Emma waved her hand dismissively. “We weren’t. And yes, we’re ready to eat. Let’s round everyone up.”
As Emma walked off to call people to sit down, Aidan grinned at Megan before saying, “Total freak.”
Megan closed her eyes as if in pain. “Spare me. Please.”
“Just saying. Because you never know if your gentleman might be a super freak too.” And with a wink, he walked off to join Emma, leaving Megan to wonder why everyone seemed so concerned with hers and Pesh’s love lives.
As the sunlight started fading, most of the party guests began to trickle out the door. By the time it was dark, it was only a few of Aidan and Emma’s close friends left. Megan had let her parents take a sleepy Mason home, vowing she wanted to stay to help Emma clean up. The truth was she wanted to spend as much time as she could with Pesh.
Thankfully, she found herself sitting next to him at one of the poolside tables. Somehow they managed to end up by themselves after some of the other guests had left. Leaning forward in her chair, she asked, “Did you always want to be a doctor?”
Pesh nodded. “For my fifth birthday, my father bypassed the usual play doctor’s kits by giving me a real medical bag with tools from the hospital. I examined everyone who would stand still long enough, including the two dogs.”
Megan laughed. “I bet you were a cute little doctor.”
“My mother has some embarrassing pictures,” he replied, with a smile.
“So your father was also a doctor?”
“Yes, he had a general medicine practice for forty years. He just recently retired.”
“Did he pressure you to follow in his footsteps?”
He grinned. “I’m starting to feel like I’m being interrogated.”
She laughed. “I’m sorry if you feel that way. I’m just trying to get to know you.”
“You’re certainly a very attractive interrogator,” he said.
“I think you’re avoiding the question by flattering me.”
“There’s flattery and then there’s the truth.”
Cocking her brows, she replied, “And then there’s not answering my question.”
He held up his hands in defeat. “Fine, fine. No, I didn’t feel pressure to become a doctor. My father would have never wanted me to pursue a profession where I didn’t feel useful.”
Megan smiled. “So you’ve always had a need to help people?”
“Pretty much. As the oldest, I always looked out for my two younger brothers and sister. My mother has always called me an old soul.”
“I can see that about you.”
Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on the table. “Now it is my turn to be the interrogator.”
“Okay, I don’t mind.”
“What about you? Did you always see nursing in your future?”
“Yes and no. Originally, I wanted to be a doctor.”
His brows shot up in surprise. “Really?” When she nodded, he asked, “What happened?”
There was no way she was going to tell him the truth about her past and why she had been forced to abandon medical school. Instead, she shrugged. “Life happened, I guess. I decided on the next best thing, which was nursing.”
Pesh stared thoughtfully at her. “Was it your son?”
“Excuse me?”
“Was it your son who changed your plans about medical school?”
She shook her head. “No, it was before I had Mason.”
“Does he…are you…?” Pesh shook his head. “Forgive me. I was being too forward.”
“No, go ahead. I told you I wasn’t afraid to answer your questions.”
He grimaced. “But it’s rude to pry, and it’s not my business.”
“Just ask your question,” she replied.
After a resigned sigh, he finally asked, “Were you married?”
“No, I’m not divorced. And no, Mason’s father doesn’t have anything to do with him.”
Anger flashed in Pesh’s dark eyes. “Even though I know nothing of him, I know that he is not a man. A man does not abandon his children and his responsibilities.”
“You would be right. He’s just a boy playing at being a man,” she replied, glancing down at the table.
When Pesh took her hand in his, she jerked her head up in surprise. In a soft voice that vibrated with empathy, he asked, “He hurt you very much, didn’t he?”
As she shifted in her chair, she tried downplaying the moment by wagging her free finger at Pesh. “Now you’re really turning the heated questions on me, aren’t you?”
He quickly released her hand. “I apologize.”
She sighed. “No, it’s okay.” She raked her fingers through her hair as she tried processing if she was really going to be honest with Pesh. Gazing into his eyes, she didn’t detect any judgment or prying—there was only compassion. “Yes, he hurt me. He continues to hurt me each time I look at Mason and realize what he’s being denied.” She jerked her chin over to where Aidan cradled a sleeping Noah in his arms. As the others talked and laughed around him, Aidan stared down at his son with such love in his eyes and adoration on his face that it cut a jagged hole in Megan’s chest. Her chin trembled as she replied, “I want that for my son.”
Pesh’s dark eyes pooled with empathy as he once again took her hand in his. “It isn’t the same pain, but I do know how you feel. I experience it every time I see a husband and wife sharing a loving moment. It drives home what I do not have…what I have lost.”
Megan wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Emma told me about your wife. I’m very sorry.”
“Thank you,” he murmured.
Nibbling her bottom lip, Megan then hesitantly asked, “What was she like?”
By his raised eyebrows, Pesh seemed surprised by her question. Megan hoped she hadn’t stepped over a boundary in asking. He leaned back in his chair and drew in an agonized breath. “She was my world—the sun, the moon, and the stars.” He met her intense gaze, checking to see if she really wanted him to continue. After she gave a brief nod, he began to talk. He told her how they had met and all the little attributes that Jade possessed that made her special. As Megan listened to him speak with such reverence and love about his late wife, she couldn’t help feeling just a little bit jealous. She’d never had a man possess such intense feelings for her. She couldn’t imagine ever being loved so completely by a man that not even death could lessen his feelings.