Once upon a time prior to their sexual marathon days, they'd been able to talk about anything. Surely he could recapture that ease for a short walk.
For Mary Elise, he pushed the churning words free. "I think about him or her sometimes. Wonder what our kid would have looked like. What we'd be doing now, if…" And the question he wondered about most, even if he suspected the answer. "Whether you and I would have made it."
She tipped her face up to his, red hair streaming across skin turned translucent in the moonlight. "Likely not."
Regret dulled her eyes, stirring protector instincts stronger than any he'd felt in a job that had taken him to some of the most twisted hellholes of the world. He wanted to fight a tangible battle to swipe away the stain in her eyes from memories past. Which of course meant taking on himself.
Way to go, bud.
He forged ahead. "You're probably right. My relationship history hasn't been any better than my father's."
"At least you were smart enough not to marry your mistakes."
He grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. "You can shut that talk down right now. We may have made mistakes, you and I, but knowing you was the best damned thing that ever happened to me."
A tender smile crept over her face. "You are so sweet, Danny."
"Sweet?" Crap. She obviously had him mixed up with someone else.
Her hand eased away as she trailed ahead. "But I wasn't talking about us. I meant my marrying Kent."
Her words carried so quietly on the night air, he let them kick around in his head for a few seconds to make sure he'd heard her right.
"So Kent McRae was a mistake?" He couldn't stop the question. He was human after all.
"Obviously, or I wouldn't have divorced him." She pulled ahead with long-legged strides that drew his eyes and his libido.
And then her words soaked into his brain. He stopped. You left him." A fact that meant a lot more to him than it should. "I never knew for sure."
She continued ahead for five tide-swishing steps. He stood unmoving, seaweed twining around his ankles as tenaciously as thoughts of this woman. Thoughts and curiosity about the man she'd chosen to marry without the coercion of a shotgun wedding.
Finally she spun to face him, all traces of regret and could-have-beens erased from her face. She was getting better at hiding her emotions. Much more practice and she'd be gone from him altogether, even if she never crossed the county line.
A bizarre thought for him, a man who kept life simple. Fact based. But he knew. She was easing her way out of his world. She'd thrown him out last time. This time she would stride away with a long-legged grace.
She smiled, signaled her end to deeper discussions, another freaking odd thought since that was usually his role.
"Anyhow, it's wonderful how everyone turned out for you with more than just gifts. They're here with support, for you and the boys. You're going to be fine." She held his gaze for one of those long, Mary Elise moments that carried peace and intensity all at once. "I'm so happy for you, Danny. You deserve to be loved."
"So do you." Where had that come from?
Well, hell. Of course he'd never been the right man for her, but that didn't mean he didn't want her to be happy. He'd always wanted that for her.
Her mask slipped, not much. But enough.
He pressed his advantage. "You don't have to go." Daniel closed the steps between them. "I know you'll need your own place and a job, so why not settle in Charleston? I'm not looking for you to take on my responsibilities, but it would be good for the boys to have you near. And I could help you relocate."
She backed up a step, tidewaters swirling between them. "I'm not staying here."
He'd expected that, realized he'd have to push her on this. He hadn't, however, expected the jab of disappointment. Eleven years had passed just fine without her.
Well, maybe more like the last nine of them.
Why the hell should a handful of days together change that? "Where are you going? Back to Savannah after all?"
She shook her head. "I want to start over somewhere new, fresh."
"Where?"