Instead of answering, he said, “That woman, on the stairs, was she your mother?”
“Yes. And my sister, Cindy.”
“Your mother said you’d been distraught ever since you came home from Peru.”
She shrugged. “You know how moms are.”
“She seemed to think the reason you were distraught was because of a man.”
“Mom doesn’t know I resigned from my job. Neither do my sisters. I didn’t want to tell them before the wedding because they’d only worry and ask ten thousand questions I didn’t feel up to answering.”
His gaze pinned hers. “So the reason you’ve been distraught has only to do with leaving your job?”
“Actually, that has nothing to do with it. I’m not now, nor have I been, distraught over leaving my job, Brett. I have no regrets in regard to that decision.”
“Then why have you been upset?”
“You can’t figure it out?”
“I’d prefer that you tell me.”
She again looked down at her hands, digging deep for courage, then raised her head to meet his gaze. “All right. You deserve the words. I’ve been distraught because I fell in love with you. And because of my actions, I lost you. I’m hoping that someday I won’t feel quite so distraught, but that day hasn’t come yet. I can tell you it’s not today. Tomorrow’s not looking real good, either.”
She drew another bracing breath. “And even though I explained everything in my letter and tried to tell you how sorry I was, you also deserve a face-to-face apology. I’m sorry, Brett. I deeply regret my reasons for going to Peru and can only reiterate that those reasons had nothing to do with my attraction to you or my decision to sleep with you or the feelings I developed for you.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Thank you for that. I can’t deny that finding you gone, leaving only that letter…hurt me.”
“I’m sorry. That’s the last thing I wanted.”
“I think the fact that you left, that you told me in a letter instead of staying and telling me face to face, hurt more than the actual contents of the letter.”
She shook her head. “Just another selfish act on my part. I couldn’t stand the thought of all the affection I’d seen in your eyes disappearing.”
“That was more than affection, Kayla. I’d fallen in love with you, too.”
His words pierced her already aching heart, hurt echoing from his use of the past tense.
“Why didn’t you tell me about resigning from your job?” he asked.
“We haven’t exactly kept in touch.”
“You didn’t mention in your letter that you intended to do so.”
“No. Actually, I didn’t want you to know. It was my own personal…penance of sorts. Please don’t worry about it. As I said, I have no regrets. At least about that.”
The church bells chimed, marking the half hour, and she knew she needed to leave soon. “You never told me why you’d wanted to get in touch with me.”
“I wanted to see you. Talk to you. For the first three weeks I was home, I was very hurt. And very angry. At you. At what you’d done. And then for leaving me like that. I stalked around like a lion with a thorn in its paw, telling myself I was better off without you, that I didn’t care, that it didn’t matter.
“I threw myself into finding the right lawyer to represent me, to deciding the best thing to do with my formula. And I finally decided.”
When she remained silent he asked, “Don’t you want to know?”
“Only if you want to tell me.”
“I signed a contract two days ago with Parisian Cosmetics.”
She nodded slowly. “Small company based in France, very high-end products, sold only in the most exclusive shops.” She smiled. “Congratulations.”
He smiled in return. “Thank you.”
“Will you be sending your parents to Machu Picchu?”
“I wanted to. They’d rather go to Vegas. Go figure.”
“So no change, no gain worked out well for you. I guess your life’s now back in balance.”
“Not entirely.” His expression sobered, and he reached out and gently took her hand. “I read your note over and over, until I could recite the words without even looking at it. And after the initial anger and hurt settled down a bit, all I could see when I read that letter was how sorry you were. How bad you felt. How deeply you regretted your actions.”
He blew out a quick breath. “Hell, I’ve done plenty of things that I regretted. Lots of stuff I was sorry for. That’s when my anger and hurt started to fade and the only thing left was…loneliness.”
The pad of his thumb brushed over the back of her hand and tingles zoomed up her arm. “I finally decided that there was one more risk I had to take, and it involved you. I wanted, needed to see you. Talk to you. To find out what had happened with your boss when you returned.”
His compelling gaze rested on hers. “It never occurred to me that you’d resign from your job, but the fact that you did…well, it just proves what I knew, what I finally figured out. That you are the woman I knew you were, from the first moment I saw you.
“Kayla, a good person isn’t someone who never makes a mistake. It’s someone who admits to them. Who apologizes and tries to make amends. A person who’d leave their job, rather than allow it to compromise them.”
“I did allow it to.”
“But not for long. So you’re not perfect. Here’s a news flash-neither am I.” His lopsided grin flashed. “You heard it here first. And there was one more reason I wanted to see you. I wanted to know if you’d been as unhappy as I was.”
“I’ve been really unhappy,” she said in a shaky voice, and then, to her utter mortification, tears spilled from her eyes, running down her cheeks and plopping on her Vera Wang. “I’ve done nothing but mope and cry,” she said, each word punctuated with a juicy sob and more tears, “and eat biscotti and I’ve gained weight and my butt is fat and my dress is tight and I’ve missed you so much it hurts to breathe-even without this damn tight dress.”
He whipped a hanky from his back pocket and with a tender smile, dabbed at her eyes.
“And now Meg is going to yell because I’ll look all blotchy in the pictures and have tear stains on my Wang.”
“On your what?”
“My Wang. My dress.”
“Oh. That’s a…relief. You women have the darnedest names for clothes. And you don’t look blotchy. You’re beautiful,” he said, blotting her eyes. “And you’re not fat, either.”
“I know you’re just saying that, but thank you anyway.”
“I’m not just saying it. You look gorgeous.” He cradled her damp face between his hands. “Did you mean it when you said that you’d fallen in love with me?”
“Yes.” She briefly closed her eyes. “God, yes.”
“Have your feelings changed?”
She gave a jerky nod. “They’ve grown stronger.”
There was no mistaking the relief that filled his eyes. “Well, that’s good news. Because I love you, Kayla. It was a done deal for me from moment one.”
Resting her hands over his, she let the tears dribble down her cheeks unchecked. “Thank you for forgiving me.”
“Thank you for loving me.”
A happy laugh escaped her. “Trust me, it’s very easy to do.”
He leaned forward and kissed her, a lush, deep kiss filled with love and heat and passion that left her breathless. When he lifted his head, she felt decidedly dazed. “Wow. That’s potent. And probably very inappropriate given our location.”
“You’re right. But you make me forget where I am.” He glanced down then shook his head. “And what I’m doing. I almost forgot. I brought you a present.” He handed her the large blue shopping bag.