It's Never too Late

“I don’t know. You got any advice?”

Resting his head against the back of his seat, Mark spent the next half hour staring out at the lights in the valley below and helping his ex-girlfriend get her new man.

A man she’d already slept with. Several times.

Even if Ella had been pregnant, there’d been no guarantee the baby had been his. She’d just wanted him to be her baby’s father, so she’d tried to make it so.

He understood. Accepted her for what she was.

And moved on down the road.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

NOTHING WAS AS IT should be. Not her investigation of Will Parsons. Not the life of deception she was living. And not the compulsion to be with Mark Heber.

She didn’t go an hour anymore without thinking of sex. And her thoughts always included Mark. She’d been dreaming about sex, too, and waking up crazy in need.

But it was about more than sex. Physical desires she could fight. She was an adult, capable of abstaining. She could lock her doors and stay inside.

She could just tell Mark that she didn’t want him to touch her. Ever. He’d abide by her wishes.

Sex wasn’t the issue. No matter what Nonnie asked of her, Mark was not going to make love with one woman while another was carrying his baby. Nor would he share his body with one if he’d promised to marry another.

Both were reasons why she loved him.

Jumping up from the table, not even sure what folders she had open on her laptop, Addy went to the spare bedroom, as far away from Mark as she could get without leaving her place.

She’d said she’d meet him outside. She’d been waiting half an hour. He was late getting home.

The spare bedroom felt foreign. She never used it.

She loved him.

That was the issue.

The truth had followed her into the room. She couldn’t stay in there with it.

Hurrying back down the hallway, Addy grabbed her car keys and rushed to the front door. She’d go for a drive. Get away.

She just needed a change of scenery.

To find perspective.

She pulled open her front door.

And found Mark.

* * *

HE’D GONE OUT the back door first. A bottle of wine and two glasses in his hands, he’d approached her chair, some corny words about toasting to a celebration on his lips.

When she hadn’t been there, he’d glanced at her window, seen lights on and taken a seat. To wait.

He’d listened to her water. Thought about Ella. She was going to be all right.

If not, she’d call. And he’d help her in any way he could. They’d spent a couple of good years together. They’d always have that.

At some point it had dawned on him that Addy wasn’t coming out. Maybe she’d already been out.