Part 22 (2/2)
”Then maybe you should tell me.” The love she felt for him was new and untested, and she didn't completely trust him not to destroy her.
”I e-mailed my last three girlfriends.”
She hadn't expected that at all. Three. The way he said it made them all sound fairly recent, or at least recent enough that they'd have the same e-mail address. If Anica tried to contact her last three boyfriends, she'd be going back five years. Lily had called it-Jasper was a player.
Feeling a little out of her league, she gazed at him. ”Why did you e-mail them?”
”To apologize for being a complete jerk. Just like you, they didn't deserve to be lied to. It was time I told them so. Sheila and I've only been broken up three weeks, but Kate was a good six months ago, and Deb was-G.o.d-almost a year.”
So he didn't have a history of long-term relations.h.i.+ps. Good to know. But as for this recent move on his part, Anica couldn't help be nervous. ”Do you . . . want to go back to any of them?” She held her breath.
”h.e.l.l, no! I left each of them because I realized we weren't as good together as I'd thought we'd be.”
He might come to feel the same way about her, and she had to accept that. ”Did you tell them that in this latest e-mail?”
”Why would I say that? I don't want them to feel bad all over again. This is supposed to be about healing old hurts.”
”Or creating new ones.” Anica sighed. ”You don't want them to get their hopes up, Jasper. Um, did you notice that Sheila gave me her business card?”
”Yep. It was seeing her card that got me thinking about this idea.” He sounded very proud of himself.
”Do you have any idea why Sheila gave it to me?”
”Not really.” He shrugged. ”She's a consultant for a window covering company. I thought maybe she was drumming up business.”
Anica didn't like revealing another woman's vulnerabilities, but Jasper needed to understand the impact he'd had on his former girlfriends. ”She was trying to drum up you.”
”I don't get it.”
”She still wants you, Jasper. She told me if I wasn't interested, to let her know so she might be able to catch you on the rebound.”
”But I made it clear that I-”
”Doesn't matter.” Looking at him standing there, confused, rumpled and so very s.e.xy, she had no trouble imagining that women would forgive him anything if they could have one more round of s.e.x, one more chance to convince him they were the perfect match.
”Sure it does. We said our good-byes and that was that.”
”People change their minds all the time. Sheila hopes that you'll change yours, and she'd love to help that process along by coaxing you back to her bed.”
Jasper groaned. ”Maybe that happens with other guys, but not me. When I leave, I leave for good. No do-overs.”
”I'll keep that in mind.”
He met her gaze. ”I haven't left you, Anica.”
”No, but it's a good bet that you will once my magic comes back. Admit it, the magic freaks you out.”
”It used to.” He shoved his hands in the pockets of his slacks as if uncomfortable with the topic but determined to discuss it, anyway. ”You said yourself that witches and wizards are pledged to do no harm.”
”That's true. We are.” If she'd gotten that much across, then she'd done the magical community a favor. Not many nonmagical people accepted that basic premise. They still thought of witches as evil.
”I've seen how that works. You broke the rule and you lost your magic.”
”Yes.”
”So like you said, I don't have anything to be afraid of from you other than the usual man-woman stuff like rejection, misunderstanding, power struggles, hogging the bathroom mirror, using my razor to shave your legs-stuff like that.”
She thought he might be saying that he no longer saw her witch status as a problem. Funny how that was the issue they'd started with on Monday night, and now, apparently, it wasn't an issue anymore. No, they now had other issues.
First there was the obvious physical problem of whether he would ever revert permanently to his human form. A great deal depended on that, and there were no guarantees. Then they had to wonder whether they'd want to spend time with each other if he did regain his status as a man. Finally, there was the biggie, the super-duper issue of all-whether, if after all that transpired, they could trust each other with their hearts.
But they'd wandered off the track and she knew a time bomb could be ticking away inside that computer. ”You need to send more e-mails,” she said.
”I do?”
”Yes. You must e-mail each of those women and let her know that you have no intention of getting back together. You can wish her well, and apologize again for the initial lie you told to get her in bed, but make sure she understands this isn't an invitation to reunite.”
”They won't think that's what it was.”
She gazed at him and shook her head. ”You may understand more about cats than ever before, but you still have a lot to learn about women.”
As if to make that point, a m.u.f.fled cell-phone tune sounded in the apartment. Anica recognized ”Brown-Eyed Girl.”
”That's my BlackBerry,” he said. ”Where is it?”
”I left it in the pocket of your wool coat.” She motioned toward the coat closet by the front door. ”It's in there.”
”d.a.m.n.”
”Someone you know?”
”Sheila.” He made no move toward the coat closet.
”You need to answer it, Jasper. If she's calling you at this hour of the night, immediately after you sent her an e-mail, she's in a world of hurt. She's misinterpreted what you said in the e-mail.”
Jasper looked like a man going to an execution as he walked over to the coat closet. But he did it. Opening the door, he reached inside the pocket of his coat, pulled out the BlackBerry and answered it.
”Hi, Sheila,” he said. ”I . . . uh . . . didn't expect you to call.”
Anica thought she should duck out on this conversation. She was halfway to the kitchen to get coffee when Jasper caught her by the wrist. She turned and looked into his eyes.
”No, Sheila, that's not why I e-mailed you,” he said.
Anica didn't have to be a mind reader to interpret his pleading glance. He wanted her to stay for moral support. He might even want her to feed him lines.
He cleared his throat. ”No, the e-mail was only meant to let you know that I'm sorry for the way I began it.” He winced at something Sheila must have said, looked at Anica and mouthed the word Help.
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