Susan Mallery - Sweet Talk

“Look,” he began, not sure what he wanted to say. “I know you’re not Shanna, but this is a lot to deal with.”

“You don’t have to deal at all. That’s the point.”

“Is that what you want?”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Why does that matter?”

“Because we’re both involved. Because I want to know where you see this going.”

What did she expect from him. Marriage? In his head, he balked at the idea. He should be running in the opposite direction. But maybe it wouldn’t be so horrible. Claire wasn’t the woman he’d thought. She cared about people. Amy was crazy about her.

“I want it all,” Claire told him. “I want the happily ever after fantasy. I want you to love me with every cell in your body. I want us to be a family. You, me, Amy, the baby, more kids. I want forever.”

He swallowed and tried not to feel the walls closing in.

“I love you,” she said, staring him in the eye. “All of you. Even when you’re a total jerk. But you don’t love me back. You’ve made that clear, and I won’t settle for less. So I’m leaving. It’s time for me to go back to New York, anyway.”

His mind was completely blank. He didn’t have a single thought. Then they crashed in on him, making it impossible to focus on anything.

She loved him? Seriously? She said it just like that? And she was leaving? “You can’t,” he told her, not sure if he was telling her she couldn’t go or she couldn’t love him.

“I’m going to keep in touch with Amy,” she said as if he hadn’t spoken. “I hope you won’t have a problem with that. She’s wonderful and there’s no reason why she and I can’t have a relationship.” She paused and swallowed. “I hope you find whatever you’re looking for. I hope…”

She bit her lower lip, squared her shoulders and raised her chin. “Goodbye, Wyatt.”

Then she was gone. She told him she loved him and she’d left anyway. They all left, so he was used to it. But this was the first time he would be sorry.

“Y OU HAVE TO PROMISE ,”Amy signed.

“I promise,” Claire told her, then hugged her. “I’ll be back for your surgery.”

“I want to hear your music.”

“You will.” Claire straightened and hugged Nicole. “Are you sure you’re going to be all right by yourself? I worry about you.”

“I’m fine,” her sister told her. “I’m practically breaking land-speed records on my crutches. I’m going back to work where I can terrorize my staff. It will be fun. I’ll barely notice you’re gone.”

But there were tears in Nicole’s eyes as she spoke. Probably like the tears Claire could feel burning in her own.

“I hate this,” she muttered.

“It’s the right thing to do. Just don’t stay gone long.”

“I won’t. I love you.”

“I love you more.”

“Unlikely.”

“Don’t argue,” Nicole sniffed. “I’m two minutes older.”

Claire nodded, then hugged Amy again. “I love you.”

Amy started to cry, then signed that she loved Claire.

“This is crazy,” Claire muttered as she straightened. “We’re all going to be puffy. We have to stop.”

“You have to go. Call me when you land.”

“It’ll be four in the morning.”

“I don’t care. Call me.”

“I will.”

Claire got into her rental car and started the engine. Still fighting tears, she headed for the freeway, then the airport. She was catching a late-evening flight to New York. Back home, she thought. Except she was leaving her heart in Seattle, so how could anywhere else ever be home?

W YATT PUT DOWNhis empty beer bottle. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Don’t ask me,” Drew told him from across the table in the bar. “I know shit about women. I lost Nicole.”

“That was your own damn fault.”

“And this isn’t yours?”

Wyatt didn’t like that his stepbrother was actually making sense. It was his fault that Claire had asked him to sign away his parental rights. Why would she think he would care about their baby? He’d done nothing but accuse her of trying to trap him and complain about what a disaster the pregnancy was.

“I needed more time,” he muttered.

“To do what?” Drew asked. “Nothing’s going to change.”

He might. A baby. He’d never thought of having another child. He had Amy and she was everything to him. What child could be more?

That was his head talking, he reminded himself. In his heart, he knew he could love another kid. Maybe more. But he’d never let himself go there because he hadn’t believed it could ever work out. His relationships with women were always disasters. It was his genetics at play.

He looked at Drew. “How’d you get someone like Nicole to fall for you?”

“I don’t have a clue.”

“Why’d you cheat on her?”

Drew shrugged. “Jesse was always there, prancing around in her little clothes.”

“I don’t believe it.”

Drew took another long drink of his beer. “I couldn’t be what Nic wanted me to be. I kept seeing disappointment in her eyes. She never said anything, but it was there. I couldn’t stand it.”

“So you decided to disappoint her more?”

“I don’t know. I’m just telling you what I was thinking when I tried to screw Jesse.”

Wyatt wanted to dismiss Drew’s words, but he knew what his brother was talking about. He’d seen the same disappointment in Claire’s eyes when he hadn’t been happy about the baby.

“She told me it can be like it never happened,” Wyatt said.

“The baby? So that’s good.”

“I can’t walk away from my kid.”

“Then you have a problem.”

Worse, he wasn’t sure he could walk away from Claire.

“I could almost see myself with her,” he mumbled.

Drew signaled for another beer. “That proposal will make her heart beat faster.”

“You know what I mean. I’ve never been able to see myself with anyone.” He finished his beer. “Who am I kidding? It’ll never happen.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Drew told him. “It’s an excuse not to try. No one else in this family has ever been able to hold a job for more than a year. You’ve got a business. You’re raising a great kid. Do you really believe you can’t have a decent marriage?”

Wyatt nearly fell off his chair. “Are you being insightful again?”

“Yeah, don’t tell anyone. It doesn’t happen all that often. Look, Wyatt, you’ve stood by me when no one else would. You’ve given me a job and you didn’t kill me when I cheated on Nicole. I don’t have what you have. I lost her. I know that. But you still have a chance. Don’t be an idiot.”

“Words to live by,” Wyatt muttered, then stood. “I gotta make a call.”

He walked out into the cool night and pulled out his cell phone.

“It’s me,” he said when Nicole answered. “I need to talk to Claire and don’t tell me I can’t. This isn’t your business.”

“I agree, but you still can’t talk to her. She’s not here. She left a couple of hours ago.”

He went very still. “For where.”

“New York.”

He couldn’t believe it. “She left without saying goodbye?”

“You made it clear you didn’t want to have anything to do with her. She believed you. The fact that she left shouldn’t be a surprise at all, Wyatt. It’s what you wanted.”

C LAIRE LEFTthe practice studio shortly after one. It was a perfect early-summer day-sunny, but not too warm. She considered getting a cab, but decided the walk would be good for both her and the baby.