Unforgettable (14 page)

He couldn’t wait for this weekend when
he got to meet her son. If this went well, he knew they were on
their way to a happy life. As much as he hated to admit it, he was
nervous about the kid. Neil was an only child, and didn’t have much
experience to date with kids. EJ was older, so maybe it wouldn’t be
too hard.

“
I hate to hear you’re
taken. I never even got a chance with you.” Beth plopped down in
the seat next to him. “We could change that.
She
never has to know. My lips are
zipped—well, only for telling, otherwise my mouth is wide
open.”

Neil shook his head and rolled his
eyes. In some ways he was glad to be done with this lifestyle. A
few weeks ago he would’ve seen just how wide her mouth would
open.

“
I’m gonna have to turn that
offer down. My lady takes very good care of me.” Krista in her red
dress flashed through his mind. “I’m a happily taken
man.”

His cell phone buzzed his on his hip.
Pulling it from his waist, he saw it was Krista.

“
Hey, beautiful. I was just
talking about you.”

“
Good, I hope.”

“
Of course. I’d never have a
bad thing to say about you.”

She laughed. “I just got EJ to bed and
I’m gonna head that way too. I wanted to call and tell you so you
didn’t call me later and worry if I didn’t answer.”

He wished he was crawling into bed with
her and not sitting here, toasted and alone. “Have sweet
dreams.”

“
They’d be sweeter if you
were here.”

“
Is that the lucky lady you
were telling me about,” Beth cooed over his shoulder.

“
Who was that?” Krista
asked.

“
Just a woman at the club,”
Neil responded, pushing Beth off his arm.

Beth laughed. “Just a woman. Gee,
thanks, Neil.”

“
Sweet dreams, Krista. I’ll
call you first thing in the morning.”

Krista was quiet.

“
Wow, you are tired. You’ve
fallen asleep on the phone.” He chuckled. “Get a good night’s
rest.” He ended the call.

He got up from the table to search out
Ian to get a number for a cab. He needed to get home himself and
get to sleep. He’d had too much to drink and the idea of slumber
sounded good right about now. Beth said something behind him, but
it was taking a lot for him to stand at the moment.

When he found Ian, his friend called a
cab. A few minutes later, Ian helped him out to the car.

“
Get some rest, old man. You
can’t hold your liquor the way you used to.”

“
Yeah, yeah. I just got
carried away.” He climbed into the cab and laid his head back in
the seat as Ian told the driver where to take him.

He closed his eyes and did his best not
to fall asleep. His phone buzzed on his hip again. Groaning, he
pulled it from the holster.

The baseball game is
off.

Neil stared at the message and read it
again. Krista was canceling the baseball game? He began to type the
word why back, but the cab driver arrived to his house. He handed
the driver money and then exited the vehicle.

Once inside he tossed his phone and
keys onto a table in the foyer and then crashed on a couch in the
formal living room, not giving a second thought to Krista’s
message.

“
But, Mom!” EJ complained.

“
I’m sorry. Plans change.”
Krista hated breaking her son’s heart, but after hearing Neil drunk
and some woman with him, letting Neil and EJ meet was out of the
question.

In fact last night showed her just how
different their worlds really were. He was a bachelor at heart, who
for some reason wanted a relationship with her. But would he ever
really be able to give up that lifestyle?

How often would she be left at home
while he was out on the town doing whatever it was he did? And it
wasn’t fair of her to ask him to change. Once again, she was
slapped in the face with a reminder that things could never work
between them. It didn’t matter how much they wanted it to, it
simply wouldn’t work.

It wasn’t fair to EJ either.

She held his shoulders and stared at
him. “I promise we’ll go to a game soon. Let me see what I can find
for us to do to make up for this, okay?”

EJ grunted. “Can I go play with my
Legos?”

“
Yeah, that’s fine.” She
sighed. “Want to go out for brunch?”

“
Will you let me get the
smiley-face pancake? The chocolate one?”

The one full of nothing but
pure sugar.
Ugh.
“Sure.”

Krista turned back to the coffee maker
and poured herself another cup. She’d tossed and turned all night.
All she could imagine was one of those women at the club with the
barely-there dresses touching Neil. Rubbing her body against his
and teasing him. Would he take the bait?

God, how had she gotten herself so
involved with this man? He’d come into it so quickly and after a
kiss she’d thrown all caution to the wind. There was a reason why
she over thought things in life. It was to keep her out of this
very predicament.

And she was in this deep.

After draining half a mug of her
coffee, she decided to head upstairs to take a shower.

* * *

Cell phones really needed to come with
a recycling bin. Last night Neil had gotten a message from
Krista—at least he thought it was from her. And somehow he’d
deleted his whole damn text message folder. All his messages were
gone.

