She raised an eyebrow and plopped down on the edge of the tub. “Well, then call me disappointed. Those long, lingering gazes are the stuff of romance novels.”
My mouth popped open before I thought better and shut it again.
“The thing is…” She paused, eyes averting. “I see that it’s hard for the two of you to…be discreet. The chemistry is written all over both of your faces. As soon as one of you enters a room with the other one, it’s…well…suffocating.”
“Really?”
The wine and humid air suddenly had my head swimming with the dizzy memory of us.
Everything we’d done.
Who’d seen what.
“I trust you when you say you haven’t done anything.” She grinned wickedly. “Mostly because I trust his piety over your good sense.”
I scoffed, hands splashing in the sudsy bubbles and soaking the leg of her denim jeans.
“Don’t pretend.” She splashed me back. “Just be careful, huh?”
I swallowed the boulder in my throat, nodding as stubborn tears pricked my eyelids.
“I hate this.”
Lucy’s frown softened, her fingers caressing the rim of my empty wineglass. “I know you’re older than me, but just trust me when I say sometimes you have to do what’s best for yourself. Sometimes it’s best to find a wayoutof love.”
Fall out of love with Bastien?
Was I even in love?
I didn’t think it was something I’d ever experienced, but I was finally almostpretty sureI would recognize it if it showed up one day.
Hopefully with flowers and a diamond ring.
But in a holy cassock?
Definitely not.
Father Bastien and I were soul mates, there was no doubt about it, but Lucy and I were too. I’d run into a lot of amazing and generous souls in my life, people I just seemed to have instant chemistry with, but a one-way ticket on the love train that did not make.
“I wouldn’t say that I really love anyone.”
Lucy tried to hide the look of doubt on her face by flicking her hair and standing up from the tub. “Whatever, Tressa Torrado.”
She blew me a kiss over her shoulder and then breezed down the hallway and into the small kitchen, bathroom door left hanging wide open.
“Suddenly I feel so sober,” I grouched, standing from the tub and tucking a towel around my body. “And I was gonna make homemade pizza for us tonight.”
“For you, you mean.” Lucy was already pulling salad ingredients out of the refrigerator.
“No,” I husked, that entire bottle of wine suddenly bubbling up in my brain. I hunched onto the barstool, both elbows on the counter.
“You’re dripping on the floor, ya know.” She didn’t even bother to look. “It’s been two days since the cardinal visited. Why are you still hiding out here?”
I huffed, hardly able to catch a thought in my head. “M’not hiding.”
“Bastien asked about you today.”
“He did?” I jumped from the stool, edging around the corner to get closer to Lucy.
