“Wow. I’m sorry. I just...” He shook his head. “The man must have been blind.”
“I don’t think it was his eyes he was using,” she said, wanting the subject to change.
“Is he still practicing law?”
“I have no idea. I assume so. Last I heard, he’d moved to Las Vegas.”
“Was he your first love?”
What was this? Twenty questions about her? She was about to not answer. And then saw that warm, caring look in his eyes again.
No wonder he had such great results with his offenders, having the best success rate of any of Santa Raquel County’s probation officers. As a counselor, the man seemed to have what it took to get others to open up.
“No, he was not,” she told him, figuring, since she wasn’t entering into a relationship, there was no harm in spilling her beans. They wouldn’t come back up on her. “That was Keith Scott.” And her worst mistake ever. The high school quarterback—a guy who had it all and knew it, who thought he was above the law. She’d been an idiot, drawn to his assurance that he could do whatever he wanted and all would be well. She’d done what he wanted, and all hadn’t been well at all.
She’d been out of control. Had caused her parents so much stress, sneaking out to be with Keith. Lying to them. And then...when she’d needed Keith the most—when her entire being had been grappling with loss, he’d stopped answering her calls and had gone off to college.
Her parents had tried to warn her. To tell her that he wasn’t a good guy. She’d thought she’d known better.
/> “Was Keith before or after Drake?”
Jayden’s words brought her back to the present. The tender smile on his face...she wanted to touch her lips to his. To lose herself in the promise she read there.
He was a risk-taker. A charmer. And successful, too. That was all part of the excitement. Emma recognized the signs of her alter ego’s takeover.
And knew that if her shadow side didn’t disappear, she might just ruin Emma’s life for good this time...
* * *
“Keith was before Drake,” Emma said, munching on the celery stick that had just been delivered, as though she didn’t have a care in the world.
Or care any more about the previous relationships in her life.
“Have you dated anyone?” He listened as Emma told him about the last serious relationship she’d been in. The guy had been faithful, kind, smart and funny. Everything she’d always wanted. And she just hadn’t been in love with him.
“I broke his heart,” she said, her attempt at a smile failing as her eyes teared up. “I hate that about me. That I did that. I tried so hard to love him...”
“I’m guessing that you did him a favor, letting him go,” he said.
“Because he was too good for me?” she asked with a chuckle.
That hadn’t been what he’d meant at all, but at least she was smiling again.
“Because it freed him up to find the person who was meant to love him,” he said.
Her smile faded as she looked at him. People moved around them. Other diners talked, laughed. Waiters and waitresses took orders, delivered food and drinks. A bus person cleaned the table just beyond them. Jayden was aware, and yet couldn’t really hear them. The silent communion between him and Emma held him captivated.
“You really think there’s one person out there for everyone?” She broke the silence between them.
“I think that if there is someone out there, being caught in the wrong relationship would be horrible. Criminal, even. Lord knows, there’s enough challenge finding happiness in this world without being trapped outside of the love you feel.”
“Have you ever hurt a woman?”
“Probably. But not that I’m aware of.”
“You never broke a girl’s heart?”
He’d once slept with a sorority girl who’d made her way around the frat house, something he wasn’t proud of, but he didn’t think she’d been hurt. To the contrary, she’d invited the attention, but he thought what they’d all done with her had been wrong. They’d used her, not respected her as a woman with feelings of her own. No one had hurt her. She’d come on to them, one at a time. But no one had bothered to ask her what she’d really wanted. Why she was doing what she was doing. Maybe she’d just wanted fun, and that was great. He wished he knew, and wondered for a second what had ever happened to her.