AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Alexander’s eyebrows rose at her response. “Really?”
“Has he spoken to you about what happened while he was here?” Kayleigh asked.
Alexander took a sip of his coffee. “Only as far as the resort is concerned. Nothing of a personal nature.”
“And would he want you here asking these questions?”
“Probably not,” Alexander conceded easily enough. “But he’s going to have a heart attack if he doesn’t slow down, and I want to know why.”
“I got the impression when he was here that he was a workaholic,” Kayleigh said.
“Yes. He’s always been that way, but this is beyond even that. I don’t think he’s taken a single day off since he left here. All he’s done is travel from one Remington location to the next. I’m also getting calls from some of the site managers who I know well, wondering what exactly is wrong with Hudson. He’s not taking any breaks while visiting their locations, and he’s much more… short-tempered in his interactions with them.”
It hurt Kayleigh to hear that. She’d thought that she needed to protect her heart and keep her distance for her own sake, but she should have done it for Hudson’s sake as well.
She hadn’t realized that his feelings for her had been as engaged as hers for him. But clearly, his feelings had grown while they’d been at the resort together. The sporadic times spent together at the beginning of his trip had turned into a daily—often twice daily—event at the end.
Though she’d known that hurt was inevitable, she’d chosen to continue to spend hours with Hudson. She had very much loved and enjoyed that time with him, so she’d been loath to give it up. What she hadn’t known was how deeply Hudson must have felt for her, too.
She’d known that he was interested in her, but she’d just assumed that, in his world, she wasn’t anything special. That his interest in her was surface and would fade once he left. She’d figured that she was nothing like the wealthy, polished, beautiful women he likely met in his travels to Remington locations around the world.
Never had she thought that not being able to be with her would cause him any real significant amount of hurt.
Clearly, she’d been wrong.
And now it was too late to prevent him from suffering the same heartbreak that she was dealing with. Though she’d tried to apologize to Hudson for inadvertently leading him on, he hadn’t responded. He’d simply left Serenity Point and stopped talking to her.
“Hudson’s a great man,” Alexander said. “Better than I was at his age, that’s for sure, so I hate seeing him struggle so much with whatever he’s going through.”
Kayleigh didn’t want to reveal what had happened because she could see how concerned Alexander was for Hudson, and once he realized she was responsible for what had happened, he was going to be livid. With her.
“Tell me what happened,” Alexander urged.
Kayleigh sighed. “I don’t date much. Most guys aren’t able to handle my commitment to my job, or the fact that my time away from here usually involves sticking close to home. I’m not big on going out and socializing with a bunch of people.”
“And then you met Hudson and realized that he was something of a kindred spirit in that regard?”
“Yes. Something like that.”
“Did the two of you date?” Alexander asked.
“Not officially, but we spent alotof time together,” she said. “We got close.”
As Alexander regarded her, his expression unreadable, Kayleigh wished that she had already left for the day and avoided this meeting. Not just because of the impending anger from her boss, but also because everything he was saying about Hudson’s current situation hurt her and deepened the regret that she felt over what had happened.
Hudson didn’t deserve what had transpired between them. Despite seeing interest on Hudson’s part, she hadn’t heeded it as a warning sign for her to back off. She’d stayed close to him. Close enough for them to share a kiss.
She had been in the wrong. And now her selfish desire to stay close to Hudson while she could, had hurt him in a way she would never have wanted to. But most especially, not the man she’d fallen in love with.
“So what happened?”
There was no avoiding telling him what she’d done. The problem was that she didn’t think he was going to understand.
Someone who wasn’t a Christian probably wouldn’t understand her choice. To make the decision not to be with someone who was such a perfect match just because they didn’t share her faith wouldn’t make sense to them.
And there had been moments after the kiss when she wished she’d made a different choice in rejecting him. Losing Hudson completely from her life had left her hurting far more than she’d ever hurt before.
“I… developed feelings for him, but I knew that they couldn’t go anywhere.”