He’d attempted to call Krista, but it
had gone straight to voicemail. They’d already decided that she and
EJ would meet him at the game and to keep it as laid back as
possible. If you could call laid back sitting in one’s own private
box, sure. But at least it would be just the three of them in the
air-conditioned room. He’d requested it be stocked with snacks kids
loved.

He had about an hour before he had to
head over to the stadium. Neil went into his office to check his
email. As he sat down at his desk, he dialed Krista again, but like
before, it didn’t even ring.

“
I’m looking forward to
today. Can’t wait to see you and meet EJ. See you soon.” He placed
the phone back in the holster on his hip.

Two hours later, Neil sat in the
private room—alone. Krista and EJ hadn’t shown up. He’d called down
to the gate several times to see if they were there then proceeded
to call Krista, but as usual the call went straight to
voicemail.

Was she hurt? He couldn’t make sense as
to why she wasn’t there.

Something told him if he hadn’t deleted
all his text messages, he’d know something. He couldn’t understand
why she’d canceled. When they’d spoken earlier yesterday, she was
excited and said EJ was as well. So where were they?

Neil called down to the gate
again.

“
This is Neil Clark in room
four A. I’ve got to head out, but I have guests I’m waiting on. If
they arrive, will you show them up and let them know I’ll be back?
Thanks.”

There was only one way to find out why
Krista wasn’t here, and that was to go to her house and see if she
was home.

* * *

Krista parked the car in the driveway.
As she climbed out, she handed EJ the keys.

“
I’ll be right there. I’m
gonna grab the bags from the trunk,” she told him.

Her son nodded and continued for the
front door. She popped the trunk and grabbed the few bags from the
store that were in there. As she closed the trunk, she heard a car
pull up behind her. It was a quiet engine and she recognized
it.

Slowly she turned to see Neil. He
turned the vehicle off and climbed out.

“
Are you okay? I’ve been
worried sick about you.” He marched toward her.

She was confused why he thought
something was wrong, unless he didn’t get she was mad at him and
ignoring him. “I’m fine.”

“
Then why aren’t you at the
baseball field?”

She set the few bags down on the top of
the trunk. “I sent you a message last night that we weren’t
coming.”

Fuck, he remembered now. Seeing her
text in the cab about not coming. “Why? I’ve been calling you all
day and all I’ve gotten is your voicemail. I accidently deleted the
message and called all morning to see what you’d said. Are you
ignoring me?”

“
I’m not sure where my phone
is.”

He groaned and she could see his anger
rising. “What’s going on?”

She was never good with break-ups.
“This isn’t working. That’s what’s going on.”

“
Yesterday things were
great. What changed?” He rubbed his temple.

She crossed her arms. “It
clicked last night when you were out partying it up that I was
right in the beginning, when I told you it would never work. It
won’t. We’re two different people. I don’t want to be at home
worrying if some woman is flirting with you, or worse, you’re
flirting with some
young
woman. I can’t expect you to change your life for
me.”

He ran his hands through his dark hair
and held them there a moment. “It’s unfair that you think I would
do that to you. I wouldn’t.”

She laughed sarcastically. “That
happened last night. Who was the woman?”

What the hell was she talking about?
“Woman? What woman?”

“
I’m not stupid!”

Neil stepped back from her, putting
much-needed distance between them.

“
Mom,” EJ called from the
front porch.

Great!
“I’ll be back in a moment, honey. Go inside.”

“
Can I play the
Xbox?”

“
Yes, it’s fine.”

EJ turned and went back in the
house.

“
You need to go,” she
said.

“
So what, this is it?” Neil
rubbed his palms together. “I’ve done everything I can these past
few weeks to show you how I feel about you. But apparently it
hasn’t been enough.”

“
It’s been a great few
weeks, but it can never be more. And you know it. I have a kid and
I can’t live the life you do. We’ve known this. It’s nothing new. I
should’ve stuck to my guns in the beginning and not have let this
go as far as it did.”

“
I’m sorry you feel that
way.”

“
Did you really think it
would work?” A big part of her had hoped it would, even
now.

“
When I told you I loved
you, I meant it. I’d have given everything up if it meant I got to
spend the rest of my life with you.” His back was to her now and he
took a few steps toward his car. He glanced over his shoulder at
her and got into his car.

Krista watched as he drove off. Her
heart ached. As she stood there a few minutes later, she couldn’t
decide if she should be relieved that she could now move on and get
her life back, or if she’d just made the biggest mistake in her
life.

“
So it’s over?” Jamie stared at Krista.

Krista nodded, her gut churning. “I
guess so.”