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She didn’t reply. She simply stared at the man who walked toward her with a huge smile on his face.
“Jamie. I had heard from a friend that you were working here. It’s been a long time. How are you doing?”
“Not long enough.”
“You have every right to hate me. You have no idea how sorry I am that I hurt you. I’ve thought about you a lot over the last few years,” the man said.
“What do you want?”
“I wanted to apologize. Amber and I split up. She left me for another man a couple months ago and our divorce was final yesterday. Part of the problem with our marriage was that I never stopped loving you.”
Jamie pressed her lips together. She stood rigidly behind the counter and narrowed her eyes.
“That is just too damn bad. That ship has sailed. I’ve moved on,” Jamie said, her voice tight.
“I’m going to prove to you how sorry I am and how much you mean to me. I’ve decided to move back to Ivy Springs.”
“You may as well stay in Denver. I don’t want anything to do with you.”
The man nodded and said, “I knew that you would say that, but I will do whatever it takes to get you back.”
“Go away.”
He looked at Jamie and then walked out the door.
Jamie released a huge breath and started shaking.
“Are you okay? Who was that?” Clara asked.
“I’m fine,” Jamie said. “He just took me by surprise. That was Ryan.”
“Do you want me to go after him and kick his ass?” Clara asked.
Jamie stared at Clara for a second and then laughed.
“I do believe that you would do exactly that. Thanks for the offer, but I’m good.”
“Suit yourself,” Clara said with a grin.
“I was very shocked to see him. The last that I heard, he was an engineer in Denver, making big bucks, along with his socialite wannabe wife. She always wanted to be a part of the set that ran with people like the Faisons.”
“Apparently, he wasn’t good enough for her, since she left him for someone else.”
“Sucks to be him,” Jamie said. “You want to know what was really surprising, though?”
“What’s that?”
“When I got over the initial surprise, I didn’t feel anything toward him. All these years, I have felt the humiliation of being left at the wedding and the hurt from being betrayed. I had all of those negative feelings toward him and the situation. But when I looked at him, I didn’t hate him. I didn’t feel any kind of residual love, or other feelings. I felt absolutely nothing. Complete indifference.”
“That is a good thing. Maybe between realizing that there are no feelings of any kind left and letting yourself feel something for Luke, you will heal and be able to find true love.”
“Maybe so. It looks like the biggest challenge, though, is going to be convincing Ryan that I feel completely indifferent to him, that I could never have any feelings for him, and that he needs to go back to Denver.”
“If that fails the offer to kick his ass still stands,” Clara said.
8
Luke
