“Let me get this straight. You showed up after knee surgery and you couldn’t be bothered to speak to me?”

“We were brand new. I didn’t want to blow it.”

“Well, you did.”

“No excuse.” Except stupid male pride. The shattering realization that everything he’d worked for all his life was gone. “I didn’t even know what I was going to say to you. I was still trying to figure out what to say to myself. I had to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I was a little preoccupied with that. I told myself I’d get in touch with you later, when my head was in a better place—”

“Your head? What about mine? I was frantic with worry.”

“I figured you’d move on.”

“How could you figure that? You didn’t know me at all. I would have understood.” She almost admitted that she’d been heartbroken, but she was too angry to give him that.

“So tell me this, Elaine, and be honest. If I’d come rolling up to you in a wheelchair and said, ‘Gee, I may be on permanent disability and I might not even walk again, but how about we plan a future together?’ What would your reaction have been? Would you have stood by me in rehab and helped me learn to walk again?”

She blanched, but didn’t look away. “You’ll never know, because you made up my mind for me.”

He couldn’t dispute that. He hesitated, then opted for honesty. “I made a big mistake that night. I don’t want to make it again.”

“Tell me one reason why I should give you another chance.”

He pulled up to the curb in front of the address she’d given him. It was a luxury building from the 1930s, complete with a liveried doorman.

This was nuts, he thought, eyeing a career dog walker following a pedigreed pack up the tree-lined street. He and Elaine were from different worlds. They ought to forget the whole thing. Instead, he slid his arm along the seat behind her. “Because,” he said, “you’ve never been in love.”

“I never said that.”

“Sure you did.”

“What’s that got to do with us?”

“Maybe nothing,” he said. “Maybe everything.”

She parted her lips a little, and he thought about kissing her. He didn’t let himself act on it. Later, he told himself. Definitely later.

“Thanks for the skating,” she said, then studied him for a few seconds. “Would you like to come up?”

Chapter Nine

chapter nine

As she greeted the doorman, Elaine felt a beat of unease. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, letting Tony Fiore into her life. They’d only had three dates, after all, and they hadn’t really been dates as much as accidents. They barely knew each other. It was probably best to leave it that way.