“Not many.”
“Tell me.”
She raised her eyebrows but obligingly held up one hand, ticking off each finger as she went.
“First there was Marcus Stuart. We dated for all of two days before we got married.”
She was married. He drew his hand away from her.
“We were eight. He broke my heart when he called it quits three days later. That’s when I learned that men are a fickle bunch. He immediately started dating my best friend, Dana. The tramp.”
She grinned up at him, a sparkle in her eye and he relaxed, returning his hand to her breast. He loved this playful side of her. The sense of humor. The way she could laugh about herself. It was something he’d lost after his divorce.
“He sounds like a real ladies man.”
“Oh, he was,” she joked. “I think he’s on his third or fourth wife now.”
“Please tell me you’re not still suffering from a broken heart.”
She placed a hand over her heart. “He’ll always have a piece of me.”
Alex nodded solemnly. “I can understand why.”
“Then there was Damian. He was my teenage crush until he moved away. I was fifteen and crushed.”
“Sounds like you’ve had a rough love life.”
“Oh yes. Truly tragic, that’s me.”
“What about after high school? You must have broken a few hearts.”
There was that wall again. She closed up on him. “I haven’t really had time to date.”
He raised a brow. “Are you saying Damian was your last boyfriend? That you haven’t dated in what, twelve years?”
“I had a boyfriend, we were together two years. I broke it off a few years ago. We didn’t want the same things.”
“What did you want?”
She shrugged.
“Tara,” he said in a low voice. She glanced at him then quickly away.
“I wanted love, the white picket fence, two kids and a dog. Brad wanted to be free. Or at least that’s what he said. Apparently I was holding him back from his true potential.”
Ouch. That must have hurt.
Alex realized he’d rejected her for much the same reason.
“I like you, Tara.”
“Uhh, that’s nice. I like you too.”
He grinned. “Well, I’m glad we’re on the same page. In case it wasn’t obvious I find you very attractive and I’d like to spend more time with you.”
Tara frowned slightly. “What exactly are you saying? That you want to date me?”
After you rejected me?