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She hugged both her parents before going to her old room. It wasn’t until she was alone that she realized how kind they were being about Jarod. She’d been in so much pain, she was shocked to discover they could talk about him instead of closing up like they usually did.
If they’d been like this when she’d first brought him home…
No. It wouldn’t have made any difference.
The fault for their breakup lay strictly at Sydney’s feet.
Jarod hadn’t let her parents’ rigid attitude daunt him. In f
act he’d urged her to give them time to come around. He had more faith and trust in people than anyone else she knew. Those were two of his special gifts.
Would that they could have been hers… Then she’d be with him tonight. They’d be married.
Gut-wrenching pain incapacitated her. When her father walked in with her suitcase, she was lying on top of the bed sobbing.
“Go ahead and cry, honey. Get it all out. It’ll make you feel better. God gave us tears for a reason.”
How many times had she heard that since she was a little girl? The tears had always seemed to work because she always did feel a little better after.
But not this time…
She was a grown woman acting like a child. It was time she grew up.
“Dad?” She slid off the bed. “It’s really good to be home, but I’m going back to Gardiner in the morning. I’ve made a mess of everything so far, but it isn’t fair to my students to leave them for a week because I can’t handle my personal life.”
Her father nodded. “When we’re down, work’s a wonderful panacea for what’s ailing us. In time, things will get better.”
They have to.
“I’ll tell your mother.”
Due to a delay in flight connections, Sydney didn’t return to Gardiner until late afternoon the next day under an overcast sky. On the way to the apartment she picked up a few groceries before pulling into her stall.
A cold wind had sprung up. It disheveled her hair. There was going to be a storm. She shivered and hugged the sack next to her chest as she hurried inside the apartment with her suitcase.
But no sooner had she shut the door than she heard a knock. Assuming it was a neighbor, she set her things down in the foyer and turned to open it again.
A tall, superbly fit male dressed in jeans that molded his powerful thighs filled the aperture. His vibrant black hair brushed the collar of his blue denim shirt.
No.
It couldn’t be.
It just couldn’t be.
“Jarod?”
The wonder, the joy in her voice was something he would treasure for the rest of his days.
While he’d been waiting for her to react, he was afraid too much damage had been done. If she rejected him now, he didn’t know how he was going to go on living.
But he didn’t have to worry because in the next breath he was met by a golden-haired force that hurtled through space toward him. She would have sent him sprawling if he’d been a smaller man.
“I don’t believe you’re here—I thought you were in Europe and I’d never see you again—” she half sobbed her joy.
“I couldn’t leave you,” he confessed. “I’ve been in Ennis at a motel, licking my wounds, but I couldn’t stay away any longer.”
“Jarod, darling—”
