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“I’m not here to hurt you.”
“I doubt you meant to hurt me last time either.”
Her barb stuck deep. “But I did hurt you.”
It wasn’t really a question, but she answered anyway, her expression holding steady except for the slightest quiver of her lower lip. He hated that he’d caused the pain that lay behind that quiver.
“What do you think?”
That he’d been an idiot to leave this woman when she’d loved him with all her heart and had made him happier than he recalled being at any other time during his life.
“I loved you, Ross.” Her voice was loaded with emotion. “And I believed you felt the same about me, that we would be spending the rest of our lives together. Of course it hurt when you left.”
She’d loved him. His ribcage clamped down around his lungs at her heartfelt admission. He’d known she had, had heard her say the words in the past, but that had been in the past. He hadn’t heard those words from her lips in five long years. She’d thought they were going to spend the rest of their lives together? She’d been ready for that then? In the midst of whatever relationship crisis they’d been going through she’d thought wedding bells would fix everything?
“Is that why you went crazy with bridal magazines and talking about getting married all the time?” he mused.
Shock dawned into realization in her golden-brown gaze. “That’s why you left? Because I started talking about getting married and you had cold feet because you weren’t in love with me and didn’t want to marry me?”
“Regardless of how we felt about each other, we weren’t ready for marriage.”
“You never said you loved me,” she reminded him, her voice catching. “Not a single time during the two years we were together did you ever say you loved me.”
She had him there. He hadn’t ever told any woman that he loved her, not even Brielle.
“They’re just words. Saying labels out loud doesn’t make emotions any more or less true.”
But hadn’t his own chest just done funny things at hearing her say the words, even in past tense?
“True.” She turned to stare through the windshield, her face blank, withdrawn. When she next spoke, she sounded more defeated than he recalled ever hearing her. “The light’s green. It’s been a long day. I’m tired. Just drive me back to my car, please.”
He did as she asked, drove them back to the restaurant in silence. He pulled into the vacant spot next to the place she’d pointed out where she’d parked her car. Funny, he hadn’t even known what kind of vehicle she drove these days. When had she traded in the sporty little hatchback she’d driven for the efficient but nice four-door sedan?
He turned off the ignition, faced her, knowing he couldn’t let things end where they had. “For the record, I cared more about you than any woman I’ve ever been involved with, Brielle.”
She closed her eyes again, as if praying for patience or shielding her emotions. She toyed with the keys she’d taken out of her scrub top pocket. “That’s nice, but it wasn’t enough. Not then and not now. Have a nice life, Ross.”
CHAPTER FOUR
ALTHOUGH PHYSICALLY, mentally, and emotionally exhausted from her workday and her ordeal with Ross, Brielle smiled at the image that greeted her when she stepped into her living room.
Toy building blocks were everywhere. In the midst of all the colorful blocks the two most important men in her life concentrated diligently on their efforts.
Justice added a block-bottomed flag to what appeared to be a bridge connecting two towering structures. He leaned back to survey his work.
“What do you think, Uncle Vann?”
The lean six-foot cardiologist, who was too serious for most of the world but who turned into a great big kid himself around his nephew, grinned and gave a thumbs-up. “Perfect touch, kiddo. Wish I’d thought of it myself.”
Brielle loved her brother. A better man had never existed. How his long-time girlfriend could constantly turn down his marriage proposals, Brielle didn’t begin to understand. She just hoped that whatever was holding Samantha back from grabbing hold of happily-ever-after with Vann would work out soon. Her brother deserved every happiness.
Then again, did anyone ever really get happily-ever-after outside fairy-tales?
Certainly no one in her life ever had.
“I see you two have been busy,” she said softly, causing both males to glance up from where they worked on the floor.
“Mommy!” Justice’s face lit up with excitement. He leapt to his feet and wrapped his tiny arms around her upper legs.
