Free To Begin Anew (Blue Jay Romance) by Eliza Gerard Page B

made better choices none of this would have happened and then…”
     
    Debra cut the man off before he could get started on a another series of apologies. “Dr. Nelson, there’s nothing you should be sorry for. I understood what she was after and, trust me, I didn’t find her insinuation humorous, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned living here, it’s that there’s always something going on and news gets old real fast. Maybe you’re the flavor of the month for that busybody now, but in another month or so she’ll have to move on to someone else. And then what? You’ll have wasted all your apologies on me.”
     
    Eric frowned. In all of that, the only thing he cared about was how she’d addressed him. “Dr. Nelson? You can’t just call me Eric?”
     
    Debra took a swig of her coffee, watched as Dr. Nelson waggled his eyebrows at her, and then she shrugged as she fought hard not to smile at him. He was cute, maybe more than cute, and if she wasn’t careful she was going to find him charming. She rolled her eyes and took another drink from her coffee mug in an effort to hide the smile that threatened to erupt on her lips.
     
    Eric shrugged, thinking that it might take some more time before Debra thought of him as a friend - he certainly thought of them that way. How could he not after the first meeting they had? And he was content that at least he could get her eyes to smile at him if nothing else.
     
    He said, “I was hoping to take the boys to church this Sunday, but I think with what’s going on right now, it might be better if I have them stay with my mother for the weekend.”
     
    Debra’s brows knitted in confusion and he smiled for a second at how cute that made her face before he replied, “She lives in the next town over, didn’t I ever tell you that? It was one of the reasons I chose this particular small town in the middle of nowhere as compared to the hundreds of other little towns in the middle of nowhere that I could’ve chosen from.”
     
    The corners of her beautiful mouth curled up slightly and a sparkle of pride for her hometown came into those mesmerizing eyes. Eric stared into them for several moments, lost in the wonderment of whatever glories there were behind them in her mind.
     
    He smiled. “It wouldn’t take but a few hours and then I’d be back in town.” It was then a brilliant idea struck him, an idea that he was certain would have occurred to him naturally if he’d given it the chance, “How about we go have dinner together again, maybe see a movie?”
     
    Debra looked at Dr. Nelson as if his forehead had decided to spontaneously grow an ear right between his eyes. She opened her mouth to say something to the fact that she’d be washing her hair in the effort to make it all fall out, but then the boys were bouncing down the hall and into the kitchen, their little ears twitching just as she caught the barest glimpses of their wagging tails.
     
    ~*~*~
     
    Eric looked at his boys with a hearty smile, loving the way they seemed to brighten any given space they seemed to be in, and he remembered that the smiles they wore on their tiny angel faces had been the same smile on their mother’s face that he’d fallen in love with all those years ago.
     
    “How would you two feel about going to see Nanna this weekend?”
     
    As if an invisible pin appeared out of nowhere and popped them both like twin balloons, David’s and Danny’s faces fell.
     
    “No! Daddy, you promised we could go to church!” David’s voice was shrill, his eyes watering as if tiny little water guns had been placed in his tear ducts. Danny was right behind him, his small arms wrapping around himself - it was his natural defense against things that bothered him.
     
    Eric frowned, wondering why it was that his boys had developed such a need to be in church every Sunday and before he could say anything both of them turned and ran, returning to the bedroom that they had claimed as theirs