Built To Last

“I miss you.”

“I don’t believe that.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I don’t understand where all this hostility is coming from.”

It was all he could do not to jump up from the table and leave. She knew good and well where his hostility originated. How about every minute of their two years together when he made no secret of his desire to settle down and start a family? And when she let him set up an elaborate proposal on the beach, only to turn him down.

Come to think of it, the one good thing she did was to say no when he asked her to marry him. Their marriage would have been a disaster from day one. Why didn’t Lindsay understand this?

He thought he was over being hurt by her. Obviously he wasn’t. “You got what you wanted. You went to LA. Without me.”

“I was wrong.”

He sputtered, spitting out the sip of wine he’d just taken. “What?”

“I said I was wrong.”

“What were you wrong about?”

“Everything. Leaving Laguna Beach. Going to LA. Leaving you.”

He took another sip of his drink. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the universe for this conversation.

“Saying no to you… I was wrong about all of it,” Lindsay added.

He stared at his hands, his knuckles turning white from gripping his wine glass. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. He was with Erin now. He loved her. He knew it with every fiber of his being. But now Lindsay was in front of him and she admitted she was wrong.

They’d had some good times, and their relationship had been easy. Maybe too easy. They seemed to have so much in common.

Except one big thing.

He wanted a family. And she didn’t.

He forced civilized words through his clenched teeth. “What happened? Did you not get the part you wanted?”

She stared down at the table, and for the first time, he saw the sweet Lindsay he’d fallen in love with. “I hated LA. From the day I arrived. It was awful. And I missed you.”

“Why now? Why not sooner, if you hated it so much.” Lindsay didn’t know about Erin, did she? Had she been waiting, biding her time, until he’d met someone else, to come back and devastate him? Why couldn’t she have come back three months ago? He would have been angry with her, sure, but he probably would have taken her back. He couldn’t now. And he wouldn’t.

He didn’t want to.

She raised her eyes. “I didn’t think it was fair to you. I know I hurt you. I was stupid. I loved you. I still love you. Please say you still love me.”

He didn’t answer.

“I want another chance with you.”

His heart skipped a beat. How many nights had he lain awake, dreaming about hearing those words? He struggled to conjure the hurt he felt when she turned him down and left him alone on the beach. But he couldn’t deny that underneath all the hurt, he had loved Lindsay. He wouldn’t have proposed if he didn’t. “I haven’t changed. I still want the same things I’ve always wanted. I want to raise a family. Here… in Laguna Beach.”

That should be enough to remind her why they wouldn’t work out.

“I know how important a family is to you. I want that, too.”

“Since when?”

“For a while now.”

He sat back in his chair. This wasn’t at all the Lindsay who hadn’t shed a tear when turning down his proposal. The one who had her eyes on the horizon, chasing fame all the way to Los Angeles. “This sure seems like a convenient change of heart.”