Page 49 of Winning Back His Wife
“Thank you,” Sarah said. “Thanks to both of you. But you shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.”
Cullen stood. “You need more to do than sleep and walk. Some data analysis won’t hurt you if you don’t overdo it.”
Sarah couldn’t believe he’d listened to what she’d said yesterday when they’d spoken about going to Taco Night and done something about it. Something so wonderful.
Her heart swelled with joy. Maybe Cullen had changed. Heaven knew he kept surprising her with each passing day. “I can’t wait to get to work.”
He brushed his hands together. “Breakfast first.”
“What are we having?” Bill asked.
“Omelets and bacon, but I need to run to the store for more eggs.”
“I’ll go,” Bill said, then took off.
She wanted to kiss Cullen and not only with kisses of gratitude. Her heart lodged itself in her throat. “Thank you.”
“Your work’s important. This will make things easier on you.”
And be the perfect distraction. She needed something to keep her from throwing herself into his arms and smothering his gorgeous face with kisses. “Are you working tonight?”
“Nope. I’m caught up on the shifts I missed,” he said. “I got lucky. I only missed four shifts while I was away.”
She looked at Bill’s chair and the table with the printer. Cullen had set up everything on the left-hand side. A rush of affection infused her. “I feel lucky myself.”
Last night everything in her world had seemed wrong. Today it felt oh-so-right. Sarah couldn’t believe he’d gone to so much trouble. Her heart stumbled.
“It can’t be easy having me here, but I appreciate everything you’re doing and have done.” She couldn’t change what had happened in the past, but she was speaking from the heart now. Cullen was her Prince Charming, and she felt like a princess. Albeit a bruised and battered one, but a princess nonetheless. And this might be the closest she ever got to a happy ending. “I hope you know that.”
His satisfied smile settled on his lips and spread to his twinkling blue eyes. “I do now.”
* * *
Over the next week, Sarah slept less and worked more. Interpreting data gave her a sense of purpose and kept her from thinking about Cullen. Okay, thinking about him too much. She still dreamed about him and occasionally thought about him kissing her. Thankfully he didn’t again.
No matter how compelling the fairy tale was, Sarah knew better than to buy into it again. Others shared true love’s kiss and found a happily-ever-after. Not her. She needed to stay focused.
But being with Cullen made it easy to forget her goal wasn’t to settle into a comfortable routine here. There might be room for her at the cabin, but there wasn’t room in his life. A few conversations didn’t make up for all the times he hadn’t wanted to talk to her. His kind gestures touched her, but they didn’t change anything. She needed to get back to Mount Baker, back to the institute, back to her life.
And that was what she intended to do.
Today was her first day alone, a big step on her road to a full recovery. She was enjoying her first taste of independence since the accident. Oh, she’d missed the smell of coffee when she woke and conversations with her friends. But this was what she needed in order to return to Bellingham.
After eating lunch, Sarah downloaded files from MBVI’s server. She studied a data stream her boss wanted her to check. The seismometer appeared to be working properly. She’d looked at enough of these squiggly lines to know the difference between ice movement and data glitches, but something didn’t make sense. Magma shouldn’t move without generating more specific seismic signals. At least, she’d never seen that before.
Sarah opened a new tab on her browser and checked a website listing the many earthquakes that occurred daily in the Pacific Northwest. She scratched her head. “What am I missing here?”
“Me?”
A bevy of butterflies took flight, turning her stomach into a crowded butterfly house. She had missed him, even if she shouldn’t.
As he walked toward her, his aquamarine polo shirt seemed to change the shade of his blue eyes, reminding her of Los Tenideros in Costa Rica’s Tenorio Volcano National Park, where two different-colored rivers merge. She’d traveled there after receiving her PhD and before starting at MBVI. She’d hoped the trip would heal the wound from her aborted marriage. Hadn’t worked. She now wondered if anything could do that.
Sarah couldn’t believe how good it was to see Cullen. A part of her wanted to fling herself into his arms, which would be a really stupid thing to do. She remained seated.
