I pulled the string, guiding the creaky ladder steps to the floor. Did my best to fight my smile back. Bossy and angry Miranda was…extremely sexy. But I always pissed her off when I enjoyed it too much.
Her tough expression faltered as our gazes tangled. She tried to look strong, hold her chin high, but I saw. She was one poke away from crumbling. One touch away from falling into my arms. Why she was insisting on a divorce would remain a mystery to me. I waved her on. “After you.”
Up we went. We rifled through boxes for a long time. When the last one had been checked, I sat on a random old chair. “I think this box is a figment of your imagination.”
She shivered. My insides were so tight. I couldn’t be around her and not feel her presence—be aware of her every move, every sigh. It took all my power not to ogle her and to allow her some personal space.
She plopped down on a plastic tub. “Yeah, me too.”
When our gazes tangled again, I thought I’d see anger and coldness in her expression, but I didn’t. Her big brown eyes looked sad and lonely. Mirrors of everything I felt, too. She chewed her lip, shifting uncomfortably. “Thanks for helping me look.”
“No problem.”
We made our way down the ladder and back out to the porch. My heart plummeted. I did not want her to go. Anything but that. I took a few deep gulps of the night air, my trachea burning with the deep cold, searching for my bearings.She hung her thumbs on the back pockets of her jeans. “I guess I’ll get out of your hair.”
Barely scraped out a response. “Okay.”
But she didn’t leave. She stood there.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She waved me off with a hand and turned toward the stairs.
I reached out and grabbed her elbow. “That look isn’t nothing.” I searched her face in the moonlight. “Was there something else you wanted?”
I wantedher. In every way.
A long pause followed. She was thinking hard—her twisting lips and furrowed eyebrows were the dead giveaway. When she spoke, the words, laced with emotion, were barely a whisper. “I wanted to tell you I’m moving to Ohio. Trisha lives there now and has a place for me.”
The statement knocked the wind out of me. If meeting with an attorney didn’t feel final enough, Ohio certainly did. I tugged her closer. My voice was pained as I swallowed the emotions pressurizing in my chest. “Please don’t do that.”
She shrugged, struggling to hold her own emotions in check. “I need a change. Need to leave Nashville for a while.”
“Please.” I lifted my hand to move a strand of hair off her face. She drew a sharp breath when my fingers brushed her cheek. Shivered violently again. “What can I do to convince you to stay?”
“Nothing.” She caught my hand in her own and held it against her freezing cheek. “I’m so sorry, Jack.”
I hadn’t touched my wife in months. To say I missed her would be the understatement of a lifetime. Yearning was more like it. Not just physically. She was the perfect companion in every way. Separation was a constant wound.
Miranda’s touch affected me right down to my toes. It wasalways that way with her. Our love was explosive right from the start.
“Miranda,” I whispered back. “I miss you so much.”
I ran my fingers down the slope of her neck, and she tilted her face up to mine.
“Come back inside. We can talk for a while. You don’t even have a coat on.”
“I—I forgot it.”
“Come in. Please.”
“I shouldn’t.” Her palms flattened across my chest like she was going to push me away. But she didn’t.
“None of this has to be final.”
“I—”
“We still love each other.”
