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BOOK 5 PART TWO
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Being Yours BOOK 5 PART TWO
As the hotel, Lynne flew from the station wagon through the mercifully empty reception area, and up the stairs to her second floor room. As she’d driven, she’d been fully aware of the headlights sweeping along behind her, headlights that had caught up with her less than a minute after she had left Cliff's cabin. She locked the door and leaned against it, steeling herself for the knock she was sure would come. After long minutes, when there had been no footsteps in the hall, no hammering on the door, she tiptoed to the window and pulled an inch of drapes aside, peering down into the parking lot. His car was there, pulled in beside hers. Cliff stood, leaning against the hood, as if too tired to do anything else. Presently, he lifted his head, looked right at her window, stood erect and headed for the front doors. She dashed across the room to her door then froze, waiting, her body quivering, for his knock on the door. She didn’t know how long she stood there, the silence profound exce
Being Yours BOOK 5 PART TWO
Jumping to her feet, Lynne would have strode away, but his hand lashed out and caught her by the wrist, swinging her back to face him. ‘Give me a chance,’ he said quickly. ‘I didn’t finish explaining what I thought about last night before I decided to come here. No, not to live in your house, but to stay nearby for a while, to visit casually as any other man interested in you might, get to know your children in a relaxed, unceremonious way. I wondered if it might be possible for me to learn to love him — them ~ after all, the way you’d want any — uh — suitor of yours to do.’ ‘I don’t have suitors!’ He looked at her as if he longed to believe that, but couldn’t. Not quite. ‘Lynne — why did you take your brother’s child to raise?’ ‘Why? What kind of question is that? Because I love her.’ ‘If you hadn’t? Say, if your brother had lived far away and you’d never met his daughter, never developed an affection for her. Would you then, upon his death, have left her to the care of strangers
Being Yours BOOK 5 PART TWO
‘Oh, Cliff. Surely, then, she wanted to know why you needed to know that?’ He shook his head. ‘I guess it didn’t matter to her. She was more concerned that Logan might come home and find me there. I could see how edgy she was. She kept looking past me to the street. My mother has always hated any kind of unpleasantness, and if Logan had come home while I was there, there’d have certainly been some of that. When he kicked me out, he said it was for good, and he meant it. My mother told me she didn’t remember if I’d even had mumps, let alone a bad case, and if that was all, would I excuse her because she had a lot to do. Darren was bringing his fiancée home for dinner. ‘She claimed Frieda was a wonderful young lady from an excellent family. Very well-to-do. Like Darren, she was in pre-law. Her face glowed when she talked about them, so I congratulated her, thanked her for the information and left.’ He shrugged again, gave Lynne a crooked smile that didn’t wipe away the bleakness in h
Being Yours BOOK 5 PART TWO
Lynne laughed derisively. It was the only way to keep from weeping. ‘I don’t think that was the only reason, Cliff, nor even the prime one. You wouldn’t hurt a baby. You couldn’t. But you left because your own hurt grew too big for you to bear. You left to protect yourself.’ She watched him swallow. ‘All right. Maybe that’s so. At least in part. But I knew I was hurting you by not being able to warm to him. I could only see it getting worse. I didn’t want to put him through what I went through as he grew older and could sense my ... resentment, or put you through what Logan made my mother suffer. It was because of me that they had a lousy marriage.’ ‘I doubt that. If they’d had a good marriage, they'd have found a way to get around Logan’s feelings toward you.’ ‘You sound so sure.’ ‘I am.’ She gazed at him questioningly for a moment. ‘Was he very cruel to you? Logan, I mean? Did he beat you?’ He came back to her and took her hand, lowering them both to the garden bench, his face
Being Yours BOOK 5 PART TWO
‘Nobody ever mentions little Michael’s father,’ Bella said into the thick silence that followed Lynne’s departure. ‘We think he must be dead.’ ‘I’m sorry,’ Cliff said, then looked at Louisa. ‘Truly sorry.’ ‘Not me you should apologize to,’ she growled, but when he began to rise, to offer his apology where he knew it was needed, she barked at him: to sit back down and eat. ‘Leave the girl alone. You’ve done enough damage for one night.’ He shoved his food around his plate until Louisa took it from him and replaced it with a slice of lemon meringue pie that quivered from the force of her slamming it before him. He took a bite. It tasted like glue in his mouth. He ate half of it before setting it aside and drinking the coffee the housekeeper poured. Then, with the other tenants busy doing whatever old ladies did in the evening, he took himself away from the scene of his stupidity, and walked for hours re-exploring the neighborhood he had once explored with Lynne at his side. As he s
Being Yours BOOK 5 PART TWO
Still, he felt he had to say, ‘I wouldn’t do either, of course. I’m not a violent man. At least, I don’t think I am.’ Though there was a time when he had been to protect himself when need be, and he knew if he had to he could kill to protect Lynne. There had also been that time he’d hit Logan to protect his mother’s honor. But he hadn’t been a man then. He’d been a boy, hot-headed and impetuous. ‘I don’t think you are either,’ Louisa said, getting up and going to fetch the coffee pot, filling both their cups again. ‘And I think what you said tonight did you as much damage as it did Lynne. Or, at least, her reaction to what you said.’ She gave him a penetrating look. ‘You’ve been hurt a lot during your lifetime. And you don’t like hurting others, probably because of that.’ He stared at her. ‘Do I have it written in red across my forehead or something? I was an emotionally battered child?’ Louisa laughed comfortably. ‘Didn’t Lynne tell you? I’m a witch.’ “No. She just said that you
Being Yours BOOK 5 PART TWO
Lynne swallowed the last bite of her pie — or possibly Cliff’s, since she’d eaten both pieces — and leaned back on the sofa, her stomach full, her eyes heavy with sleep. She knew she should get up and go to bed, but it was too nice, sitting here with Cliff close beside her. She breathed in the scent of his skin, felt the warmth of his body beside hers, looked far into the depths of his eyes and loved him, yearned for a lifetime of having him at her side. In only a few hours the kids would both be awake again. Her busy day would begin and there would . be no time for. . . them. And she knew they needed time, time to talk, to get to know one another properly. Time for her and Cliff. Would the month she had promised him be enough? Would a lifetime? Lynne gave Cliff a sleepy smile and said, “This is going to sound kind of dumb, coming from someone you’ve been married to for a couple of years, but how did you get from construction to accounting, and how come I never asked that kind of
Being Yours BOOK 5 PART TWO
‘You made me happy, Lynne. You made me laugh and enjoy life, despite all the tension I was under. I’d probably have been in a lot worse shape without you than with you.’ Especially if you hadn’t been pregnant, he didn’t say. ‘With Julia, the happiness was short-lived. I never felt I measured up to her expectations. Which, of course, was the case. She -’ Realizing Lynne hadn’t made a sound for several minutes, he asked, ‘Does it bother you, my talking about my marriage to her?’ Her only reply was a soft sigh, and he smiled, looked down and wondered how long she’d been asleep. He cradled her closer, and held her for another fifteen minutes, before sliding one hand under her knees and coming carefully to his feet, still holding her. ‘My bed or yours?’ he whispered, looking into her sleeping face. He knew whose bed he wanted to put her into, but knew just as well that if he did it, it might be the last time. It might ruin any chance he had of making headway with Lynne. Reluctantly, he
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