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“No thanks. I’ve already been there,” he shot back, his eyes snapping blue fury, his nostrils flared and his rugged face flushed.
“So have I.” Glaring at him pointedly, she yanked herself free, ripped the ring from her finger and tossed it at him. “I think this is yours.”
He snapped the ring out of the air and the muscle in his face stretched taut. “I was only protecting you. It was the only way I could admit you into the hospital without a thousand questions being asked, the only way I could stay in the room and make sure that no one got to you—”
“Oh, is that what it was?” She cocked her head toward the bed. “You know, that’s the first time a man’s taken it upon himself to have sex with me to ‘protect’ me.”
His teeth ground together. “You’re impossible.”
“At least I don’t resort to lying to score.”
“That’s enough!” Both his hands opened and clenched, and Nikki had the distinct impression he wanted to put them around her throat and strangle her. Well, she wanted to strangle him, too! And yet a part of her—a silly, irrational, very feminine part of her still loved him. Lord, she was a fool! Be strong, Nikki.
“You’re right about that, McKenzie,” she said as she picked up her suitcase again and slid past him. “It’s way more than enough!”
“For once, just listen.”
“I’ve listened, Trent. Over and over again. And all I keep hearing are lies. Lies, lies and more lies! Thanks, anyway, I don’t need any more!”
He didn’t bother to try and restrain her and she didn’t know whether to be grateful or sad. A part of her still longed for him to take her into his arms, but her realistic nature kicked that silly notion right out of her head. She didn’t love him. She couldn’t love him. She would never love him and never had. Anything she had felt for him was a wasted, empty emotion—a fantasy that made having sex with him convenient and guilt-free.
Married to the man! Imagine! Even with the holes in her memory she should have known he wasn’t her type.
She threw open the back door and walked into the gray light of dawn. Mist rose from the ground in ghostly spirals, and the lake, down a steep incline covered with fir trees still moist from the night’s rain, was calm and gray. The still water seemed to stretch for miles to the opposite shore where, tucked in a dark ridge of hills, house lights were beginning to glow.
In a flash of memory, she saw herself on a sailboat, her father at the helm, her sisters, in fluorescent orange life jackets, scrambling over the deck. The mainsail had billowed, catching the wind, and the boat had dipped, skimming across a choppy surface of whitecaps.
The wind had been winter-cold and raw, but Nikki hadn’t cared. Jan had complained about her hair losing its curl. Carole was sure she had frostbite, but Nikki had laughed in the wind, feeling the grip of frigid air tearing at her ponytail and stinging her cheeks.
“Let’s go all the way to Alaska,” she’d cried, holding on to the boom for dear life.
“Aye, aye, matey,” her father had replied and she’d loved him with all her young heart.
“I’m not going to Alaska,” Jan had yelled over the cry of the wind. “I’ve got a date.”
Nikki hadn’t been impressed. “Big deal.”
“It is a big deal! I have to get home in time to wash and blow-dry my hair!”
“For Paul Jansen. Save me.” Nikki had laughed.
“That’s not a date. It’s a death sentence,” Carole added with a wink to her youngest sister. “But Alaska’s too cold.” Carole’s teeth had begun to chatter loudly. Her words came out in choppy little puffs. “C-can’t we g-g-go to Hawaii or L.A. or…”
At the mention of the City of Angels, Ted Carrothers’s grin had turned into a gritty scowl. Their mother had already moved to Southern California and had hinted to her daughters that there was another man in her life. “Just forget it,” he’d muttered to his would-be
sailor daughters. Then, spying Jan, he added, “Don’t worry, you’ll be home in time for your date.”
“Good.” She’d tossed her head and sniffed at her victory.
“No way! Come on, Dad,” Nikki had pleaded, her dreams crumbling. She ached for adventure and she didn’t want to go back to the empty house their mother had vacated two years earlier. “Let’s sail into the Sound.”
Her father had scanned the flinty sky, but even before he turned his eyes back on his youngest daughter, she’d known what he would say. The mood had been destroyed. “Ah, well, we’d better be heading back. I’ve got a lot of paperwork to catch up on if I’m going to be ready for the meeting in Seoul next week.”
Now Nikki stood staring at the calm lake greeting the dawn. Steel gray and cold. She shivered and didn’t realize Trent was beside her until a twig snapped beneath his boot.
“Second thoughts?” he asked. No longer was there any anger in his voice. Only regret.
She shook her head. “But thoughts, just the same.” She was surprised how quickly they came now. All at once, in a jumble, sharp, vivid memories that last week had been lost to her.
