Page 119 of Love What's Left
My eyebrows crawl up my forehead. “You did what, now?”
“Scent is one of my strongest memory triggers. I was distracted at my birthday party, but even then I had a weird feeling about her. Amelia doesn’t wear strong perfume, but the combination of her hair products and lotion with her body chemistry was pretty distinct. Ergo, I needed to get a closer sniff of her.”
“You remembered having lunch with her when she took the necklace.”
“I remembered a lot more than that,” she says. “You’re the one who bought me all those cardigans so I’d always have one for my locker. But it didn’t make sense. How could I wear the hat and sweaterintothe lab without wearing themoutof it first if they were stored in my locker? The order was reversed. And then what happened to them afterward? I came home on Friday night. I was right there on our home security cameras, but I wasn’t wearing the hat or sweater or sneakers.”
“I was sure it was Rob,” I mutter.
“You wanted it to be him,” she says.
“I did. Yeah,” I admit.
“I wasn’t the one who wrecked the lab. I didn’t betray you. I didn’t tell them anything.” Emotion clogs her voice.
“No you didn’t.”
She turns worried eyes on me. “Did I blackmail you into a fake marriage?”
“Not even close.”
“Then what was she talking about? Because I remember the day we met now. I hated you and knew things about you that . . . I’m—” She chokes on her words. A silent spasm bows her entire body. “—afraid.”
I shake my head, my heart pounding and my mouth dry. “Don’t be. Please.”
I reach for her, then hover, afraid to make contact. “I would step in front of a firing squad to protect you. I’d crawl naked over broken glass to get to you. The one thing I would never do ishurtyou.”
“I’m afraid to know what I didto you,” she says.
I drag her onto my lap, folding her against me. “You didn’t blackmail me into marriage. I asked you to marry me.”
“I need to see our prenup.”
I nod, her hair catching in the scruff on my jaw. “You should know we’ve had this conversation more than once, and you either zoned out in the middle of it or forgot immediately afterward. I haven’t been lying to you. I left printed copies of that contract in our bedroom. On the counter in the closet. In the study. You moved the thing out of the way to brush your teeth last night.“
She blows out a hard breath and wraps her arms tight around my waist. “I didn’t trust myself not to betray you. And I didn’t want to know if you’d hurt me.”
“No one can make you ready to face our past if you’ve blocked it,” I say gently.
“Sometimes,” she says, “‘ready’ is just deciding to do it scared.”
“How about we try something a little different this time?”
40
Sydney
Dusk falls as we land at the now familiar-to-me private airport in upstate New York. Instead of a street bike waiting for us, there are two cars, one for us and one for the two security guards to use to follow behind.
Gabriel drives into the deepening darkness toward Zack and Zoe’s little vacation cabin where I once spent so many nights fighting my feelings for him while he got his tattoos. “If you need to stop at a hotel along the way, we can do that. I shouldn’t have taken so long to pack.”
“It’s no more than an hour, and I’m not tired,” he says. “Do you mind if I turn on some music?”
“Go ahead.”
He presses play and a song filters from the speakers. After a few moments, I catch myself singing quietly to something I don’t remember hearing before. My startled gaze flies to Gabriel’s profile.
He glances my way. “This is one of your playlists. I should have thought of it sooner.”
