Hurt touched Imogen and she gritted her teeth, unable to help wondering what it must feel like to have Joe—correction, to have any man—think she was his world.
‘I feel so awful that I broke his heart like that … And when he looked at me today I saw all that love as though it had never gone away … could be rekindled in a trice …’
The leaden realisation that she had been right plummeted in Imogen’s tummy. Joe did still love Leila—she had been right on the money.
Wait. The word lit up her brain in neon and her gut screamed at her to listen to it as her brain replayed his words. ‘I have too much respect for you to treat you as a pawn. I am at this wedding for all the reasons I told you.’
She replayed their conversation over pizza in the Langley boardroom. His voice as he told her the truth about his past: the tragedy and its outcome. The guilt over Leila; his need to make amends.
Finding her voice, she met Leila’s emerald-green eyes, tried to read her expression. ‘Do you want to rekindle Joe’s love? Do you still love him?’
‘No. Not at all. Howie is the man for me. But now I know for sure Joe still has feelings for me I wanted to talk to you, so we can come up with a strategy to help him get over me.’
The hell with this. There was every possibility that she’d regret this, but somehow it wasn’t possible for Imogen to believe that Joe had lied to her. Ruthlessness was one thing; dishonesty was another. Steve had lied to her. Joe hadn’t. Not once.
‘I think he has got over you.’
The words were liberating and oh, so right.
Green eyes blinked at her in sheer incomprehension. ‘Darling, I know you want to believe that, but it’s simply not true. I saw the look in his eyes when he saw me. I—’
‘So did I. Joe told me he’s over you and I believe him.’
‘Then why hasn’t he had a r
elationship since me?’
‘Because he’s spent the last seven years bringing up his sisters. You know that.’
‘Don’t I just? Those twins are devil children. I never understood how he could pick them over me. Without the twins maybe I could have stuck it out. Though I don’t know … I remember the first time he dressed up in a suit to go and sort out his dad’s company. He didn’t look like my Joe any more. He’d changed so much. No more surfing—just dull, dull, dull business stuff. No more photo shoots, no more magazine articles, no more parties and travel … Joe could have been a surfing champion—famous, rich, having a life of freedom and fun. With me. He knew that was what I wanted, but he couldn’t see sense.’
Surfing again. So it was true. Only Joe had been more than a ‘surfing dude’—he’d been a champion, with a glittering career ahead of him. Her heart rended at the image of corporate, suited and booted Joe riding the waves, free and laid-back and happy, before tragedy struck.
‘He chose the twins over me. And when I told him I couldn’t marry him he heaped abuse on my head. I know it was because he was driven to distraction by my refusal and his love for me, but it hurt, Imogen. So much.’
For a few seconds Imogen could only open and close her mouth as sheer disbelief silenced her vocal cords. Joe had given up so much and then achieved so much, without complaint, regret or martyrdom. And this idiot couldn’t see any of that. Could only see how the world revolved around her.
Drawing breath, Imogen tried to do as Joe had asked. ‘Joe does feel terrible about how he treated you. He did actually write you a letter, apologising and …’
‘Hah! I got that letter …’
Imogen stilled, a layer of anger laving the inside of her tummy. ‘You got that letter? Why didn’t you contact Joe?’
‘What was the point?’ Leila shook her head. ‘His letter was full of the twins and how he’d won custody. It was too late for him to change his mind. Otherwise I’d have given him a second chance. If he’d seen reason it may not have been too late for us to recapture our love and—’
‘Rubbish. You didn’t love Joe. You wanted to hang onto his board shorts and be carried to fame and fortune. And you didn’t care what happened to the twins as long as you got what you wanted.’
‘That’s not true. If he’d loved me he would have put me first. That’s what love is. I was trying to show him how to be happy.’
‘Joe asked you to marry him. Spend your life with him. If you loved him wouldn’t you have at least thought about it? Even if it was just to help him with the twins?’
Leila threw up her arms. ‘Those damned twins.’
‘They were people, Leila. Children—grieving children. How could Joe have lived with himself if he’d abandoned them?’
‘Hooey.’
‘Hooey?’