He shrugged. “It’s funny.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “So, that’s the story of my childhood. I don’t even remember losing my virginity because I was so sure one of my brothers was going to walk in and murder the guy. I spent the whole five minutes watching the door over his shoulder.”
“Five minutes? Damn. You probably weren’t missing much anyway, then.” If he ever had Reese beneath him, he’d need a hell of a lot more time than that. He was thinking hours. A whole night. A month, maybe.
“Oh, please, like you were any better when you were eighteen.”
“I was better than five minutes, that’s for sure.” None of his girlfriends had ever complained.
She snorted. “So do I win the bet?”
She wished. Derek settled back in his chair, stretching out his bad knee. “Not so fast. You’ve got me beat with life before twenty-one, but I’ve got you after that.”
Stacking the dirty plates one on top of each other, she said, “How?”
“You ever been married?”
“No.”
“I have.” Five years of indentured servitude and it still hadn’t been enough to keep Dawn around. “So I win, right there.”
“Why?” She narrowed her eyes. “Just because you were married? What’s so bad about that?”
“Says you who haven’t been married.” He crossed his arms.
“Lots of people are married and seem very happy.”
“Including my ex-wife.” He didn’t have bitter feelings towards Dawn. In fact, he didn’t have a whole lot of feelings for her at all, which seemed wrong given they’d lived together for close to six years. But sometimes he wondered if he’d have made different choices if he hadn’t been with Dawn.
If he hadn’t been so worried that he wasn’t measuring up in her eyes.
Back when he’d been at the academy, he’d always pictured himself working in violent crimes, out on the street, right in the action. But he’d gone into the financial crimes division because that had seemed the fastest route to a directorship, which waswhat Dawn had wanted, and he had wanted to make her happy. It hadn’t worked.
Water under the bridge now.
“Dawn wanted two things I couldn’t give her. Money and sperm.”
Reese’s eyes went wide. She dropped a paper napkin. “You don’t have sperm?”
That made him laugh. “No, I’ve got as much as the next guy, but Dawn wanted a kid and I didn’t. I think I knew the marriage was going south and a kid was only going to make that worse.”
“Oh.” She closed her mouth. “So what happened?”
“She left me and married Chicago’s prosecuting attorney and moved into a fancy house. She is currently six months pregnant with their first progeny.”
“Damn, that sucks.”
He shrugged. “She has a right to have what she wants.”
But Reese stood up, yanking her robe belt tighter as she moved away from the table. “So where does love fit in all that? It’s just ‘sorry, you’re not giving me what I want, so see ya?’ That’s wrong. Unless you promised you a baby when you met her. Then you can’t blame her.”
“I don’t blame her. But it feels like wasted time, different decisions might have been made…anyway. Then I took a tire iron to the knee.” He didn’t want to talk about Dawn anymore, was sorry he’d started the subject. No thoughts of Dawn belonged in this room where a gorgeous woman was only a few feet in front of him. Touching distance.
If he reached out and tugged on the belt…
“So I think you win post twenty-one just based on the tire iron. So we’re tied.” She nibbled the tip of her finger in a gesture that had him shifting in the chair.
“Okay, I know a deciding factor to see which of us has a lonelier love life. When was the last time you had sex?”