Her brow crumpled, and she uncrossed her arms as she gazed up at me, blinking as if she’d just seen the sun. “You believe me? You love me?”
I nodded. “I do, of course I do. I’m an idiot. A very sorry idiot. I should never have ever doubted you.”
She sighed. “Finally,” she said, her voice quiet with relief. “I couldn’t betray you. Not for any amount of money.”
Of course she wouldn’t. She was too good. Too decent. Too self-sacrificing. I wanted to reach for her, pull her into my arms and protect her for the rest of time. From the likes of Cannon, from idiots like me who didn’t appreciate her.
“Cannon pulled strings to get your brother’s health insurance reassessed. They were trying to make you take the money,” I said, wanting to fill the silence, wanting to earn her trust back.
“Jesus,” she said, stamping her delicate foot on the worn wood of the jetty. “That was them? Fuckers.”
“That we can agree upon.” I wanted to take every drop of her pain away.
“They were trying to ruin my life so I’d be forced to take the money.” She crossed her arms and gazed out at the sea. I wanted her to look at me. I wanted to see forgiveness in her eyes.
“It would seem so. Again, it was my fault. If I hadn’t been on this yacht, your brother’s health insurance would never have been affected.”
“Wow,” she replied. “These people have so much power.”
“Too much power.” She shouldn’t have to live with the sword of Damocles hovering over her family. She’d done nothing but do right by everyone in her life.
“For a second, I imagined what my life would be if I’d taken that money,” she said, squinting at the sun. “I took the phone. I thought about it.”
“Don’t feel bad about that. They made it as tempting as they could for you, and you know, if it had been my brother, I probably would have taken the cash.”
She laughed, and I couldn’t help but smile as I saw that open, genuine joy on her face, but she stopped herself abruptly and turned to me. “But your deal went through, right? They didn’t win?”
I couldn’t believe that with everything she’d been through, the way I’d treated her, she was still worried about me. “Everything is fine with Phoenix, but I don’t care about that. I’m here. I want to make things right with you.”
A breeze interrupted the still, hot air and blew a stray strand of brown hair across Avery’s face. Instinctively, I brushed it away.
“I missed you,” I said, cupping her face and sweeping my thumb over her cheek.
She closed her eyes as if it were too painful to hear the words.
“I missed you,” she replied.
“I know I don’t deserve it, but forgive me.”
She leaned into my palm. “It’s done already. I couldn’t be angry at you, even before you came here. Well, I was at first, but I saw the pressure you were under, the betrayal you were having to deal with.”
My heart soared. I knew I didn’t deserve her forgiveness but to have it? To hear her say it? This was the summit of Everest. Looking at her was the best view in the world.
“Forgive but don’t forget, that’s what my dad always says.”
My stomach flipped over. Of course she couldn’t forget. What I’d done was question who she was. But did that mean there was no chance of a future together?
“Did you find your leak?” She placed a hand on my chest and I stepped forward so there was just an inch separating us.
I nodded. “I did. They’d been paid very well by Cannon over this last year or so.”
“What people will do for money, huh?” she said.
“I’d do anything for you,” I whispered. “Rob a bank, bury a body, whatever you want me to do.”
Her silence expanded as her palm seared into my chest and my thumb stroked her cheek.
“I should get back,” she said eventually. “I can’t leave Skylar and August on their own any longer.”
Were we done? Had whatever she’d felt for me fizzled and died as my accusations took over? I needed a way back. I couldn’t give up. “Come back? Later? Tonight?”
“I can’t leave the yacht. You know that.”
By forgiving me she’d given me more than I could have possibly hoped for. But I still hoped for more. I wanted her heart, her body, her soul. “Then I’ll wait. When can I see you again?”
She tilted her head. “Go back to London, Hayden. I’m here all season.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “You have a life there.”
“I want you in my life. I just—”
“This . . . We’re . . . I don’t know what you want or what you’re expecting, but I have responsibilities. I have five months here and then . . . We’re not compatible.”