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“My offer to loan you some is as open as ever,” Jacob said.
The door clicked shut, but Forrest never turned from the window. A red coupe was pulling in the parking lot, and he certainly didn’t need to see the driver, or her yellow polka-dot dress, to know who was behind the wheel.
Not a single Nightingale had set foot on his property since he’d returned home. They’d visited the amusement park, Twyla in particular, but until they’d needed Slim, they hadn’t attempted to renew the friendship they’d shared all those years ago. He hadn’t expected it, not after all that had happened, and he’d known it would be up to him to make the first move.
Yet in the end he hadn’t made the first move, and now he knew why. If it had been Twyla that Galen had said all those things about, Forrest would have been back in town as soon as he’d been able to hobble. Actually, if it had been Twyla with him in his car that night, he’d have driven for the state line. Tried to get as far away as possible. But she’d been just been a kid. In truth, he’d broken things off with Norma Rose that night, told her he was leaving to attend Harvard. That had been another letdown. While recuperating at his aunt’s house he’d learned there was no money for Harvard, or any other college for that matter.
That was when Shirley had given him the deed to the Plantation and the several hundred acres where he’d built the hangar, but she’d told him that most of the actual money he’d inherited had gone to pay for his private schooling and college over the years. Shirley told him about numerous times his mother had come to her needing money for one thing or another, and she’d apologized for not overseeing his inheritance with more caution. His mother was her little sister, and despite everything, she’d felt responsible for her, up until that moment when Forrest’s injuries had broken the bond between his mother and aunt. He knew they hadn’t spoken in years. He’d used the last of his money for aviation school in Nebraska.
It was funny how the disparity between the money his family supposedly had and the amount the Nightingale family once hadn’t had played such a part in his life. Until he’d found himself with very limited funds, he hadn’t realized just how badly money could consume a person’s thinking.
Norma Rose had certainly wanted out of her life back then and had been furious with him for putting up a roadblock to her well-laid plans of a wealthy marriage.
His gaze went back to the red coupe. Twyla, on the other hand, had taken life as it came back then, and though he understood she now loved her life of influence as much as her sister, she still had her love of adventure. Nothing, not even the lack of money, had suppressed that in Twyla. He’d loved that about her back then, and still did.
He was a fool. He should never have taken her flying, never should have danced with her. Never should have kissed her.
The knock on his office door was no surprise, since he’d watched her walk all the way to the front door less than a minute ago. He turned around and leaned against the windowsill as the door opened and Twyla walked in. She was still wearing her yellow polka-dot dress. Still wearing her yellow scarf tied around her neck. Still the most beautiful women he’d ever laid eyes upon.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” she said saucily, kicking the door shut with one perfectly placed heel.
“I’m not running or hiding,” Forrest responded, although internally he knew he was doing a little of both, and had been for some time.
“Why didn’t you tell me Galen was being paroled?”
He shrugged, watching as she crossed the room. Just like he’d done earlier, she paused near his desk to flick the propeller of his model plane. “It’s none of your business,” he said.
“None of my business?” she repeated as a question. “We’re friends, Forrest, almost family.”
“We are not almost family.”
A slight frown tugged at her finely shaped brows. “We could have been,” she said. “If you’d married Norma Rose.”
“I would never have married Norma Rose,” he said, moving from the window to sit down on the long couch that sat against one wall. “I’d never have married anyone from around here.”
She trailed one finger along his desk as she walked to the far corner of it before turning around to face him. “Why not?”
“Because it would have been like the prince marrying a commoner,” he said, purposely trying to sound snide. There were some secrets he’d never let out. He couldn’t if he wanted to make sure Twyla didn’t get caught up in all that was going on.
