Your One True Love (The Bennett Family 8)
Page 29
His words wrap around me like a blanket of comfort. Knowing it meant more than sex to him too reaches somewhere deep inside me. Still, it doesn’t change things.
“No, it wasn’t, but it was still a one-time thing.”
More silence, which unnerves me. Daniel usually has no problem filling silences of any kind. My stomach twists and turns in anticipation.
“Why did you give up on me so easily, Caroline?”
Huh? Not what I was expecting at all. Tension gathers between my shoulder blades, but I try to keep my calm. “What do you mean?”
“When I told you it was best to break things off, you didn’t say anything.”
Right, out the window goes my determination to remain calm. “You’d broken my heart, what was I supposed to say?”
I climb out of the bed, suddenly filled with too much energy. Needing to walk it off, I just pace my bedroom.
“Something. Anything. Fight me on it. You accepted it so easily, as if it was what you’d wanted too.”
“Is this what you told yourself to feel better about being an ass?”
“Partly,” he admits. “But it did feel like you accepted it all too quickly.”
“I can’t believe this. I was twenty-one, and hurt, and it was clear you didn’t want me anymore. What was I supposed to do? Beg?”
“No, just... I don’t know, Caroline. I’ve been thinking about it many times, about how it could have gone differently.”
This catches me off guard. “Different how?”
“No idea, any way I got to keep you.”
Is he saying what I think he’s saying? No, it can’t be. Must be all that wine, and I’m reading into things. But not even I can read too many things in “any way I got to keep you.” Still, I gather the courage to ask for clarification.
?
??Dan, what are you saying?” I whisper.
“Of my top five regrets, losing you is right at the head of the list. I should have told you that a long time ago. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
Ah, but even hearing it now is more than I was hoping for. Time to put his mind at rest too.
“I didn’t want to break up, Daniel. I just didn’t know how to fight you, or fight for you. I thought pushing back would be humiliating.”
“And I’d just broken your heart.”
Despite myself, I laugh. “Yeah.”
More silence follows, but it’s not uncomfortable this time.
“You know what the second thing on that regret list is?”
“What?”
“Not getting my act together sooner and pursuing you again. I never stopped caring.”
Oh God, make him stop. Is he aware that this is every woman’s dream? Well, my dream at least. To find out that I still mean something to the man I could never forget? Who still means so much to me....
“I didn’t stop either. Caring, I mean.”
He lets out a long breath into the phone. Sounds like a relieved breath.