Bargain in Bronze

But she knew he’d do long term one day—when he’d met the right woman. It was just that she wasn’t that woman. She couldn’t change him, and didn’t want to. The fact was that she wasn’t the one who could bring the balance to his life.

Okay. Now she had to walk away before she humiliated herself by crying and clinging. For the final time, she twisted the ring off her finger. “You have to take this back now.”

He looked at her. He looked at the ring. But he didn’t take it.

“Surely you have a tongue in your head?” she prodded—falling back on Shakespeare to help her joke her way through the heartbreak.

“I don’t want it.”

“Oh, it’s just a zirconia, right?” She watched him.

He smiled—a lazy pull of that masculine mouth.

She sighed. No. She knew it wasn’t. “Why did you get it?”

“Because it’s simple and elegant and sparkles—most of all when no one’s looking. Like you.”

He couldn’t say things like that, it wasn’t fair. “Oh, that’s charming.” She tried to keep it cool as she held it out to him again. “But you have to take it back. Now.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘No’?”

“I mean no.” His shoulders lifted.

“You have to take it back. It’s worth… I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t matter.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I want you to have it.” He clamped his mouth shut—as if that was all he had to say about it.

Nina looked at him—why was he insisting on this? She didn’t believe there was anything more to his feelings, and she hated to think there was less. But suddenly she had to challenge him—to put the emotion out there. Too bad if it made him uncomfortable. “I could have fallen for you, Eduardo. I really could have fallen.” For the first time, she lied. As he’d said, sometimes a white lie to protect yourself was necessary. For the truth was, she had fallen.

She hesitated after she’d spoken. Would he pick up on the opening she’d just given him?

His mouth softened, but his gaze dropped and he looked down to the grass. “You’re going to have an amazing time.”

Nina clenched her teeth, only just maintaining some kind of smile as his words cauterized the wound in her heart. No, he hadn’t taken up that opening to declare anything. It seemed the ring thing was her good-bye prize. No, thanks.

She was grateful to him in one way. He’d restored her belief that there were monogamous guys out there. And he’d built her sensual confidence. He’d made her believe she was attractive and sexy and that a gorgeous guy could want her—even if it was for only a little while. He’d even gotten her to believe that her “boring” tastes weren’t that boring to everyone.

But this was a holiday romance. A fling. They were supposed to walk away easily, and occasionally remember the other with a fond smile.

“I’m going to put this here.” She put the ring down on the grass. The diamond sparkled. “I’m not taking it. You have to take it.” She stood. “I have to get going. Can’t miss the train and plane and stuff.”

He stood, too.

The ring still lay on the ground between them.

“Pick it up,” she ordered.

He shook his head obstinately. “I have to get back to the hospital.”

“Eduardo, this is crazy.”

“It’s yours. I gave it to you.”

“I can’t accept it,” she argued. “It’s too precious for me to keep.”

“It’s all I have to give you.” He looked cross.

“Bullshit.” She puffed like she’d been running a marathon in boggy sand. “You don’t have to give me anything.” And he’d refused to give her what she really wanted from him.

“I’m not taking it back.”

“Then it’ll lie there for someone to find. Some geek with a metal detector in three summers’ time.” She turned and walked away.

In a second he was beside her. She glanced back and saw the stone glinting in the grass.

She walked a few paces on, but it preyed on her mind. “You’re playing chicken with me.”

“I’m not going back to get it. If you want it to be safe, you have to go and get it.” He kept walking.

Her anxiety increased. “Are there magpies in the park?” She glanced up at the sky and then around them—people, people, people. Someone would find it.

She stopped on the path. Her heart racing, she stepped so she was right in front of him. She stretched up onto tiptoes and plucked away his sunglasses so she could see into his eyes. “Can you really walk away from something so precious?”

Unflinching, he solemnly held her gaze. “I told you I don’t have the same capacity for caring as most people.”

“Maybe not for things,” she conceded. As wealthy as he was, it was clear he wasn’t materialistic. “But you’re no ‘stony-hearted villain.’ You can care as much as I do. As anyone does.”

He laughed a little but slowly shook his head at the same time. “No.”

“You can and you do.” She frowned. “I’m sorry your parents aren’t supportive of you, that other women in your life have resented the time you put into your work. But you have choices, Eduardo. You choose.”

And he didn’t choose her. Of course he didn’t. But what was with the damned ring?

He took back his glasses from her loose fingers, then sidestepped to resume walking, his face impassive again. She didn’t believe he was that bland on the inside—but she didn’t know what it was he thought. Or felt.

She stopped walking.

“I can’t leave it there.” She turned and ran fast as she could, not checking to see if he followed.

When she got to the patch of flattened grass where they’d lain, the ring was there—waiting, safe, cold. She snatched it up and turned. He hadn’t followed, and now she ran back toward where she’d left him. Only as she neared the corner of the path, she slowed. Because he hadn’t waited for her.

He’d gone.

She turned a slow, full circle. People walked everywhere but none in those dark trousers, that pale blue shirt. He had—to quote Shakespeare—vanished into thin air.

She tightened her hand into a fist so tight the claws holding the diamond cut her palm. Blinking back the tears gathering in her eyes, she focused on breathing—calming, regular gulps. That was it? He couldn’t stay to say good-bye properly? Of course he couldn’t. And she couldn’t break through the scars that held him so emotionally bound. She wasn’t the one for him. Which broke her heart, when he so easily could have been the one for her.

She’d had the real fiancé and no ring. Now she had the real ring but no fiancé. It sucked.

Nina dragged in another deep breath and fought for perspective. He’d needed something nice this week because he was having a crap time at work—with all those patients he supposedly didn’t care about. So their affair wasn’t because he was that into her, he’d just needed the stress release—the emotional lightness. The fun. And okay, that was fine—fair enough. She’d wanted a fun fling—her first. A light summer love affair. And he’d delivered on that. Only he’d delivered so much more—and he’d made her fall for him. It had been so easy. And he knew, didn’t he? He knew and he felt bad and had tried to blame himself. It was easier than admitting he didn’t feel the same for her. And he wanted her to have something to make up for it?

She didn’t want the reminder. And she certainly didn’t want the cold hard cash that it represented.

Chapter Six

Eduardo was called to the unit’s reception area an hour and a half after he’d walked in from the park. An hour and a half of hating himself. He was a coward. And she was right—he’d chosen to be.

“You have to sign for it,” the nurse at reception said apologetically. “The courier won’t accept anyone else’s signature.” She jerked her head toward the impatient-looking Lycra-clad man.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Eduardo said to him.