Ann Christopher - Redemption's Kiss

Anything to avoid Beau’s gaze.

Beau waited until finally her cowardice became so humiliating that even she couldn’t stand it for another second.

Be a woman, Jill. Just ask.

“What does your trying to be a better man have to do with me?”

Staring her right in the eye, he hit her with the directness that had always been both a wonderful and a terrible thing about him.

“I want my family back.”

Jillian paused, the words locked tight in her throat. “You never lost Allegra.”

“I want you back.”

How the hell could he do this to her?

Again?

How was it that this one man could still reach deep inside her and touch her heart? Why, after every terrible thing they’d been through together, did he still have that power over her?

Well, no more. Never again. The independence and self-confidence she’d gained since the divorce were too precious—too hard-won—to risk by letting him into her life again.

God, she was an idiot. If only she could be indifferent enough to laugh and tell him she didn’t give a damn what he wanted. What a glorious day that would be when she finally managed it.

Until then, she felt sudden, choking rage, the kind that burned its way out of her body in an unstoppable eruption. Just this once— just once, God —she wanted to hurt him a millionth as much as he’d hurt her. If not emotionally, then physically would do just fine.

With an incoherent cry, she hurled the basket at him.

That cane didn’t slow him down any. His instincts were still sharp and he deflected the attack, sending muffins flying in all directions.

“How dare you?” The movers would hear her screeching and realize she was insane, but there was time enough to be embarrassed later. “You have a near-death experience and you decide…what? That it’s finally time for you to grow up and be a man? And now you show up here, where I have rebuilt my life, bit by painful bit, and move onto my street and announce you want me back? What do you expect me to do?”

“Exactly what you’re doing.”

The grim resignation in his voice and on his face brought her up short. How could he be so calm when she was losing it? Didn’t he know he was detonating an atomic bomb right in the middle of the carefully constructed house of cards that was her life?

If only she could breathe. If only she could think. If only she’d had some warning that today wouldn’t be just another quiet day at the B & B.

Maybe they needed another joint walk down memory lane.

“Let’s recap, shall we?”

“Jillian—”

“You cheated on me when you were the governor. Is this ringing a bell at all?”

“Jillian—”

“We’d been having problems and I knew our marriage had been in trouble for a long time, so I forgave you. I stood by you at that podium while you gave your little press conference and apologized for the scandal and swore you’d changed. Remember that?”

“I remember.”

“And then we hired Adena Brown to rehabilitate your image and save your career. And what did you do when I thought we were rebuilding our marriage? You had another affair. With her.”

“I know what I did.”

“So you broke my heart again. Created another scandal. Put me through another public humiliation. Made things so bad for me that I couldn’t walk down the street in Richmond without being gawked at. I had to come down here after the divorce and start a new life in a new place where I could hold my head up. And I have.”

“I know you have, baby.”

God, she was shaking all over. He’d made her a mess, after all. Those same stupid tears seemed stuck in her eyes; they wouldn’t fall and they wouldn’t dry up. Worst of all, they didn’t shield her from the yearning in his darkened eyes or from the telltale throb in his tight jaw that told her he was also near tears.

The sight of his raw emotion was almost worse than feeling her own. Taking a deep breath, she willed herself to be strong and her voice not to shake.

“So, given our long and painful history together, Beau, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t want any part of your little self-improvement project.”

Noises startled her and for the first time in a while, she became aware that they were not the only two people in the universe. From outside in the hall came the sound of the movers returning with a mattress and trying to negotiate it up the staircase.

The poor dog hadn’t managed to sleep through her shouting. He was up again, snuffling around the room and systematically eating the muffins with appreciative smacks.

All this activity went on around her and still Beau was the center of her existence. He’d always been the sun to her orbiting earth, since the day they met in law school all those years ago, no matter how she wished otherwise.

He crept closer.

Stubborn pride forced her to stand firm and keep her chin up when the smarter thing would’ve been to leave now, call her real estate agent and list the B & B for sale by supper. But she was still a weak fool, even now, because she held his gaze, knowing that he could play her heartstrings the way Eric Clapton played guitar.

“Do you know what I thought about when I saw that truck coming, Jill?”

“God.” Pressing a hand to her chest, she tried unsuccessfully to choke back a hysterical laugh. “Are you going to use your near-death experience against me? Really, Beau?”

“I thought about you.” He shrugged helplessly, as though thoughts of her at the moment of his anticipated death were inevitable and he accepted them as such. “I saw your face.”

If only those words were meaningless. If only she could let them roll off her back, pity him for living in the past and move on with her life with no thoughts of him to torment her in the dark hours of the night. None of that was possible, though, and bluster was her only flimsy defense against him.

“Too bad for you.” She tried to look bored. “I’ve moved on.”

“You have in some ways,” he said evenly. “But we’re still in love with each other. We’re not finished. We’ll never be finished.”

Jillian went still, too shaken even to blink. The words were such a stinging blow that he might have backhanded her across the face.

For no reason at all, she thought of Adam, her numbness when he’d kissed her earlier, and the way she’d been sleepwalking through life for years. She thought of the yawning emptiness she’d felt, and how she’d wondered if and when she’d ever feel anything deeply ever again.

And now, after ten minutes with her ex-husband, she was that same sickening knot of seething emotions—anger, pain, hurt and confusion—that she’d been when she left him.

Oh, the irony.

She gave him the kind of pitying look she knew he hated, and focused on getting out of there as soon as possible, while she was still in one piece.

“You’re in denial. You should ask your therapist to work on it with you.”

This seemed like a pretty good exit line and she turned to go. But Beau’s face contorted with fury and he lashed out, catching her wrist.

Crying out, she wrenched away from him.

This threw him off balance, to her sinking horror.

Oh, no. She hadn’t meant—

He flailed his free arm but couldn’t right himself. She saw his eyes widen with dismay and all her anger evaporated in the time it took her to lunge and catch him around the waist.

Desperate not to let him fall and damage that leg any further, she locked her knees and they staggered a couple of steps together.

Then Beau shoved her away. “I can do it.”

The scar puckered and reddened with his furious pride as he snarled at her. Grunting with the effort to remain upright, he wobbled again and took another five years off her life.