Was Matt acriminal? About to go to prison? Or…maybe itwaswitness protection.
“What are you talking about, Matt? You have to tell me.”
“I can’t,” he said. “You’d never look at me the same and I need you to…like me.”
“I do like you,” she replied. “At least, I did.”
“Then you can again. In a year.”
“Matt—”
“I like you, too, MJ.” His thumb brushed her knuckles, his eyes fierce and earnest. “But I have a…a burden I have to deal with before I can start something real. Please. Just give me a year.”
“I don’t know if I can do that without answers.”
“You’ll get the answers,” he said, anguish threading his voice. “Until then, can you trust me?”
Honestly, she wasn’t sure, but she was certain of one thing—her heart was tearing in two.
Their gazes locked, and for a heartbeat, it felt like the whole world held still. Then, slowly, he leaned in and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead.
“Goodbye, Mary Jane.”
She couldn’t speak. She sat frozen in shock and sadness as he stood, hesitated, then walked back to the mudroom, donned his jacket and boots, and stepped outside.
When the door clicked shut, MJ sank back, staring at the empty room and closed door, feeling a hollow, heavy ache in her chest.
Tears pricked her eyes, and she pressed a trembling hand to her mouth. Tomorrow night, the lodge would be filled with laughter and celebration. Jack and Cindy would start their new life together.
She needed to cling to that, not her girlish hopes of…a midnight kiss.
MJ closed her eyes, letting a single tear slip free.
Nicole wrapped her hands around the warm paper coffee cup, blowing across the dark surface before taking a careful sip. Steam curled into the cold morning air as she stood near a low stone wall, surveying the small campus spread out before her.
Great Basin Veterinary Institute in Eagle Mountain wasn’t flashy or sprawling, barely the size of a community college. It had a comfy, purposeful feel—just five brick-and-stone buildings arranged around a tidy courtyard, with walking paths dusted by the recent snow.
Beyond that, a small animal hospital gleamed with glass windows, a sign over the entrance announcing it was open to the public for everything from vaccinations to emergency care. A few hundred feet away stood a long, low barn with a covered paddock, the sound of a horse whinnying carrying faintly across the crisp winter air.
At the edge of the campus, there was a tiny coffee shop with a green awning that seemed quiet on this New Year’s Eve morning, but Nicole could imagine it bustled with students on a class day.
There was even a fenced park area that was clearly designed for both two- and four-legged members of the student body. Calm today, but she knew that when the next semester started, GBVI would hum with purpose and passion for animals.
Just like Elise Hale would if she were a student here.
Assuming she was accepted, assuming she was safe, assuming it was affordable—and Elise seemed certain of all those things—why wouldn’t the family want her to start her life here? Surely, they couldn’t want that bright and beautiful creature trapped in Heber forever?
While it wasn’t really Nicole’s business, she couldn’t help wondering. She had a vested interest.
She closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in the clean scent of snow and pine, and imagined Elise wheeling along those pathways, bright-eyed and independent, surrounded by others who shared her dream. It felt right. It feltpossible.
She paced slowly, sipping her coffee. That morning had been a whirlwind—she’d driven to Elise’s house and arrived just after eight, missing Cameron by minutes, she learned.
That left an unsettled feeling, but she tamped it down, concentrating on figuring out how to drive the family’s specially modified van. Elise knew everything, of course, and proved over and over that she was a competent and bright young woman with one problem—her legs were paralyzed.
“I’m not dead,” she’d repeated to Nicole. “Just the nerves in my legs are. I’m so sick of being babied!”
Nicole understood and sympathized, which was the only reason she’d risked her budding romance by going directly against Cameron’s wishes. He’d never been a twenty-four-year-old girl, and Nicole had.
