Safe in His Arms by Dana Corbit

Author:Dana Corbit
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Joe pressed his ear to his phone as Lindsay’s cell rang once and then a second time. She hadn’t automatically sent his call to voice mail this time, but he didn’t hold out much hope that she would answer, or even if she did, that she wouldn’t immediately shut him down. He knew what was happening, and he had a pretty good idea why.

The phone clicked after the fourth ring, so he waited for the call to go to voice mail. What did it say about a guy that he was tempted to listen to a voice-mail greeting just to hear a woman’s voice, and when had he become that guy?

“Hello?”

His pulse leaped at the sound of her live voice. He cleared his throat. “Lindsay?”

“Oh, Joe. I didn’t realize it was you.”

“Forgot to check your caller ID this time.”

“No, that’s not—I mean I didn’t—oh, whatever,” she said with a nervous laugh.

“Now that we have that settled…” He chuckled. “So how has your week been going?” He wouldn’t tell her his had been the loneliest since…well…ever.

“It hasn’t been a week. I talked to you two days ago.”

“Oh, you mean the time that you turned down my offer to take you and Emma out for ice cream?”

The sound she made was some combination of a cough and a laugh. “And we talked two days before that.”

“You mean the time I asked you if you wanted to go running—I mean walking—again, and you said Emma was tired and you needed to make sure she got to bed on time?”

“That’s not…”

It didn’t surprise him that she didn’t finish her thought. Both of them knew she was kicking him to the curb, which would be a difficult job since they weren’t even dating, but she was doing it anyway. What was far less clear to him was why it bothered him so much.

“You probably think I’m dense by now,” he said. “I was supposed to get the hint, especially after all of those ‘missed’ calls.”

Something had changed from the moment Lindsay had come home to find her parents waiting for her with disappointment in their daughter and distrust of her friend painted on their faces.

“Come on. It isn’t like that.”

He wanted to know what it was like, wished she would tell him what her parents had said the other night to make her avoid him, but asking her would be like begging her to hang up on him. Then he wouldn’t be able to even try out his new plan. The one that just might work.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I know rejection when I hear it.” He also knew what a challenge was like. That had to be what kept him asking when he could have simply slunk away, discarded.

“It’s just that, well, I really have been busy.”

“Washing your hair?”

She cleared her throat. “No, Joe. I’m been busy being Emma’s guardian.”

“I know. How’s she doing?” He felt as if he was speaking in code, asking about the child, when his real questions were about her aunt.

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