Page 72 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

She lifted her head.

He looked wary for half a second, and she laughed. “Yes, Blane. I’m sure. Although now you’re overdoing it.”

“Just checking.”

“I know.”

She settled against him again. That was the trouble—she really did know. She understood what he was doing, and there was no edge hidden beneath it. No unspoken suggestion that there was a correct answer she ought to give.

“I liked that you asked me.”

His hand stopped on her arm.

“Before,” she added.

“You sure?”

She pinched his side.

The quiet chuckle beneath her cheek made her smile, but after a moment she grew serious again. “I mean it. It probably sounds ridiculous.”

“Doesn’t.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”

“Doesn’t usually stop you saying it.”

She propped herself up to glare at him.

His face remained perfectly straight.

“You are dreadful.”

“You might have mentioned that already. But I still get the impression that dreadful is better than what you’re used to.”

She lay back down, but the thought remained. “Simon wasn’t a bad man.”

Blane said nothing, and that made it easier. She stared across the room toward the dark rectangle of the balcony doors.

“He wasn’t cruel. He didn’t bully me. He never…” She frowned, trying to find words that had eluded her for years. “I can’t tell people I wasn’t happy; I always feel as though I should be able to point to something. Some awful thing he did. But there isn’t one.”

Blane’s hand resumed its slow movement over her arm.

“He was reasonable,” she said.

“Reasonable?”

“Yes. Very.” She gave a small laugh. “Infuriatingly so, now I look back. There was always a perfectly sensible reason why his idea made more sense. Why we should go where he wanted to go, buy what he wanted to buy, do things the way he thought they should be done.”

“And you went along with it.”

She stiffened slightly. Not because he’d said anything wrong but because the truth of it landed harder than she expected. “Yes.”

Blane’s arm tightened around her. “I’m not blaming you, Bea.”

“I know.”

“You looked like you thought I was.”