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pulled out of the parking lot and saw Dale waving at his friends trying to look cool, but Gia kept glancing at that very attractive, nice football coach who was still watching her car.
    Damn there are some fine-looking cowboys in Houston.

Chapter 3
     
    The weekend passed and Sammy and Kaleigh were mad at Gia for not joining them at Casper’s on Saturday night. After thinking about how Friday night went, she was feeling a bit freaked out about the whole encounter with Garrett and then how easily she found Dale’s football coach as attractive, too. She was wondering what the hell was going on with her? She couldn’t take the chance of opening up her heart or her emotions to a man. Every time she thought about the steps it took to start a relationship she feared the end result. The first glance, the interest, the first date, the other dates, the kissing, the touching and holding that would turn to wanting and needing more. That was when she thought about the pain.
    All the nights she sustained verbal abuse from Antonio. He never left marks on her body, but he just manhandled her. He was trying to mold her into the woman he wanted her to be. She had so desperately wanted to be loved and cherished that soon she had painted an image in her head of what she wanted Antonio to be instead of who he really was. She hadn’t even had sex with him until they were dating for three months. Even when she finally gave in to taking their relationship to that next level, there was something deep inside telling her that it wasn’t right. She had felt stuck, but her mistakes were her own. Wanting, prioritizing the wrong things in life had been her downfall. She had eventually believed she loved him, but did love come with such heartache and fear? Did love have to be so difficult and such a struggle to work at? Why couldn’t it be like the love stories she read about in books or the stories she heard from friends who met their soul mates?
    God, how lame is that? How stupid to think that someone who would care for her as a person, an individual, and as a woman really existed. She had learned the truth about men, about sex, and about exposing one’s soul to the devil just to feel alive, appreciated, and special.
    The tears rolled down her cheeks as the feelings of failure and regret filled her soul. Bad things happen to people all the time. They survive, they move on, they forgive and forget. But somehow, despite her show of strength in front of Teddy, her dedication to the dojo and Sensei Lee, and her accomplishments at work with her career, she still felt that tug inside of her. The connection to Antonio and the fear that one day he would find her and demand her return, make her do as he had wanted, and make her succumb to his ultimate demand she couldn’t let herself be part of. That night he told her about his desire for her to sleep with Valdere had been a shock and a knife to her heart. It was an indication of his lack of respect for her as his lover, his girlfriend, and his so-called everything.
    It was pure luck that those other men had showed up pissed off at some bad business deal. But they had come so close to having her and forcing her to have sex with them. Gia shivered as she lay in bed, cuddled in a blanket despite the eighty-degree weather outside. It was late and tomorrow would be a long day as she had promised Dale she would study with him one more time before the big test. Jim and Teddy weren’t aware of the conversation Gia’d had with Dale’s coach, but Deanna was.
    That had made her chuckle. In a matter of minutes Deanna had Gia sharing her thoughts about how nice-looking the coach was. Deanna apparently was in the supermarket the following day and bumped into a gossiping mom who had seen Gia talking with the coach. He was a hot item in the area and many women were out to snag him. That was also when she found out that Wes was Garrett’s brother. She nearly had a heart attack as she collapsed in the chair. That was