over her as he spoke to Amelia.
“I was in a six-year relationship,” he said, sifting through facts to make Amelia Grace understand.
He didn’t need her sympathy. Silence hung on the line.
“The woman had a child. A son, Gavin, who was two when I came into the picture. The boy’s father never had anything to do with him. Tricia was just as happy to have him out of her life and never went after him for child support.”
“Define ‘six-year relationship.’ Were you married? Living together? Just seeing each other?”
The question was fair. Until she’d asked it, he hadn’t been sure she was still interested in hearing what he had to say.
“Living together,” he told her. “I wanted to get married. Asked her several times.” That might make him look like there was something wrong with him, not marriage material. But her opinion of him wasn’t at stake here. His peace of mind, while causing her little to no stress, was the immediate goal.
To ensure the end goal.
A healthy and happy child.
“Did she have something against marriage in general? Or just marriage to you?”
He relaxed a bit more into the couch. The woman on the o
ther end of the line...her forthrightness was kind of refreshing.
“Marriage in general,” he was kind of glad to report, though the fact made no difference to their outcome. He didn’t need Amelia to like him—didn’t plan to be in her life long enough.
“Tricia used to say that nothing lasted forever. And she didn’t want us to be together because we were tied, legally or financially. She wanted us to be together just because we both still wanted to be,” he found himself explaining further. On the surface he’d understood Tricia’s explanation, which had been logical enough to keep him around. But he’d never agreed with her.
He wanted a wife. An equal partner in all aspects of life. Legal. Financial. And emotional. He believed in family forever. If that made him some kind of sap, then so be it.