“If you’re worried that I’m going to abandon Drew,” she said, “don’t be. I don’t need a ring or a marriage proposal to keep me around. I love Drew. He’s the most important person in my life. I’d never turn my back on him.”
“What about me? Do you think I proposed marriage on a whim? I want you in my life, as well. This last month I realized just how important you are to me.”
With a strong tug, Bella freed her wrist and pressed the ring into Blake’s palm, closing his fingers around it. “I couldn’t be happy knowing I was standing in the way of you finding someone you love and making a life with her.”
Then, with her sight blurred by tears, Bella raced upstairs, leaving behind the two men she loved most in the world.
*
Blake stared after Bella until a crash sounded behind him. Drew’s wail erupted a second later. He’d jostled an end table and caused a picture frame to fall. Blake scooped him off the floor and saw that he wasn’t hurt, just startled.
With his son riding his shoulders, Blake strode upstairs. His conversation with Bella had been a disaster, but Blake wasn’t ready to just let all his plans fall apart. Her bedroom door was closed, signaling she wasn’t in the mood to talk. He considered knocking for a brief moment before Drew began to yawn. His son needed a diaper change and a nap. There would be time to approach Bella after Drew was asleep.
But by the time Drew was settled, Bella was in the midst of packing.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Blake demanded, unsettled by this new development.
“I need some time to think. So I thought I’d go home for a few days.”
“I’ll make arrangements for you to fly back to New York. Will four days be enough time? We’re supposed to attend the Weavers’ anniversary party.”
“I’m not going to New York. I’m heading back to Iowa.”
She’d told him she was returning home after Drew’s birth and then she ended up staying in New York. This time he believed she was going to Iowa. He was less confident she would be coming back.
“What’s a few days?”
“Five. Maybe a week.”
Was he on the brink of losing her all over again? “Drew will miss you if you’re gone too long.”
“I know. But he has you. And Jeanne and Mrs. Farnes.”
“That’s not the same as having his mother.”
“I’m not leaving forever, Blake. It’s just a week.”
“Why don’t you stay here and think. If it’s space you need, I can return to New York. I’ll take Drew with me if you’d like.”
She shook her head. “I can’t let you leave your home. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
He’d met this same wall of stubborn determination after Drew was born, when she’d refused contact with him. The familiarity of the situation put him on edge.
“You’ll call me?”
“Of course.” She zipped up her suitcase and slipped her purse over her shoulder. “Now I really need to get going. There’s a bus heading back to New York in an hour.”
“I’ll drive you into town.”
“No need. I’ve ordered a taxi.”
Suddenly Blake couldn’t bear to let her go. “Stay.”
“I can’t. Not right now.”
He stepped into her path and cupped her face in his hands, holding her steady while his lips dipped to hers. He kissed her as if she was the only woman for him and she responded in kind, but in the end, she was still holding on to the handle of her suitcase, and the way she averted her gaze said she was still determined to make her bus.
“Come back to us,” Blake told her.
“I will.” But her expression was sad rather than reassuring. “Goodbye, Blake. Give Drew a kiss for me. Tell him…” A gentle smile flitted across her lips. “Elephant shoes.”
A heartbeat later she was gone.
And Blake was left feeling that this time it was no one’s fault but his that the most important woman in his life was walking away.
*
When Bella entered the apartment she shared with Deidre, her roommate was waiting. Bella had called from the bus, saying she was coming home, but didn’t get into detail about what happened.
“Are you okay?” Deidre opened her arms and swallowed Bella in a tight embrace.
It was hard to maintain an unflappable demeanor with so much sympathy and understanding pouring down on her. The emotional outburst she’d kept locked inside the entire afternoon burst free. Sobs wrenched at her. All the disappointment and hurt at finding out that Blake didn’t love her tore her apart until Bella was certain she’d never feel whole again.