She visibly tensed, a shadow crossing her face. “No. I’m not.”
Disappointment crashed through him. Ever since they’d been named godparents of their friends’ baby, Quentin had been daydreaming about getting Lexi pregnant. He’d imagined her, lush and petite, waddling around with an adorably swollen belly. And he’d gone further, envisioning her in the kitchen with their daughter, a miniature version of herself, a smudge of flour on their noses as Lexi taught their child how to make one of her divine French dishes.
He would have given anything to walk through her front door and hear the wordswe’re going to have a baby.Talk about an unforgettable homecoming.
Reluctantly pushing the thought aside, he focused on the grim, tense woman before him. “What’s going on, Lex? Why didn’t you tell me you were selling the house?”
Something flickered in her eyes. Something that sent a dagger of fear through his heart. She dropped her gaze to her lap, where her hands were tightly clasped. “I was waiting for you to get back.”
“Okay.” His voice was remarkably even, considering the awful pressure that had clamped over his chest. “So what’s your game plan? You buying another house or…?” He deliberately let the question hang, waiting tautly.
An interminable silence followed.
Finally she lifted guilty eyes to his. “I’m leaving, Quentin.”
He felt the bottom drop out of him. Stunned, he stared at her. “Leaving what? Leaving this neighborhood? Leaving DeKalb County? Leaving your job? Leavingwhat?”
“Leaving Atlanta,” she whispered.
“The hell you are.” His voice was low, feral.
Tears shimmered in those beautiful eyes. “Quentin—”
“What the hell happened?”
She averted her gaze, delicate nostrils flaring as she choked back emotion. “It’s not important.”
His eyes widened incredulously. “Not important?You’re talking about leaving Atlanta—leaving me—and it’s not important?”
“Please don’t make this any harder—”
Quick as a shot he was off the sofa and kneeling in front of her, trapping her with his hands on either side of the chair. “What happened?” he growled. “Tell me!”
That broke her. The tears she’d been holding carefully in check spilled over, and she covered her face with trembling hands. Her anguish cut through Quentin like jagged shards of glass. He pried her resistant hands away and pulled her hard against him, wrapping her tightly in his arms. She buried her face in his chest and wept, releasing a torrent of raw emotions.
He groaned raggedly. “Sweetness, you’re killing me. You know what your crying’s always done to me.”
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed against him. “I didn’t want to tell you.”
He lifted her from the chair, then sat down and cradled her protectively against his chest. Brushing his lips across her forehead, he whispered soothingly to her, patiently waiting for the storm to subside, trying not to fear the worst.
When she grew silent, he tipped her chin up to peer into her dark, haunted eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong, sweetheart.”
She inhaled a deep, shuddering breath and blurted hoarsely, “My father came to see me.”
Quentin went rigid with shock. “What!When?”
And out came the harrowing story of the night she’d nearly died.
Quentin listened with a combination of shock, horror, sympathy and outrage. By the time she’d finished the devastating account, he was so visibly shaken that she laid a gentle hand over his galloping heart, as if to absorb his raging emotions back into her own body. Quentin would never lay a hand on a woman, let alone someone’s mother. But the savage fury he felt toward Carlene Austin made him glad that she was nowhere near him, lest he be tested. And as for that son of a bitch Ray Austin, all bets were off.
“I’m so sorry, Lex,” Quentin uttered fiercely as he palmed her face, brushing his lips over her damp cheeks and eyelids, kissing away her tears. “I’m so damn sorry you had to go through that.Allof it.”
“Me too,” she murmured. “But at least now I know why I’m so afraid of heights. Even though I was only two, I had repressed memories of the trauma.”
“God.”Quentin shuddered at the thought of existing in a world without her in it. Unthinkable.
They sat there for a long time, just holding each other and whispering tender reassurances.
