“Surely there were some good things—” Kate began.
But Max stopped her by laying his hand on her forearm. “Why don’t you go up to the house and have Mom plan dinner for all of us tonight. We’ll go home and get Clayton and Trisha. Then we can all have a nice, quiet dinner.”
Kate glanced at Chance then back at Max. “Yes. That sounds like a good idea. Some family time.”
When Kate was gone, Chance turned his head to the right and peered over at Max. “I’m not going to pour my heart out to you.”
“I don’t want you to pour your heart out. I just want you to listen. You might remind her of the worst days of her life, but there was something between you.”
He snorted a laugh. “Right.”
“You can’t let that go.”
“I also can’t put her through any more than she’s already been through.”
“Chance, she’s hurting now and she needs you. I let Kate go when she needed me the most and we lost eight years of our lives together. She went through a pregnancy alone, raised Trisha alone for eight years. You don’t want to desert the woman you love when she needs you.”
Chance shook his head. “When Kate needed you, she belonged to you. In some ways Tory still belongs to Jason. She might love me. She might need me. But I pushed her when she least needed to be pushed. I think that’s why she ran away. So I won’t do it again. I won’t go after her. She has to come back to me.”
* * *
Tory stayed in her room for the next two days. She didn’t eat. She didn’t sleep. On the third day, her mom came in with a breakfast tray and swished open the drapes covering the only window.
“Time to get up.”
Tory groaned. “I’ve been up.”
“I know. You’ve been up all night, sitting in the dark. It’s time for that to be over.”
“Not really. Not yet.”
Samantha turned from the window. “I’m sorry, dear, but if you’re taking classes in the spring, you have to enroll now.”
She pulled the covers over her head. “I’m not ready.”
“You have to be ready. Two weeks from now, when it’s too late to enroll you’ll be sorry.”
She licked her lips. “I suppose.”
“You might also want to call your boss.”
Her gaze snapped up. “Chance?”
“Yes. You’ll need money for classes. You have to work.”
She swallowed. “Actually, I’ve saved enough to cover the first two semesters.”
Her mom turned from the window. “So you’re not going back to work?”
Her heart twisted. She could be with the twins right now. Happy.
She swallowed. She didn’t want to be happy. It wasn’t right to be happy. It wasn’t right to go back to Chance’s house and Chance’s babies and Chance’s arms, when Jason had just died.
Remembering how she’d been with him, how they’d kissed, how she’d longed to be able to love him, shame burned through her. She’d had five short months from the day she’d met Chance until her fiancé had died. She couldn’t be patient for five short months?
“So, eat the eggs and toast I brought then get a shower and fix your hair and we’ll take a ride over to the community college.”
Tory looked at the tray of eggs and toast and her stomach flip-flopped. She thought of Valentine’s Day. Chance making her breakfast in bed, pretending the kids had made it. Then Jason’s parents arriving, telling her he’d had a stroke.
Her heart broke. “I don’t think I need to eat.”
“Please. Could you eat for me?”
She’d said the same thing to Sam the morning he was sick. Tears filled her eyes. She’d never see Jason again. She’d never see her babies again. She’d didn’t want to see Chance again. Because somehow they’d all twisted together. And every time she thought of Chance, she thought of betraying Jason. And every time she thought of betraying Jason, she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. All she could do was feel the horrible anvil of pain sitting on her chest.
“I’ll eat this if you do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
“Call Gwen and tell her that I’ve quit. Tell her that Chance needs to hire another nanny.”
“Oh, Tory. You should tell him in person.”
“Really? I just lost Jason. I’m exhausted. I have to figure out the rest of my life. Can’t I just once slide on something by having you call Gwen and settle this for me?”