“What about to yourself?”
Especially not to himself. No one else on earth was able to see inside him and know what he was truly like the way he could. Strip away the money and the suits and what was he left with? When things were important, truly important, he failed.
He couldn’t protect his family the way he should have. If he had done his job, Heath never would’ve had to do what no thirteen-year-old boy should have to do. Julianne wouldn’t have to carry those dark memories with her. His parents wouldn’t be secretly selling off pieces of the farm to stay afloat. No success in business could make up for that kind of personal failure.
“Is that even possible?” he asked. “Can someone like me ever reach the point where they’ve achieved enough? How would I know when I’ve expunged my sins? There’s always the opportunity to disappoint myself. Or someone else.”
“You haven’t disappointed me.”
Wade chuckled. “I haven’t, now? Well, considering I fired you erroneously, harassed you mercilessly and want to take your land away from you, I imagine you have very low standards.”
Tori sat up on one elbow and looked down at him. “I don’t have low standards. I think I’m just better at seeing past the bull.”
“And where did you learn that skill? Traipsing across America studying the human condition?”
“Something like that,” she admitted. “Attending the school of life has its perks and its pitfalls. I think never building real relationships handicapped me when I grew older. I was too trusting because I’d never had the opportunity to be hurt. I didn’t build relationships, like you, but because I couldn’t. We were gone too quickly. I was naive.”
“You?”
“Yes.” She smiled. “I wasn’t always so cynical. The real world brought that. What life didn’t teach me, my ex-boyfriend did.”
She hadn’t mentioned much about her past relationships, but Wade picked up on the pained tone in her voice. The darkness couldn’t veil that. “What did he do?”
Tori sighed and shrugged. “Like I said, I was too trusting. He took advantage of the fact that I was always moving. I wasn’t going to pressure him for marriage or a commitment, even after years together, because I wasn’t in that place.”
Wade could tell where this was going. “He was married.”
“With three kids. Living happily outside Boston. When I told him I was thinking of buying land in Connecticut, he came unglued.”
“And that was the last man you dated?”
Tori nodded.
Wade already felt like crap for the way things had gone down between him and Tori. Knowing she was trying to recover her trust in men when he showed up, scheming to manipulate her, made it that much worse. She deserved more than just a luxurious weekend in Manhattan. She deserved a week in Paris. Or better yet, for him to go away and leave her life and her plans alone.
“Tori,” he started, not quite sure at first what he was going to say. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Wade swallowed the lump in his throat. He had so many feelings swirling in his gut. So many things he wanted to say to her. But he couldn’t put them into words. Wouldn’t. At least not until after he’d dealt with the situation that had brought him here in the first place. Whether he intended it or not, Tori could get hurt. And he didn’t want to say or do anything now that might make the pain that much sharper.
“For everything,” he whispered.
Nine
Tori strolled into Daisy’s Diner a few days later with a bounce in her step and a smile on her face that wouldn’t fade away. Her trip to New York with Wade had been wonderful. Magical. Romantic. Everything she’d hoped for and more than she’d dreamed it could be. They’d strolled through the city, window-shopping and sightseeing. They went to a show. They talked and spent hours in each other’s arms. And then it was time to come home.
Back to Connecticut—and reality. She hadn’t seen Wade since they’d returned to Cornwall. They both had things to do. She was certain he would have to return to his life in Manhattan soon, although he hadn’t mentioned it and she hadn’t asked. He had a business to run. And she had a house to build. But they’d opted to meet here tonight for dinner.
“Hey, there,” Rose said as Tori walked past her usual seat. “No counter service today?”