Someone had done a real number on this guy.
“Of course you do, Josh. Everyone does.”
“My receptors are misdirected,” he told her.
“Your perceptions might be a tad off,” she rebutted.
“I had intimate relations with you without even asking if you were in a relationship.”
“And if I was, that cross would be mine to bear as I would have been the one being unfaithful.”
“So, you’re not involved with anyone?”
“No. For the record, if I had been, nothing would have happened. I don’t do that kind of thing.”
“But you have had other guys...”
“Yes.” He’d have been able to tell that, she was sure.
“Anyone here in town?”
“No,” she said. And because she saw no reason to withhold the information he was so clearly fishing for, she said, “I dated a guy in high school. We met up again a couple of years later and were together for about six months. He was my first. It was quite uneventful, I have to say, which is probably why we didn’t last long.”
“My first time wasn’t that great, either,” he said with a grin. “It was all about me, of course, and lasted about thirty seconds.”
She was still envious of the woman. Whoever she was.
“I was only ever with one other guy,” she told him now. “And I didn’t sleep with him until after we were engaged.”
“You were engaged?”
Rubbing Lindy Lu’s ear between her fingers, she nodded. “Unfortunately.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“Because it wasn’t right.”
“What does that mean, it wasn’t right? Why did you agree to marry him?”
“My stepfather and Keith’s father were lodge buddies, you know the kind of friends who’d do anything for each other and always put each other first type of thing.”
She’d make it brief. Give him just enough to understand where she was coming from so they could move on.
Because it sounded as if they were really going to be friends. And she wanted that. Badly.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“YOU GOT ENGAGED because your stepfather was friends with the guy’s father?” Josh asked. Nudging L.G. with the tip of his shoe, he moved so together they formed a diamond—his legs to Dana’s legs—to keep the puppies contained.
“I know, it seems crazy now,” Dana was saying. “Some days I can’t believe it, either. But at the time...”
“At the time, what?”
“Life seemed much smaller then,” she said slowly. “With fewer possibilities.”
“So you settled?” It didn’t sound like the Dana he knew at all. But then, maybe he didn’t know her as well as he thought he did.
“No, I did what I thought was best.”
“Best for you?” Somehow he didn’t think so.
“Best for everyone.”
Her puppy woke up and stretched. She seemed quite content, cuddled up next to Dana’s thigh. The puppy trusted her.
And so did he.
“Best how?” He was pushing.
“My stepfather owns a chain of furniture stores in Indiana,” she said. “I worked for the family business. My mom still does. My stepfather was a good provider, a loyal, responsible, reliable man.”
There was a note in her voice he couldn’t make out. “Sounds like a good man.”
“He is a good man.”
He wasn’t sure he’d say that about his old man. “You’re lucky,” he said out loud, ducking mentally. Dana was the farthest thing from Boston society. There was no danger in speaking with her.
But after a lifetime of being taught that he had to keep up appearances...
“You don’t get along with your father?” she asked.
“I got along with him just fine.” Until they’d quit speaking a few weeks ago. “I just knew that to get along I had to provide certain things, stay within certain boundaries, and so I did.”
“Isn’t it that way with all kids and their parents?”
He shrugged. He’d already said more than he should have. “Probably. My father screwed around on my mother. Discreetly, of course, but I knew.”
“Did your mother know?”
“I have no idea.”
“You didn’t tell her.”
“It’s not something we’d discuss.”
“You weren’t close to her, either?”
“I’m closer to her than I’ve ever been to anyone in my life.” Still, he hadn’t been there for her when he should have been. His closest relationship, he was beginning to understand, maybe his only real relationship, had been with himself.