“I knew this would happen! It’s exactly what I said all along.” She came to her feet. “I haven’t been anything more to you than a novelty.”

“You’ve just proven my point. Exactly why I don’t trust you.”

She wanted to take a swing at him. “How could you not trust me? I’m the most trustworthy person in the world! Just ask my friends.”

“The friends you only talk to on the phone because you never stay in the same city with them for more than a few months?”

“I just said I’d go to Chicago with you, didn’t I?”

“You’re not the only one who needs security. I waited a long time to fall in love. Why it had to be with you, I don’t know. God’s big joke, I guess. But I’ll tell you this. I’m not waking up every morning wondering if you’re still around.”

She felt sick. “Then what?”

He regarded her stubbornly. “You tell me.”

“I already did. We start with Chicago.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He practically sneered at her. “You thrive in new places. It’s growing roots that gives you trouble.”

He’d nailed her.

He rose. “Let’s say we went to Chicago. I introduce you to my friends. We have a great time. We laugh. We argue. We make love. One month goes by. Another. And then…” He shrugged.

“And then you wake up one morning, and I’m gone.”

“I’m away a lot during the season. Imagine how that’ll wear on you. And the women. They throw themselves at anyone with a uniform. What are you going to do when you find lipstick on my shirt collar?”

“As long as it’s not on your End Zone briefs, I think I can handle it.”

He didn’t break a smile. “You don’t get it, Blue. Women are after me all the time, and it’s not in my nature to walk away without at least giving them a smile and telling them I like their hair or their eyes or some other fucking nice thing about them because it makes them feel good, and that makes me feel good, and that’s the way I’m made.”

A natural born charmer. She loved this man.

“I’d never screw around on you.” He gazed down at her. “That’s also the way I’m made. But how can you believe that, when you’ll be waiting for proof that I don’t love you—that I’m like all the others who rejected you? I can’t watch everything I do, censor every word I say because I’m afraid you’ll walk away. You aren’t the only one carrying a few scars around.”

His irrefutable logic scared her. “I’m supposed to earn a spot on Team Robillard? Is that it?”