Which meant one of two things. Either she was avoiding him or something was wrong.
He couldn’t believe, after the incredible phone call they’d shared the night before, that she’d just avoid him. They’d started something. Sue wasn’t the type to tease.
A too-familiar fear tightened his chest. He’d rationalized that last time with Hannah, too. Made excuses when his six-year-old hadn’t called him immediately when she got out of class, as was their agreement.
Rick tucked his shirttail into his jeans, grabbed his wallet and keys and headed for the door.
Traffic was light—not many people out in the dark on a Sunday night in March—and he was out of town driving south in a matter of minutes. Made it to Sue’s before eight.
When he saw the lights on, he briefly considered driving on past.
He had to knock three times before she pulled open the door. She was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved, red-and-white-striped pullover, her feet bare. As though she’d been home awhile.
“Is everyone okay?” he asked, still on edge with the heightened sense of awareness that tragedy struck without warning.
“Yes.” Since her gaze was focused somewhere around his chin, he couldn’t tell if she was angry, offended or secretly glad to see him. Rick took it as a good sign that she hadn’t shut the door in his face.
“I called.”
“I know.”
He nodded. Stood there with his hands in his pockets. And thought of her voice, soft and seductive. The sound of water trickling over naked skin…
“Last night was a mistake.”
So she had been avoiding him. “Why?”
In the doorway, a barrier between him and her home, Sue said, “I…with Carrie…it’s not right.”
At least she hadn’t said she wasn’t interested in him.
“I’m not going to be used,” she added.
Eyes narrowed, Rick hardly felt the fifty-degree chill. “Regarding Carrie, you mean.”
“It fits, doesn’t it? I fall for you. I give you what you want—your niece.”
“When did you come
up with this theory? Before or after you shared your bath with me?”
“After.”
Her doubts were understandable. He blamed her for them, anyway.
“How about, I meet my niece’s foster mother. She’s different from any woman I’ve ever met. I want to get to know her. And the more I do, the more she’s in my thoughts all day long—”
“Can you honestly tell me those thoughts don’t include the fact that I can help you get Carrie?”
“My interest in you doesn’t have anything to do with that.”
“But you still hope I’ll help.”
“Of course I do.”
“Like I said, last night was a mistake.” She started to close the door.
“Wait.” Rick shoved his foot between the door and the jamb. “I hope you’ll help,” he said, “but last night…my interest in you…that has nothing to do with Carrie.”