Officer, Surgeon...Gentleman!

Both women jumped at Cole’s voice.

When had he stepped off the machine? Walked over to them?

What did he mean, he wouldn’t say that?

“You were listening to our private conversation?” Amelia snapped, her face flushing. Was he admitting to wanting her? If so, what did that mean? What did she want it to mean?

“If you didn’t want me to listen, you shouldn’t have been talking where I could hear.” His gaze didn’t leave hers. “Why can’t I want you, Amelia? I told you I wanted you. Two years ago. Have you forgotten?”

This couldn’t be happening. Shouldn’t be happening. Why was Suzie smiling like the fool cat that ate the canary?

“You heard everything we said?”

“Not everything.” His gaze went back and forth between the two women, his gaze settling back on Amelia. “But enough.”

“Enough.” He’d heard her question Suzie about how he looked at her. Her face burned in shame. Oh, Clara, I’m sorry. I’ll get whatever this hold he has over me under control.

Amelia stopped moving on the machine, gave Suzie a dirty look, then walked toward the weights.

Cole followed her.

“I owe you an apology,” she said stiffly when he stood next to her. “Suzie and I shouldn’t have been discussing you.”

“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I’m not complaining.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a crooked smile and his eyes sparked with mischief. “You can discuss me anytime.”

Amelia placed her hand on the weight rack, reluctantly met Cole’s gaze.

She had to remember her sister, had to ignore the excited bubbles working their way through her like a pot of boiling water.

“What are we doing, Cole?”

His grin was contagious, but she pretended immunity.

“Working out?” he offered.

She sighed at his deliberate misunderstanding of what she’d asked. “I may have agreed to a truce for the sake of the crew, but that’s as far as this goes.”

His expression sobering, he nodded. “That truce is more than I expected, Amelia, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to wanting more.”

There went her heart rate again.

“What kind of more?” she dared ask, for the simple reason she couldn’t not ask.

She knew what he was going to say, knew she wasn’t prepared for his answer, knew she needed to put some distance between them right this very second.

Instead she stood still, her fingers curled around a dumbbell, waiting for him to say words she didn’t want to hear, and yet she did want to hear them. Over and over.

And that made her weak, something she couldn’t stand being, a failure in her own eyes. A failure to her self and to her family.

What would her family say if they knew she and Cole had kissed between the wedding rehearsal and the time he’d broken things off with Clara? What would Clara say?

Amelia couldn’t bear to hurt her family, but she couldn’t turn away from Cole. She stood her ground, waiting for words she hadn’t heard in two years and yet had never been able to forget, had awakened in cold sweats hearing them echo through her dreams. Words she needed to hear again, even if for just one last time.

Clara, forgive me for what I’m feeling.

She held her breath, her lungs threatening to burst, her ears straining to hear his answer, wanting to believe he meant what he said and that he wasn’t there because of some twisted reason to do with her sister.

“I want you.”