The Man You Need (Love on Tour #4) by Kay Harris

arrogant coming from anyone else. But it was just the truth. Sean hadn’t always been the loyal husband he was today. He’d had his share of casual hook ups and flings. But he always treated women well, even the ones he didn’t love, which was all of them until Baby. He was also quiet and reserved, whereas my boyfriends were usually loud and obnoxious. Sean had never even tried hard drugs and he rarely drank to excess. My boyfriends tended to be pretty serious addicts of one kind or the other. Finally, Sean was as emotionally stable as they came, until someone tried to fuck with someone he loved, that is. My men were always a hot mess in that department.
    “I guess I can’t deny that they are the opposite of you. But, Sean, my taste in men has nothing to do with you, or Dad, for that matter. It’s not your fault.”
    He looked at me with naked concern. He really blamed himself for this, didn’t he?
    “Okay, I’ll tell you the truth. Here’s my real ‘Sean problem.’ When we were growing up, I always wanted your attention. So I got it by being a pain in your ass. I bugged you until you noticed me. And even though that attention was negative, I still craved it.”
    All that had changed when I was a teenager. Sean and I had become very close. We hadn’t really ever fought since. I might get annoyed with him for being overprotective, but Sean absolutely doted on me.
    “Then, later,” I said, referring to what we both knew, but didn’t need to be said aloud. “I got your attention in a positive way. And I loved it, Sean. I loved having your attention. I still do,” I admitted. “My ‘Sean problem’ has always been jealousy.”
    “Jealousy?”
    “Yeah, until you were sixteen you were just a tall, lanky, music-obsessed geek. Then all of a sudden you filled out, joined a garage band, and the girls came out of the woodwork. You stopped paying attention to me. You paid attention to them, instead. I was jealous. The girls were always an annoyance to me. I hated that they were trying to get you to look at them and ignore me. I felt that way about all of them, until Baby. If Baby and you and me are sitting at a table having a conversation, I’m there, and you’re there. It’s like, she doesn’t try to compete with me for your attention. But the other girls, they all do it. Even the damn fans, they want you to give them one hundred percent of your focus. They don’t care that I’m sitting right here, needing your attention, too.”
    Sean stared at me, as if he were having a revelation.
    “I know Baby feels the same way,” I pointed out.
    “But you always have my attention, and so does she.”
    “We know, but they are trying to steal it. It might not make sense, but,” I shrugged, “that’s just the way it is.”
    “Wow. What am I supposed to do about that?”
    “There isn’t anything you can do. It’s not your fault.”
    As if our conversation had conjured her up, the waitress, who earlier had been making serious eyes at Sean, approached the table with our plates.
    After setting them down, she turned to him. “Can I get you anything else, Mr. Rush?” She asked just him, as if I wasn’t there.
    There were three ways women usually treated Sean. Some were terrified of him. Others wanted him, but knew he was taken, so they just looked at him with sad longing. Then there were the girls who wanted him and didn’t care that he was taken. He was a piece of delicious meat to them, and they would do whatever it took to get a bite. The waitress fell into the latter category.
    “I could get you more drinks?” She moved her body closer to him, so that her legs were almost touching his arm.
    Sean looked at her, then at me, and back to her again. “This is my sister,” he said, gesturing to me. “She’s in theater.”
    Without ever looking my way, her eyes got wide. “Wow, that’s amazing.”
    “Yeah, she’s been in eleven off-Broadway plays and three Broadway shows. She’s very