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“I’m so sorry, Farris,” she said. Tears dripped down her cheeks. “I should have seen how you were hurting. I should have helped you.”
His look was incredulous. “No.”
“I heard what you told me. You lost all our money. I get it. And you didn’t think I was strong enough or smart enough to walk beside you.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
She shrugged. “Sounds like it to me.”
“My God, I hated myself. You should hate me, too.”
“I never did like people telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. I’m kind of stubborn that way.” She paused, curious suddenly. “So did you claw your way back? Am I looking at a pauper, or a man with plenty of zeros in his checkbook?”
She cocked her head and smiled at him. Suddenly, happiness bloomed in her heart and spread everywhere, warming her, giving her hope.
Farris’s jaw dropped. Again, he swallowed. “Does it matter?”
“Actually, no. Not at all.”
His brows pulled together in suspicion. “Why not?”
She went to him, no longer able to keep her distance. When she put her hands on his broad, muscular shoulders, she felt the shudder that quaked through his body. “Because I love you,” she said simply, searching his beautiful eyes. “From that first moment you ran into me and knocked me down in Central Park, I knew I had found my one and only.”
Farris didn’t move. His whole body was tensed, like a giant jungle cat sensing danger.
She saw his jaw work before he spoke. “You’re not furious?”
“Well...” She sighed. “I’m not happy. You cost us five years when we could have been together, five years we won’t ever get back.”
“I know.” He rested his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry.”
Suddenly, she remembered something else, something shocking. “That’s why you wouldn’t get me pregnant, isn’t it? Because you lost all our money?”
“Yes.”
She punched him in the arm. Hard. “You’re an ass. Good Lord, Farris. We could have had two precious babies by now.”
“You’re not making me feel better,” he said. His smile was not much of a smile, but some of the dark misery had left his eyes.
“I think you’ve left out one piece of the story.”
He was affronted. “I most certainly did not. I’ve told you everything.”
She kissed him briefly, a brush of lips that brought her tears back. Was it really possible? Had they survived the shipwreck that was their marriage?
“Think hard,” she said. “I’m starting to get an inferiority complex.”
“Oh, that.” He chuckled, though the laugh was rusty. “I adore you, Inkie. And I have for every moment of every day. You are the love of my life. Those five years were an eternity for me. And yes, it’s absolutely true. I never looked at another woman.”
For the first time, she believed him without reservation. “I know.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t lean on you,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth. I swear I’ll never do that to you, to us, again.”
They held each other then, hearts beating wildly, emotions careening.
Farris’s chest rose and fell as he sucked in a huge breath and exhaled. “My mother will be over the moon.”
“I don’t want to lose her.”
