He did, but he also knew that good looks could get a guy in as much trouble as they could get him favors. And his good looks hadn’t been enough to keep her. They’d been enough to tempt her, but not to keep her.
He took another cautious step into the room. He trusted himself not to fall at her feet, but just barely. He needed to come out of at least one exchange with her with his dignity.
“You’re not bad yourself. So you can’t be pointing fingers.”
She laughed, and his heart skipped a beat. He’d heard her laugh a hundred times, but never when it came to the two of them, to their attraction, to anything that might remotely link them.
He took another step. “You seem okay.”
“I am okay. Really okay.” Her eyes misted. “I’ve had a very, very difficult six years.”
He took another step into the room. “Those were more than difficult years. They were tragic. Some days I wondered how you survived.”
“Some days I did too.”
Her soft voice brought tears to his eyes. He’d always felt a tad sorry for himself, for his parentage, his dad’s lies, but standing only a few feet away from a person who’d really suffered, he knew he’d lived a blessed life.
“But you’re okay now.”
She smiled. “Yeah.” She sucked in a breath. “I’m taking classes at the community college.”
“It’s what you’d said you wanted.” She was moving on. Just as he knew she should. And though he should be glad, a part of him felt torn in two. He wished she’d say what she’d come here to say, so he could leave, brood again over her loss, and then maybe he could get on with his life.
He wouldn’t get his hopes up again.
* * *
Tory watched him walking into the room slowly, hesitantly and knew he hadn’t gotten over the hurt she’d inflicted when she left him.
So she said the words she’d come here to say. “I’m so sorry.”
He smiled. Relief filled her. Still, she hadn’t left her classes to clear her own conscience. She’d wanted to see him to make him feel better. “I mean it, Chance. You were nothing but good to me. You were the only person who really saw what I was going through.” She hesitated and caught his gaze. “I appreciate that.”
He looked away. “I think it might have been one of those misery loves company things.”
“Or maybe misery recognizes misery.”
He shrugged.
“Nobody even took the time to notice that I was on the edge. My parents wanted me to get a job. Jason’s parents wanted me at the personal care facility, as if my presence proved he was still alive.”
“I can understand both.”
“Yet, you were the one who didn’t push me.”
He laughed. “I gave you two babies to care for. And instead of hanging around to help, I went to Montgomery Development every day, even before Max nudged me into taking the job.”
“I didn’t care.” She waited until he glanced at her again before she said, “I loved the babies. I loved caring for them. They sort of made me feel alive again.”
He smiled and nodded.
She sucked in a breath. “You made me feel alive again too.”
“Alive enough to feel guilty.”
“It was a difficult situation.”
“Which is why I accept your apology and totally understand everything.”
She got the message. He wanted her to leave. Her mission accomplished, she would go. But first she memorized the pretty blue of his eyes, the slope of his cheeks, his defined chin. She never wanted to forget him.
Her heart stumbled in her chest. She didn’t want to forget him. She didn’t want to leave him. She didn’t want to lose him.
But from the serious set of his face, she knew she already had.
Still—
Her gaze locked with his, she twisted her hands, wondering what he’d say if she said, “I love you.”
His eyes flickered.
“I always have.” With her heart pounding in her chest, she couldn’t stop herself from going on. “I tried so hard to fight it. I tried so hard to tell myself that I was lonely and sad and that’s why you were so tempting. But I was only kidding myself. I genuinely love you. And you need to know that.”
He swallowed and took a step back.
Remorse rumbled through her, but she stopped it. All those months that he’d been so good to her, loving her with no reward, no recompense, earned him the right to know the truth even if he no longer loved her.