Best of My Love (Fool's Gold, #20)

The weekend—billed as the Wild Side of the Sierras—was a camping-hiking adventure with a nature specialist as guide. The twelve campers experienced everything from bird watching to berry picking to wildflower identifying. If they were lucky, they stumbled upon a baby fawn or two. Aidan made sure they were never unlucky enough to cross the path of hungry bears.

Saturday morning the group was supposed to head to a lookout, where they could observe an eagle nest. Aidan sent them on with the naturalist but asked Julie to hang back.

She was attractive, in her midforties, with brown hair and brown eyes. Fit, if slightly high-strung. She wasn’t experienced with the outdoors, but she was willing to do whatever was asked of her. Aidan knew that the reservation had been for two, but only Julie had shown up. Which probably explained the tears.

“I thought we could talk,” he told her when the others had left. Charlie looked from the departing group back to Aidan, as if wanting to make sure he knew they were being left behind.

“Okay,” Julie said slowly.

They sat at the picnic table by the campfire. The tents were set up in a circle, spaced a few feet apart. As Aidan used this area a lot, he’d had a Porta Potti brought in but there was no running water.

Julie rested her arms on the smooth wooden surface. “You called this meeting. What did you want to talk about?”

He patted the bench next to him. Charlie jumped up and Aidan began to rub his ears. “Whatever’s going on. You’re upset. Can I help?”

“Not unless you can take a hit out on someone,” she said, then grimaced. “Sorry. I don’t mean that.”

“Bad breakup?”

“The worst.” Tears filled her brown eyes. “Keith and I were together for ten years. Ten! We’re both in the tech industry. He does software design and I’m in finance. We were great together. We traveled, we liked the same movies and cooking together on S-Sundays.” Her voice cracked.

“But?”

She sniffed. “But we weren’t going anywhere, emotionally. We kept talking about getting married, but it never seemed to happen. At first I wasn’t worried, but then it became a big deal.” She lowered her voice. “I’m forty-four. I’m probably never going to have kids. I accept that, but I’d always figured I’d get married.”

“What happened?”

“He dumped me. There was no warning. Three weeks later, he was dating some twentysomething. A month after that, they got engaged.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “One of my friends said she heard the bitch is pregnant! I can’t believe it. I wasted all that time on him and I have nothing to show for it.”

She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. Aidan sat quietly, figuring she had to get it out of her system. While part of him felt uncomfortable with what was happening, he knew he wasn’t responsible for what was bothering her. And telling her everything was going to fine was just plain dumb. Obviously it wasn’t okay.

Eventually Julie’s sobs slowed. She wiped her face and looked at him. “I’m a mess.”

“Kind of.”

“I miss him.”

“Not really.”

Her eyes widened. “How can you say that? I love Keith.”

“No, you don’t.” He raised a shoulder. “You said yourself the relationship wasn’t going anywhere emotionally. What do you miss? Be specific.”

“A lot.” She sniffed. “The stuff we’d do together. Hanging out. Cooking on Sunday.”

“That’s all what you do. What do you miss about him?”

Her expression was blank. “I don’t understand what you’re asking.”

“I have a friend. She can’t show up at somebody’s house without bringing cookies or brownies or cake. It’s physically impossible for her to walk in empty-handed. Or if she’s with this guy.” He rested his hand on Charlie’s back. “She’ll play with him for hours. Charlie doesn’t have a favorite toy so first she has to figure out which one he’s in the mood for, then game on.”

He looked at Julie. “It’s her I’d miss. Who she is. Not the stuff we do.”

Julie drew in a couple of breaths. “You’re saying I miss what Keith represents. The steady guy. Being in a relationship. But that I don’t miss who he is.”

“It’s just a guess, based on what you’ve said about him. For what it’s worth, he’s an asshole.”

For the first time since showing up for the trip, Julie smiled. “I know. The new girlfriend is twenty years younger than him. What’s up with that?” The smile faded. “I wanted to come on this campout just to prove something. I didn’t expect to get good advice. Thank you. I’m going to think about what you said.”

“He’s not the only one. There are plenty of good guys out there. You have to start looking, though.”

Julie nodded. “You’re really easy to talk to. You know a lot about women.”

Aidan grinned. “It’s kind of a new thing for me, but I’m enjoying it.”

*