It's Never too Late

He’d purchased the wine chilled.

He needed to see her.

He’d walked through his half of the duplex, past his homework and out the front. And then he’d knocked on her door.

* * *

“MARK!”

Did he know that she loved him? Could he read the truth in her eyes?

“You’re on your way out.” He glanced at the keys suspended in her hand.

“Yes, I...I...” She what? What could she possibly say to this man that wouldn’t make her sound crazier than she was?

I’m an impostor who’s in love with you?

She couldn’t be. She’d just been out of her element too long. She needed to get out of Shelter Valley. Needed to be able to believe that Will Parsons was as perfect as she’d always believed him to be.

She’d agreed to meet Mark outside on their patio and now she was running away.

“What’s wrong?”

His frown was filled with as much compassion as concern. And something far more personal, too.

It was the personal that got to her. Inside her. And she noticed the bottle of wine in his hand. The two glasses in the other.

“I... Nothing’s wrong,” she said. Another lie because everything in her life was wrong.

“I was just heading out for some...milk.” He knew she didn’t drink milk. They’d talked about it the first time Nonnie had shared his chocolate chip cookies with her. “For cooking.”

“What are you cooking this time of night?”

“Pudding.” The lies rolled off her tongue. And with every word she hated herself more.

Or, at least, hated the predicament she was in.

“Could I interest you in a celebratory glass of wine instead?” He held up the bottle.

“Of course.” Her mouth answered before her brain had a chance to process the question. She stepped aside.

Letting him into her living room. Only her living room.

“You want to go out back?” she asked.

“If you’d like.”

“Or we could stay in here.” She motioned to the couch. And the chair next to it. She was acting like a schoolgirl. An idiot.

She was acting like Adele Kennedy.

Unfortunately, Adele had given away Adrianna Keller’s heart.

* * *

ADDY WENT FOR NUTS. A bowl of them. To go with the wine. She couldn’t afford any chances that the sweet white liquid would go to her head. Dull her inhibitions any more than they’d already been dulled.

She needed something to do with her hands.