Page 60 of Leave a Mark
“What?”
“That softwhooshsound?” Lee asked.
Wren frowned. “I don’t know. I just settled back onto my pillows. Why?” Across the line, Wren heard a strangled sound. “You okay?”
“Just… a sweet thought.”
Her breath caught. Was he picturing her in bed?
Wren heard another thump followed by a satisfied grunt. “Okay, medicated and back in bed,” Lee said.
“You’re really going to bed at seven a.m.? When the whole world is waking up?” Indeed, sunlight, clear and brilliant, now streamed through her windows. Her own sleepiness fell away.
Lee gave a long sigh. “I am. After interning and residency, I can pretty much sleep anytime, anywhere.”
She heard rustling sounds, like he was settling himself under his covers and into his pillow.
“Still, when I moved in, I sprang for the blackout curtains, so it’s pretty dark in here right now.”
Wren felt a shiver pass over her. The thought of him lying in bed in the dark was too much.
“Well, I should probably let you get some sleep—”
“Wait. Not yet.” His words stopped hers, but the longing in his voice set her heart racing. “You’re always running away from me…”
“I-I am not,” she stammered. But it was true. Of course it was true. What else could she do?
“Yes, you are.” His whisper was like a caress. “Am I so bad?”
Wren had only one answer. Hewasbad. Bad for her. So very bad.
“Is it all because I kissed you that day?” he continued softly. “The day you let me hold you, and I tasted your tears… I couldn’t taste them and not taste you.”
Wren looked down at her chest; her heartbeat made the fabric of her nightgown jump. Any words that might have come to her aid vanished in her throat.
“Was it that? Or was it before? When you came to me with those delicious pies.” His voice sounded so close she could almost feel it against her neck. “And Marcelle answered the door and scared you away.”
“She didn’t—” Wren only managed two words before he charged over her.
“What would have happened, Wren, if I’d broken up with her just a little sooner?"
In spite of herself, Wren closed her eyes and just listened. She didn’t want to argue; she just wanted the touch of his voice. The allure of what might have been.
“I would have answered the door. I would have invited you in. I would have asked you to stay,” he said.
With her eyes closed, she saw it happen, saw the fantasy again that had lured her to his doorstep in the first place. No matter what she’d told herself that evening, she’d wanted to be with him. She pictured him opening the door. She pictured him smiling at her.
“Would you have stayed, Wren?”
Oh, yes.
But she held her mouth shut. Saying yes to Dr. Leland Hawthorne was entirely too dangerous. She could never let herself want anyone like him. She’d never let herself want anyone who was too good for her. Wren Blanchard could never measure up to everything Dr. Leland Hawthorne was or to the kind of world that had produced him. Boyfriends who mooched food and left dirty dishes on her coffee table, guys who hooked up with her at Agave and left the morning after… that she could do. That was her type. Not him. Not this.
“I wish it would have happened just like that,” Lee whispered. “Because then maybe you’d be here right now. And I want you here right now.”
Wren sucked in her breath. She had to stop wanting him. “I have to go.”
“Don’t go—”
