“Why? Unity’s great. And being in love—” She reached for his hand and squeezed it. “The mighty have fallen.”

“The mighty are about to get their asses kicked.”

“Why would you say that?”

He stared at the grass. “She’s not ready. She’s still in love with her late husband. I don’t know why she’s been going out with me. Maybe to test the waters, maybe because she thought it would work out. Either way, I can see she’s not ready to let go.”

“You could be wrong about that. Even if she still has some things to work through, she could be in love with you, too.”

“I doubt that.”

He wanted to believe but he wasn’t a fool. That night with Unity had meant everything to him, but he wasn’t sure what it had meant to her. While she’d acted completely normal, he’d sensed there were emotions lurking under the surface.

He looked at Lela. “I want to marry her and have kids with her, but it’s like she’s under glass. I can see her, but I can’t touch her. Not emotionally. I don’t think she wants what I want.”

Tears filled Lela’s eyes. Her tenderhearted response warmed him. No matter what, he had good friends.

“What are you going to do?” she asked. “Tell her how you feel?”

“No. That would only make things more confusing for her. I don’t want her acting out of guilt. I’m going to wait and see how it plays out.” He hesitated, then admitted the truth. “It’s not going to end well.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I can and the hell of it is, I can’t walk away from her.” He managed a chuckle. “It’s not fun to be the girl in the relationship.”

“You’re not the girl. You’re a hunky guy and if she doesn’t fall madly in love with you, then she’s a fool and I’m sorry I ever thought I could like her.”

“Thanks. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Thaddeus. And thank you for trusting me with your secrets. I won’t tell anyone.”

“That only means you won’t tell the kids, but you’ll tell Freddy.”

She laughed. “Very possibly.” She pointed to the flower bed. “Let’s finish this row, then you can go back to the office and take care of very important business.”

Keith’s bad mood had persisted for days. He was grumpy, he couldn’t sleep and he definitely wanted to take out his temper on someone, only he couldn’t figure out who.

Since Lissa had come clean about her concerns, they were getting along. He still had a couple of weeks until football practice started, and he was ready for that. His truck was running fine, the house was in good shape, so why did he wake up every morning, wanting to rip the head off a bear?