“Laura,” he said again, as if he actually enjoyed saying her name. “Do you have a minute?”
So, she let him have it with both barrels. “A minute? That can’t be a long explanation then. What is it? You forgot you had a wife? Did it slip your mind? Or did you not think I was worthy of being told the truth?”
His eyes widened. “Of course—”
“Save it,” She braced a hand on the polished console table to stead herself. “Don’t say it.” Because she really didn’t need to hear his excuses. And not when he stared at her with the same green eyes she had been trying to describe. To name. To…something.
“Laura, please let me exp—”
“There is no need to explain anything, Dr Mortimer.”
The impersonal name made him flinch. Good! Because from now on they were strangers. According to him they’d always been strangers, too distant to trust, too impersonal to be honest with.
“I should have known from the start, after all I only fall in love with bad men, so that should have been my first clue.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Joanie and Millie withdraw tactfully towards the kitchen. “Wait! Don’t leave me.”
She grabbed Joanie by the sleeve of her jacket. “You think he’s good-looking? But I’m not such a fool to fall for a handsome face. I fell for him because he was, because he was scared of delivering a baby and hid it from the mother. Because…I fell for him because he was so angry with a bad doctor. I fell for him because he tried to cheer me up when we were lost in the middle of a field in the rain and he never blamed me for walking the wrong way. And because he was shy about some stupid tattoo on his arse. But…” She could feel her heart beating too fast.
“But I was so wrong. So, so wrong. Because you’re like a chocolate um…a chocolate…”
She still had Joanie’s sleeve in her hand. “What’s that thing you put in the centre of chocolate truffle?”
“Ganache.” Joanie squeezed her hand.
“Ganache,” she said triumphantly to Adam. “Yes, that but then you get one which has a stone which breaks your teeth.”
She expected him to say something, to defend himself, but he just stood there looking as if he wanted to gather her in his arms and comfort her.
Like hell, he would.
“You treated me like a good time girl who didn’t deserve your heart.” She jabbed a finger at her chest. “The inner, inner part of your heart. That you kept away from me. And that, Dr Mortimer, that makes you a lying shit.”
She turned to Joanie. “See, I’ve learnt at least one thing. I don’t take it lying down anymore. I’ll stand up for myself and tell it like it is.”
She really needed to stop talking. Too many words, too much wine, way, way too sad. She kept her dignity and walked away from him with her head high and her chin up.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ugh!
God, God, God!
Someone had come into her room last night while she slept and placed twenty-five bricks inside her head. They’d also borrowed her tongue and left a Brillo pad in its place.
Why did God let her drink so much last night?
The hangover was diabolical, but waking up and assessing things sober was even worse. Because when she was able to think beyond the evil headache, she realized why the world looked so different this morning.
She and Adam were finished.
And if that wasn’t enough…
Had she talked to him last night? A mind-fog was slowly clearing, and in it’s place a vague recollection of…ranting? Calling him a lying shit?
Ugh! In the big entrance hall with others watching? Very graceful and ladylike, well done Laura.
She closed her eyes and tried to think of something else.
