“My mother called today. It wasn’t a good conversation and she just assumed I’d go back to Rhode Island. And then your mom assumed I wanted to be introduced as your girlfriend and it all just threw me off. I won’t let anybody make decisions for me, and I won’t let anybody push me into making decisions.”
“I haven’t pushed you. I’ve waited. I’ve hoped.” He took a deep breath. “Every day I fall more in love with you. Every day it gets harder to imagine my life without you.”
She looked as gutted as he felt, but she didn’t say anything. And in that moment of silence, his cell phone rang. He wanted to ignore it—just this once—but he couldn’t. And when he glanced over and saw Matt unclipping his cell phone from its holster, Ben knew it would be bad.
One glance at the screen confirmed it. “Dammit. I have to go.”
“Ben, you can’t leave like this. We need to talk—”
“No, Ineedto go do my job because somebody’s life might depend on it. You should go home when you’re ready. Don’t wait for me.”
He turned without giving her a chance to say more—or giving himself time to look into her eyes and see if the emotion in her voice was reflected there. After waving a goodbye to his parents as he jogged across the street to his SUV—which was parked, like Matt’s truck, in such a way it couldn’t be blocked in—he tried to put Laney out of his mind. He needed to focus.
But as he hit the lights and sirens and pulled away from the curb, he caught a glimpse of Laney, still standing where he’d left her.
