I scoff. “It doesn’t explain why you lied to me.”
“Come on, Nora. We both know you hate children.”
“Just because I don’t want any, that doesn’t mean I hate them.”
Those are the truest words I’ve ever spoken. I like children. But I can’t risk passing on my genes to anyone else. I can’t risk creating another Aaron Nierling. I could never live with myself. And anyway, my career is my life. It consumes almost all my waking hours. There’s no room for children.
But God, it doesn’t mean Ihatethem. If I were somebody else, somebody other thanhis daughter, I would love to…
Well, it’s not worth thinking about. It is what it is.
“Is there anything I can say?” he asks. “Anything I can do to convince you how sorry I am? Because I really like you, Nora.”
I look up at his brown eyes and I realize how much he means it. It isn’t like men haven’t hit on me in the last ten years or so, since I decided to be celibate. But most of them didn’t care much one way or another if I went for it. Brady cares. But he’ll get over it. Especially when the story about who I am hits the news tomorrow.
I’m glad I don’t have to see the look on his face whenhe sees that story.
“Sorry,” I say. “Also, your five minutes are up.”
“Okay,” he sighs. “That’s fair.”
My mouth falls open. I had expected at least another twenty minutes of him trying to convince me we were made for each other. “That’s it? You’re giving up?”
“I…” He tilts his head. “You told me no. So… I thought… I mean, should Inotgive up?”
I stare at him, feeling suddenly a bit confused. Do I want him to keep trying? All I know is that when he gave in, I felt a deep sting of disappointment. “I… I’m going to get my car.”
“Can I come with you?” he asks.
Our eyes meet. Dammit, I’m going to end up going home with him again. I wish I had more self-restraint. Usually, I’m better at saying no.
We head out into the dark parking lot right outside the building. There are a couple of lights in the parking lot, but several of them have burned out. I’ll have to talk to maintenance about it. Brady walks me to my car, and it’s only after we get a few feet away that I see what happened to it.
“Somebody slashed my tires!” I cry.
And they didn’t just poke holes in them to make them go flat. I see the shredded rubber in each of my wheels. Somebody did a number on my tires. I wonder if it was Mrs. Swanson. But no, she left hours ago. She wouldn’t have done this in broad daylight. Although I suppose she could have come back.
Tears prick at my eyes, but I quickly blink them away.I haven’t cried in… I can’t even remember the last time I’ve cried. It’s been a very, very long time.
“Jesus,” Brady breathes. “What the hell?”
I’m suddenly incredibly glad he’s here with me. If I saw this and was all alone, I would’ve had a complete meltdown. But his presence calms me down.
“I’ll have to get it towed.” I look down at my watch. It’s even later than I thought. God knows when I’ll get home at this rate. “This is just great. I’ve been at work for fifteen hours and now I have to deal with this.”
“Let me drive you home,” he says quickly. “You don’t need to deal with this now. All the repair places are closed anyway. You can call in the morning and get it towed.”
I grunt. “I don’t have time to deal with this in the morning.”
“But I do.” He bends down to look at the tires. “I’ll come back here in the morning and I’ll meet the tow truck operator. I’ll take care of it for you.”
“So I’m supposed to trust you to get my car towed for me?”
His lips pull down. “You don’t trust me to do that?”
I look down at the shredded tires on my Camry, then back at his open face. I guess I do trust him. I’ve known him for over fifteen years, and he’s never given me a reason not to. Yes, he lied about his daughter. But I think that was more because on some levelhedidn’t trustme.
“Fine,” I say. “Thank you.” I fish around in my purse for my keys and take the car key off the ring. I hand it over to him. “I appreciate it.”
