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“Why are you doing this?” Pain echoed in his voice. “We could be so great together.”
She shook her head. “We’re fooling ourselves. This”—she moved her fingers between them—“you and me, we’re over.”
“Don’t do this again.” He reached out to her, but when she sidestepped his touch, he lowered his hand. “If you do… I’m not going to chase after you.”
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes, but she refused to give in to them. She had to hold it together. She wouldn’t let Carter see how much he’d hurt her.
Just then, the vehicle from the B&B pulled in. Angela turned her back to him and headed for the SUV. She climbed inside, and they didn’t say a word on the ride back. The sooner she was packed and gone, the better.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Howhaditbeenso good one moment…
And over in the next?
The thought taunted Carter as he threw his things into his bag. Talking to Angela felt like tiptoeing through a minefield. He never knew when he was going to say something to set her off.
Maybe he should do exactly what he’d said he would do and give up on them. He was never going to get it right. He was never going to understand her.
Once they got back to San Francisco, as much as he didn’t want to do it, they would go their separate ways. Clara could take care of canceling all of the plans. He didn’t care if he had to pay extra for her to contact everyone and tell them the wedding was off. He didn’t want to hear another word about Angela or the wedding.
He intended to bury himself in his work. It wouldn’t be hard. His firm was one of the biggest in the city. And a recent high-profile court case had put the firm in the spotlight and drawn more clients than they could reasonably handle. There was more work at the office than he could ever hope to get through.
With his clothes stuffed into his bag, Carter headed down to the foyer to wait for Angela. As he stood there, the other departing couples said their goodbyes. He didn’t want to talk, but he refused to be rude. So he put on a forced smile and wished them all well.
He checked his watch for what felt like the twentieth time. What was taking Angela so long? Maybe he should go up to her room and let her know he was ready to hit the road.
He’d just taken a couple of steps toward the staircase when Grace approached him. “You’re still here.”
“I’m…uh, just waiting for Angela.”
Grace’s brows drew together. “But she’s gone. I thought you knew.”
“Gone?” His voice came out louder than he’d intended. He lowered his tone so no one would overhear them. “Gone where?” Angela hadn’t said a word to him, not since she’d told him they were over.
“Perhaps we should talk out on the veranda.” Grace gestured for him to follow her.
Carter didn’t want to sit and have a chat. He just wanted to figure out where Angela had gone, and then he would be on his way. But it appeared the only person who knew Angela’s whereabouts wasn’t going to give up the information until they’d had a chat.
She moved to the end of the veranda, where there were two white wicker chairs. She took a seat and turned to him. “Is everything all right?”
He couldn’t help but wonder how much she knew. He’d noticed Angela speaking with Grace throughout the weekend. It seemed as though they’d formed a good rapport.
“I…uh, must have gotten confused,” he said, trying to avoid the difficult truth.
“She left about fifteen minutes ago. She got a ride with one of the other ladies who was headed to San Francisco. I would have given her a ride, but Joe and I like it so much here that we decided to stay on for a few more days.” She sent him a worried look. “I thought everything was going well. She was so excited when you two won the challenge yesterday. I saw the way you were looking at each other. There were definitely sparks.”
So he wasn’t the only one to think so. “I don’t know what happened. One moment, we were floating through the morning sky. The next, we were back on the ground, and I couldn’t say anything right.”
“Oh, dear. I’m so sorry.”
It felt good to talk about it. And Grace seemed like a good listener. Plus, he wouldn’t see her again after today. There was some comfort in talking to a stranger.
“I just don’t get it. I thought the wedding was back on. I told her how happy I was that we were getting married. I told her I didn’t care about any of those silly wedding plans, and that she was all that mattered to me.”
Grace gasped. “Oh, no. You didn’t.”
“What?” He was so tired of feeling like he was the only one who didn’t understand what was going on.
