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The way her face had clouded with disappointment might as well have been another knife through his chest. The last thing he’d wanted to do was hurt her, and now he was. It made him appreciate that this was the best decision. For both of them. Passionate sex was not enough to base a relationship on. And the longer they pretended it was, the harder this would be. Regret was already staining his conviction that this was the right move; he wanted to call the words back into his mouth, to render them unspoken.
“It seems sudden.”
“It is.” He ignored the pang of remorse over setting this train in motion. “But we have tonight. Let’s finish as we started,” he suggested, noting the way she carefully controlled her reaction.
Her smile, when she found it, felt heavy and unnatural, but she wasn’t going to let him know how devastated she was. Hadn’t she been telling Angela only an hour ago that their relationship was light-hearted and meaningless?
God, she loved him, though, and the idea of having only one more night together filled her with an ache greater than words could describe.
“This has been an incredible week,” he said quietly, and Katie almost wanted to laugh. He was throwing her a bone, and it was a pretty pathetic one. She couldn’t handle the thought that he knew how she felt! How mortifying to love someone so dead set against a relationship. She obviously meant so little to him, that he could leave half way through his trip. She had been dreading the end of his stay, and here he was, hastening it forward. One more night.
What if he had sensed how much she cared for him, and had decided to end it to save her feelings getting hurt? It was too embarrassing to contemplate and so she didn’t.
With a little shake of her head, she decided she was going to enjoy this night, with this man. She needed the memories for herself. And in no small part, she wanted to think he would remember her too. That he would miss her in some way, as she knew she would him.
“What’s for dinner?” Her smile felt more natural now, as she determined to make the most of the little time th
ey had left. He might be leaving in the morning, but she’d always have these memories. David Trent was the most amazing man she’d ever known. Unlike her father, and Roberto, he was scrupulously honest. He’d told her from the beginning that their relationship would be a short-term affair, and now, he was telling her he was leaving just as soon as he’d found out.
She was a fool for falling in love with him, but at least this time she knew she’d fallen in love with someone who deserved it. Strangely, despite the impending sense of loss she knew she’d have to face, in that moment, she could only be glad that she’d at last met a man who was truly worthy of her heart.
“I’m afraid I only know how to cook one thing,” he said with a crooked smile.
“Wow. And I just happened to have the ingredients for it? What is it?”
He opened the oven door and pulled out a tray with dramatic flair. “Grilled cheese sandwiches, ma’am.”
She burst out laughing. “Well, they do smell great.”
“It’s the way I add butter to the cheese.”
She pulled a face, not really a fan of rich food but not wanting to hurt his feelings.
“Sit, while we let them cool down.”
She did, at the seat that was hers, beside Maxie’s, and Marcus slid into the seat that he’d been occupying all week. That would be very empty, come tomorrow night.
Marcus knew he was being self-indulgent, but he hadn’t been able to rip this Band-Aid off quickly, as he ought. He knew that once he had actually left Wadeford House and the damned Cornish coast, he’d be able to relegate Katie Collins to the back of his mind, where all his ex-lovers lay dormant, no longer of any use to him. But right now, he was having a hard time imagining waking up and knowing he wouldn’t have breakfast with her. Drink his first morning coffee across the table from her, laughing at the frothy news articles in the paper and discussing the more serious ones. He took her hands in his, and marveled as he always did at the way her pale skin was somehow the perfect opposite to his darkly tanned flesh.
“Do you still think you’re going to sell the place?”
She nodded slowly, but surely. “The more I think about it, the more I know it’s the right thing to do.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Talking with you, actually.” It was the answer he most feared. How would she ever believe that perfectly innocent conversations were just that – when he had a true ulterior motive?
“I hardly said anything,” he rebuffed quietly.
“You made me see that I can put myself first without putting Maxie last. He’ll be happy as long as I am, and I’ll probably get to see more of him if I’m not running this place.”
“Sounds like the right thing to do, then. Though it will be strange not being able to picture you here.”
Color stole into her cheeks. “Actually,” she stood up jerkily. “That reminds me of something.”
She pushed out of the kitchen, steadfastly not allowing her brain to register that she was counting down to his departure in hours and minutes rather than days, now. She flicked the light on to her small home office and picked up the black and white photos she’d printed earlier. She looked at the top picture, of David, his smile beaming so brightly that it was amazing it hadn’t shattered the lens. His eyes, always expressive, were aglow with contentment. She’d taken it that day they’d fought. Before they’d fought. When she’d thought he was the most beautiful person she’d ever seen. After they had argued, she thought him even more beautiful, for his flaws and his emotions and his ‘realness’.
She walked back into the kitchen and handed the photos she’d taken to him. There were ten, in total. “Here.” She said simply, watching nervously as he thumbed through them slowly, paying each one a proper amount of attention as he analyzed the emotion, the composition, the lighting. His voice was hoarse when he spoke. “Katie, you really are extremely talented.”
