“You and Eric agreed on that, huh?”
“Yes.”
“Look in my eyes and tell me that, Natalie,” he said, a hard edge to his quiet voice.
She inhaled, willing the pain in her chest and throat to ease. She looked into his eyes.
“It was a mistake, Liam. All of it.”
For a few seconds, he just studied her. A pressure in her grew, a wild need to fly into his arms and take it all back. It swelled in her chest when he turned and headed toward the front door.
She stood motionless for a full two minutes after he’d left, waiting for the pain to diminish. It eventually grew into a dull ache that felt like a cold, hard stone pressing against her heart.
Several days passed, and Natalie did the things she always did—she went to work, she went to a dance class, she had dinner with her brother, Eric, one night. She felt like a robot, though. Empty. Lonely.
Once, she’d given in to a shameful melancholy and gone to Liam’s empty cottage. She’d sat on the terrace, where they’d spent so many happy hours together, and she’d cried like the foolish child she’d been just one month before.
She’d once told Liam that he was worried she’d asked him to open Pandora’s box. That’s precisely what had happened. Surely on his solitary journey to Germany, Liam would realize that. He would see the truth of what she’d said when she’d broken up with him. The circumstances of their investigation had not only thrown them together repeatedly, but had created a unique, emotionally charged atmosphere; one in which he might mistake his sympathy for the victim of his father’s crime for feelings of desire and caring.
Now that Natalie was alone and had time to reflect, she could find no other good explanation for what had occurred between her and Liam.
Not on his part, anyway. For her part, it was simple. She’d fallen hopelessly, completely in love.
Eric had been right about another thing. Liam Kavanaugh could get practically any woman he wanted on the planet. He was bound to eventually break her heart. Perhaps it was best for that wound to come sooner versus later, so that she could begin healing.
Both Liam and she needed to start the process of healing.
On the fourth night after Liam had left Harbor Town, Natalie woke in a sweat. Summerlike weather had returned with a vengeance. The last few days had been hot and muggy. She considered getting up and turning on the air-conditioning, but instead rose and opened her bureau for clothes.
She threw on some shorts and a tank top and hurriedly brushed her hair, leaving it down. The moon shone especially bright on Travertine Road as she drove. She parked her car in the empty public parking lot.
She finally caught the cool lake breeze she sought as she walked onto White Sands, barefoot. For a full half hour, she sat on the desolate beach and listened to the waves rolling in, regular and steady as her breath. After a while, she couldn’t bear the stillness a moment longer.
She stood, and let her anguish move her.
It wasn’t uncommon for her to dance on White Sands when she was troubled. Tonight her emotions compelled her to new heights. She spun with longing; she leaped higher because she craved so much; her feet were compelled by the knowledge of love and desire, and by the fear that she might never know it again.
And when she stopped moving, she saw the object of her desire standing on the beach, watching her. She froze in her posture, sure for a moment he was an illusion conjured from her longing and moonlight. He stepped toward her and suddenly he was a solid man…even more wondrous than the fantasy of him.
She took one hesitant step toward him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked Liam.
“I went to your place the second I got back from the airport. Then I looked around town for you, and finally saw your car here, in the parking lot.”
Hi
s low voice sounded wonderful to her ears, if a little surreal. She’d longed to hear it so many times in the past few days.
“I thought a lot about what you said…about it being a mistake for us to have gotten together. I had plenty of time to think while I was on that plane for all those hours.”
“Oh?” Natalie asked shakily. She saw him nod.
“At first, I was just mad as hell. Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, I started to think a little more rationally. By the time I stewed over things on the return trip, I came to a few conclusions. You had your say the other day. How about if you give me a chance to say my piece now?”
“I suppose that’s only fair,” Natalie murmured as her heart started to pound loudly in her ears.
“Do you remember early on, when you told me I shouldn’t assume I was going to learn something that would make me love my father less? That I might learn something to make me love him more?”