The warmest sensation built up inside and burst in her chest. “In about four months’ time.” She searched his face intently. “Devlin?”
“Yeah.”
“You left, and I was okay with you leaving my life?” Could it be that this fascinating man had only been a fling to her and she’d had no greater affection beyond sex?
She saw his hesitation. “What is it? Please tell me, Devlin.”
“We made love that night you came to me. I thought it meant we were back together. But apparently, you were only offering comfort and saying goodbye.”
Her hands trembled and she realized she was still holding her fork. She set it down with a sharp click. “I am so sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Ava. I was the one that gave up on you too soon.”
She frowned and shifted in the chair. “I don’t understand.”
“As you made your way to leave the lake that evening, I told you I was closing up the trailer house. That I would be leaving town on December thirteenth.”
A roaring sounded in her head and she felt lightheaded.
“I told you I would wait for you on the high rise at Cedar Bluff. And I would wait until five that afternoon. If I didn’t see you, I would know you had chosen to let go of what we had, and I wouldn’t pressure you anymore. I waited there until well past five. I finally drove off at about midnight, not knowing you lay hurt only a few miles away from me. If I had listened to my gut and ignored my pride, I would have come after you, begged you to come with me. I would have known the truth of the situation. Instead, I left.”
She had chosen him. She had loved him. Her throat closed in pain. For her to have made such a choice, she would have had to have informed her parents. They knew what she was doing at that side of town. Every time she drove out there, wondering where she had been going the day she crashed, her parents had always known. Ava was painfully aware that her parents viewed the missing chuck of her memory as a box best left sealed, but for them to lie to her when she had been so desperate for answers? That was just cruel and so hypocritical.
Devlin scraped back his chair and drew her into his arms. “Hey. Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry, baby. I was a fool. I should have turned back, I should have fought harder.”
She lifted her face blindly to his, wanting to taste him on her tongue. Wanting to bury the heartache she felt at her parents’ betrayal under pleasure. He took her lips in a scorching kiss. Seconds later he gentled his embrace, their kisses moving from passionate to soothing. With a soft sigh they broke apart.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
He rested his forehead against hers. “Any time.”
The loud blast of a ring tone cut through the silence and she jerked. Pulling from his arms she walked over to the counter to see her cell phone and car keys place neatly by the coffee pot. A quick glance at the screen revealed her mother’s number. Ava grabbed up the phone and answered, “Hi, Mom.”
“Ava, darling where are you? I thought we were to have breakfast with the garden club this morning?”
She shifted and leaned her hips against the counter. “I’m over at Willows’. I’ll be home this evening. Give them my apologies. Tell Mrs. Potter I’m sorry I missed it.”
Devlin stiffened and a shadow passed over his face. He walked from the room, granting her privacy, and her heart ache from the derisions she had just spied.
“You know I do not like you keeping company with that…girl.”
“Mom,” Ava said warily. They’d had this conversation so many times it was becoming draining. “I love Willow, just …please, not now okay?”
“She has tattoos,” her mother snapped primly.
“I have tattoos!”
Silence pulsed through the line and she could imagine the cold disapproval that would be on her mother’s face just now. “I have to go mom.?
?
“Are you okay?” Her mother’s tone was sharp and suspicious. “You don’t sound good. Let me come get you.”
“No, Mom I’m fine. I’ll be home soon. Love you.”
“Sure, honey, remember to concentrate on having a fresh—”
“I know, a fresh start. See you later mom.” Then she ended the call quickly. A fresh start. That was a well-used phrase her parents and doctor said, the implication being that her inability to recall the missing chuck of her life might well prove an unexpected blessing.