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The following day was a Friday, and he was home early for the first time that week. Last night Charlotte had been unable to sleep until she’d heard the front door close quietly at two a.m. and Edward’s footsteps on the stairs, disappearing along the hallway and into his room. She hadn’t slept much after that, either, and in the morning Edward had left for the Lighthouse Children’s Hospital before she was out of bed.
‘I’ve been thinking.’ She’d waited until Isaac was in bed before she spoke with him.
‘Yeah?’ He looked up from the papers that he was reading.
‘I think it’s time for Isaac and me to go home.’
He set the papers to one side, blank shock on his face. ‘Is there something the matter, Charlotte?’
Everything that she could imagine. Edward was tired of her and didn’t know how to tell her. He had another woman somewhere. He was too self-absorbed to really care about her or Isaac. One or more of those, in any combination. Or something else, perhaps, that she hadn’t thought about.
‘We were only going to stay for a few days. It’s been nearly a month and...’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for us, Edward. But we can’t stay on here indefinitely.’
This would be the
time for him to say that they weren’t overstaying their welcome. That he wanted her and Isaac to stay. They’d have to talk a bit—about how he seemed to have drawn back recently—but perhaps there was an explanation for that.
He stared at her. ‘You want to go?’
Disappointment curled around her heart. ‘I think that we should.’
She could see him changing before her eyes. The lover who had turned her world into something that was closely akin to magic was turning into a man. One who accepted her leaving as if it had been inevitable all along and wouldn’t say one word to persuade her to stay. Cold grief began to trickle into her heart.
‘And us?’
She was almost ready to beg him. She would have done almost anything to keep him just for one more day. One more day when anything might happen, when she might find a way to penetrate the icy shell that seemed to be forming around him. Then she thought of the way she’d worried about him last night. The way Isaac had fought to stay awake so that he could say goodnight to Edward.
‘Edward, I have no hold on you. Whatever you were doing last night is none of my business...’ He opened his mouth and she held up her hand to stop him from speaking. ‘No. Really, I don’t want to know. It can’t work between us, and I think it would be better if we just accepted that.’
He could rage against this. Tell her that she was crazy—that he’d been called away to some medical emergency and hadn’t been able to call her. At this moment she would have believed lies, excuses—anything. But tomorrow she’d wake up and hate herself for allowing a man to betray her again.
He ran his hand through his hair and a few dark spikes fell back across his forehead. ‘Okay. If that’s what you want... I’ll help you move back over the weekend.’
‘That’s all right. You must have things to do...’
He shook his head. ‘No. I brought you here and I’ll take you home.’
* * *
She didn’t have to say it. He’d heard it before, and Kathy had just been proved right. Emotionally unavailable.
Edward couldn’t argue with her. She needed more than he could give and so did Isaac. Scratch that. They both deserved more than he could give. If breaking his heart was the only way they were going to get it, then so be it.
He hadn’t slept much last night, and more than once he’d gone to the door of his bedroom, ready to march along the hallway, gather her up and bring her back. Plead with her—beg her, even—or make love to her until she changed her mind. But each time the futility of such a course of action had stopped him. She didn’t want him.
She clearly didn’t believe him when he went out early on Saturday morning, with the excuse of having to go to work. Unable to set his mind to anything, he wandered the busy streets, fed the ducks in Hyde Park and dropped in to one of his favourite restaurants for a solitary meal. By the time he got back, late in the afternoon, she had packed hers and Isaac’s things and explained to the boy that they were going back home.
Then it was time for them to leave. They somehow managed to stay civil with each other, for Isaac’s sake, but they were like actors in a soap opera. As soon as the cameras stopped rolling the smiles fell from their faces and there was no emotion, no more to say. Nothing.
He loaded up his car with their bags and they made the short drive to Charlotte’s house in silence. She opened the front door and Isaac ran inside, but it seemed from the way that she blocked the doorway that Edward wasn’t welcome. He put her bags down on the doorstep and went back to the car to fetch the rest of them.
She called for Isaac and turned towards Edward. ‘Thank you. I’m so grateful for everything that you’ve done for us.’
Yeah, right. And she was showing him just how grateful she was by leaving. Blocking her own doorway as if he was one of the people that he’d protected her from. The words were on the tip of his tongue when he saw a tear, perched in the corner of her eye and ready to fall.
‘If there’s anything else you need...’
There was no point in even saying it. They’d lost their opportunity of being friends. He’d blown it—hadn’t paid enough attention to the woman he’d thought might be the saving of him—and now they had to part. Better now than some time down the line.
