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Case had never been able to deal with the sight of Fancy crying. And it pained him that he’d hurt her so badly. But he’d been in pain also! She’d been running around with another man, leaning on his shoulder and confiding in him things about their relationship. About her unhappiness. It had been such a shock to realize that their lives weren’t going to end in a happily ever after. His soul had been crushed. His pride had been assaulted. As a man of faith, it had felt as if everything he’d ever believed about their love had been a lie.

He gently but firmly pushed her off his chest. Her eyes flashed with surprise. No doubt she was wondering about him pulling her close, then pushing her away.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you. Not with that last kiss and not now.” He felt his jaw tremble. It was hard to go back into the past and relive these devastating memories. It still had the power to bring him to his knees. Fancy had been the love of his life, the woman he had joyfully proposed to and wanted to marry. Every time he’d looked at her Case had seen their future in her eyes. And then his world had exploded when he’d received the news about her relationship with Marc. At the time he hadn’t been sure whether or not he would survive it.

“It was my way of drawing a line in the sand. Of saying goodbye without all the back and forth drama. I tried to forgive you, but every time I looked at you I thought about him. And I wondered. I imagined the two of you alone together, sharing secrets, talking about us…and doing other things.”

Just the thought of Fancy kissing Marc had the power to enrage him. Even now, after all this time. He wasn’t proud of it, but there it was. His truth.

Fancy shook her head. Her long blonde hair tumbled around her shoulders. She frowned at him. “Other things? There were no other things, Case. And it hurts that you think there might have been.”

“Don’t you see, Fancy? That’s what happens when you lose faith and trust in someone. Nothing is crystal clear. I wanted to believe you, but I wasn’t sure.” He raked a hand through his hair. “And I couldn’t live like that.”

“I want to make it clear. Nothing could be further from the truth. I never kissed him. We shared a friendship, Case. That was all.” Fancy’s voice vibrated with intensity.“And I’ll admit that I wasn’t honest with you about it, but I was lonely and he filled a void. I didn’t realize that Marc was falling in love with me. While I viewed it as a friendship, his feelings were growing.”

“So you never once kissed him?” Case asked, his gaze narrowed. Just the thought of it made his blood boil. If he had learned one thing through this ordeal it was that he was a jealous man. When he loved…he loved hard, with all his heart and soul. The thought of another man laying his hands on Fancy had been enough to drive him over the edge. He wasn’t proud of it, but it was the unvarnished truth.

He knew jealousy was a vicious emotion, destined to cause strife. He knew it from the passage from Song of Solomon. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

Case often wondered if his own jealousy had sealed the fate of his relationship with Fancy. Had he ever really believed her version of events? Hadn’t he chosen to believe the worst of her? Had he been unfair?

“One time he kissed me,” Fancy said, her tone passionate. “Once. And I pushed him away. That was the last time I ever saw him. And I knew that I never would again. At least not one on one. The very next day you confronted me. Even though I was scared to death, I told you the truth. I told you everything.”

Case ran his hand through his hair. “But would you have told me if I hadn’t confronted you? That’s the real question. I was working like a dog at Duvall trying to secure our future while you were confiding in Marc about our relationship and spending time alone with him.”

“I was unhappy about all the time you were spending out of town and working. It felt like I was planning the wedding alone. It seemed like you were slipping away from me.” She reached out and grabbed ahold of his arm. “I was scared.”

Case locked gazes with her. “Being scared is no excuse to go running to another man. It’s that simple.”

“I was reaching out to a friend,” Fancy said in a heated voice. “No matter how you try to twist it to fit what you want it to have been, it’s just not true.”

Case leaned in so that their faces were within inches of each other. “So tell me this. Downstairs in this very house you have five of the very best friends anyone could ever ask for. Why didn’t you reach out to them if it was all about friendship?”

It had been the question that kept him up in the middle of the night. What was it about Marc that had led Fancy to seek out his friendship? And why hadn’t she leaned on her five fabulous friends? It still made him angry that Marc had been privy to details about their private relationship.

Fancy’s mouth opened, then she snapped it shut. Moisture pooled in her sea blue eyes. “I-I can’t answer that. Honestly, I can’t. I just know that he was a friend. And every single day I kick myself for allowing the situation to come to a head like that. If I had the power to redo things, I’d go back in an instant and

do everything differently. But I can’t.”

All of a sudden the sound of the lock turning echoed in the small space. Clearly, someone from the other side had unlocked the door. For an instant they simply stared at one another, unwilling or unable to move away from this moment in time. Finally, he broke. “I need to get back to work.” He looked at his watch. “This stunt was a colossal waste of my time.”

He wrenched the door open and walked out, quickly making his way to the staircase. Although he could hear the patter of Fancy’s feet walking behind him, he didn’t turn around to check or to say a single word to her. At the moment, all he wanted to do was to get as far away from Savannah House and these six women as possible.

At the first floor landing, all five women stood huddled together. They all looked up as he came into view. “That stunt is going to cost you. I’m going to bill you guys double time for that,” Case growled. His footsteps echoed in the stillness of the house as he stomped down the stairs.

Charlotte stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at him with wide, startled eyes.

“Seriously?” he barked. “You’ve wasted my time. I’m late going back to the office.”

“W-we were just trying to allow you some time together,” Charlotte said, her voice quivering.

“What in the world ever possessed you to do something like that?” Fancy asked in a bewildered voice.

A sheepish expression was etched on Morgan’s face. “We thought it might force the two of you to talk and air things out.”

“For the record, it was not my idea,” Olivia said, folding her arms across her chest. She shook her head ruefully. “I have way better sense than that.”

“Next time, please keep your noses out of our business. If I’m to continue working in the best interests of Savannah House, I have to insist that these juvenile games stop. You have no idea how completely and utterly unprofessional this is.” Case really wanted to say more, but Charlotte looked as if she might have a breakdown. Something told him that she hadn’t been the mastermind of this plot. More times than not, Charlotte was the one who went along with the group and rarely spoke up in opposition.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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