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Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
When the cardiologist left the waiting area, Darby couldn’t resist looking to see if Blake had noticed the amount of tan flesh on display beneath Mandy’s Daisy Dukes. Her gaze collided with his dark one.
He’d been looking at her. Why?
She couldn’t read his thoughts—wished she could.
Had she really spent the night in his arms, opening her body and her heart to him? Feeling as if their souls were connected? Could one really share something so beautiful with a person and not know what to say mere hours later?
He leaned back in the uncomfortable waiting room chair, eyeing her as if she were an anomaly. No doubt she was. He dated a certain type of woman, and she wasn’t it.
Her throat tightened. What was going to happen to them? Why did she even care? What was most important was that her mother was going to be okay. Still, she couldn’t look away from Blake’s dark eyes, couldn’t help but wish he loved her.
She’d leaned on him, but she’d felt his tension, felt the awkwardness in the way he held her. Everything had changed between them and it made her sick. The entire day made her sick. First what had happened with Blake, and then her mother.
“I need some fresh air,” she said, to no one in particular.
Blake stood as if to follow, maybe to confront her over what had happened between them, or maybe he’d seen the longing in her eyes and wanted to nip those thoughts in the bud.
Rising from where she sat with Trey, Mandy grabbed her hand. “I’ll go with you.”
Huh? Darby stared at her former friend, wondering why she could possibly want to go with her.
Darby didn’t say anything, just left the waiting room.
“I’m glad your mother is going to be okay,” Mandy said when they stood outside the emergency room entrance.
“Me, too.”
“I’m sorry, Darby.” Mandy stared at her hands, took a deep breath and continued. “I had no right to do what I did.”
Darby didn’t have to ask what she meant. “Why did
you?”
“Trey.”
“You were the one to dump him,” Darby reminded her.
“Because I thought he had feelings for you, and then he asked you to the prom. I…” Mandy’s concerned brown eyes lifted to Darby’s. “I was wrong to do what I did, to interfere. All I can say in my defense is that I’ve always loved Trey.”
“Yet you ended things with him a second time.”
“Not because I didn’t love him.”
“Then why?”
“Because I couldn’t stand that I’d destroyed our friendship over a guy.”
Mandy’s words sank in.
“What happened on prom night and the week after was poison to my relationship with Trey. I didn’t think I deserved to be happy with him, so I refused to be happy.” Mandy wrung her hands together, shrugged. “If I hadn’t broken up with him when I did he’d have dumped me, which is what I deserved, but I beat him to the punch.”
“I always thought you two would end up married,” Darby mused. “When I heard he’d taken a job out of town and married someone else I was shocked.”
“I cried myself to sleep for weeks.” Mandy’s hands twisted the thin material of her shirt. “I know it’s wrong to be happy when someone’s marriage falls apart, but when I heard Trey was divorcing I knew why I’d stayed single all these years.” She let out a deep breath. “I was waiting for him. Not because I thought he’d get divorced, but because I didn’t want anyone but him. Yet even with him single, I still can’t have him.”
“Why not?”
