Was her father visiting?
When the driver got out and slapped the door shut, the daisy tumbled from my fingers.
In spite of the sunset burning behind the man, darkening his body, there was no mistaking my visitor.
I supposed I would recognize August in the darkest of nights, his shape as familiar to me as my own.
He eyed me a long moment before opening the backseat of his new car and lifting a duffel bag. “You can run, but you can’t hide, Ness Clark. Not from me,” he said, his back still to me.
Words stuck in my throat as he turned. I wanted to ask him how he’d found me, but did it matter? I dropped my gaze to the bag clutched in his fingers, then looked at the road, wondering if my friend’s car was about to make an appearance.
“Sarah will be back in the morning,” he said, reading my thoughts. “Unless you were looking at that road to assess how fast you could get away.”
I snapped my attention back to him.
“We need to talk, so don’t run. I will chase you, but I’d rather not have to do it after the last three days I’ve had.”
As he drew the door of the house open, I finally found my voice, “You said that if I broke your heart again, you’d stay away from me.”
He paused on the threshold. “Apparently, I can’t.”
I winced when the door banged shut behind him.
I didn’t go inside right away.
I let him settle.
I let his anger settle.
Even though nothing tied me to him, I could sense his irritability seeping through the grayed plank walls of the cabin.
Pulling down the sleeves of my red silk bomber jacket, I waited for the sun to dip completely and lacquer the woods in darkness before heading inside. The air held a chill that made goose bumps spring across my skin. Granted I was only wearing a bikini under the jacket, having spent most of my afternoon drifting around the infinity pool on an inflatable pizza slice, trying to make sense of my life, of what I wanted to do with it now that I had it back.
A single lightbulb burned in the loft-style living area-the copper pendant over the granite dining table. August was bent in front of the fireplace, coaxing a fire to life. He didn’t acknowledge me when I came in. Didn’t glance over his shoulder as I took a seat on the couch behind him.
He poked the blackening logs. “When you disappeared with Sarah, I told myself you’d left because I couldn’t give you what you needed, but then, when no one would tell me where you’d gone, I realized you’d left to get away from me.” He finally straightened and turned around. “What did I do to make you run?”
“You didn’t do anything.” Slipping my hands between my knees, I tucked my chin into my neck, hoping the barrage of hair blocked the sight of me. “I left so you could get your life back.”
“My life back?” His voice was so shrill it made me look up.
“You don’t need to take care of me, okay? Nothing binds us anymore.”
His green eyes flared.
“Ingrid-”
“I don’t want Ingrid, Ness!”
I recoiled from the harshness of his voice.
“I’m sorry.” He spoke quietly this time.
Heat snaked under my lids, blurred the crackling fire.
He came to stand right in front of me. “Thank you for giving me a choice. I didn’t realize that was your intention.”
I swallowed. He crouched so his face was level with mine and stole my clammy hands from between my knees, cocooning them in his warm ones. “But, Dimples, I don’t want anyone else. I want you. Just you.”
My chest stumbled with sobs. “You say this now, but in a couple years”-my voice broke-“when I still can’t fill a cup or drive a car-”
“I’ll just say it again.”
I bit my wobbly lip.
“Besides, I have no doubt in my mind that you’re going to be back behind the wheel of a car soon.”
“You don’t know that,” I murmured.
“I do.” He hunted my face with his emerald eyes. “You’re much too willful to give up hope, or your independence, for that matter.” He raised one of his hands to my face to push back my long blonde strands.
I let him look his fill. Maybe if he looked long enough, he’d realize he didn’t want to wake up to this face.
When he leaned over and kissed my spoiled cheek, my wet lashes swept down, stayed down. A part of me still didn’t understand how he could stand the texture of my scars, much less the sight of them.
“I’m not sure what I have to do to convince you that I can’t live without you, Ness.” His words pulsed against the tip of my nose. “Bringing you back from the dead would’ve been enough for most girls.”
My lips twitched. I opened my eyes to find his agonizingly gentle ones set on mine.
“Is it because I can’t give you any daughters? Is that why you’re pushing me away?”
A chuckle burst through my trembling lips. “I love boys too, you know.”
He smiled, but then he grew so serious that my laughter wilted. He unfurled his long body, tugging me up in the process. “Will you come home with me? Not tonight. But tomorrow? Or the day after?”
Pressing my lips together to stop their shaking, I nodded.
“Good. Because I have this piece of land.”
“By a lake?”
“That’s the one. And the only thing standing on it right now is a palm tree.”
My head jerked back a little. “You planted a palm tree?”
“Had to have something to build our house around.”
Our house? Had this man ever envisioned his life without me?