“This, meaning what?”
Ah, yes. Just like him. Needing exact words before answering. “Why did you arrange for Russ to stay with Ella so you could drive me home?”
He shrugged, his focus still pinned on the road ahead.
She wouldn’t let it drop so easily. “Is it because you feel guilty about our past?”
“Maybe.”
This vague answer didn’t fit the concise nature of the man she’d fallen for so many years ago. “Maybe—or you don’t want to admit the way you treated me was wrong?”
He stopped at a red light and fixed startling blue eyes that had won her heart in one of the darkest times of her life on her. “I’ll readily admit the way I treated you was wrong. What I don’t know is why I feel so compelled to help you and Ella, okay?”
The light changed, and his attention returned to his driving. “I’d like to say it’s based on putting my faith into action, but I honestly don’t think my motives are that pure.”
Megan didn’t know what to say. She’d thought about this day. The day when they would run into each other again. In every case, she’d walked away and left him hanging as he’d done to her. But now? Even if he weren’t helping her get Boo-Boo? The pain in his voice made her want to hear him out.
And if that wasn’t enough to sway her toward giving him a break, after he’d said he’d really started embracing his childhood faith, how could she not give him a chance to explain? Even if her walk with God was iffy at the moment, she should treat a brother in Christ with respect and kindness.
But what about the sting of his rejection? Could she get beyond the residual pain for any reason?
At the next stoplight, he glanced at her again. “I didn’t want to walk away from you, but I have to admit I wanted to advance in the FBI more.”
“Wow.” She eyed him. “You couldn’t be more blunt than that.”
“What good would it do to sugarcoat it? I was young and stupid. I thought my career was the most important thing, so I chose it.”
“And now?”
“Now I know better, and I’m sorry for how I treated you,” he said in a steady lower-pitched voice. “I hope you can forgive me for being such a jerk.”
She wanted to pull her gaze away, maybe to yell at him for hurting her, but she couldn’t move.
Horns honked behind them, and he jerked his attention to the road.
Good timing. She didn’t know what to say anyway. The pain of his betrayal remained lodged in her chest, and a simple apology, no matter how sincere he sounded, couldn’t erase the hurt in a flash.
So what should she do? Did she let him off the hook this easily? He didn’t deserve it, did he?
They turned the corner, and her house came into view. She usually loved coming home, but even her outdoor manger sitting in her yard which should remind her of Jesus’s birth, couldn’t calm the acid in her stomach.
Dark shadows clung to the small bungalow she and Ella shared. Fowler could be there. Hiding. Watching them.
She had no business thinking about Reid and what she did or didn’t want to do about her feelings for him. A lunatic might be stalking her, and her daughter lay in the hospital.
Possible death in any form trumped a broken heart.
Megan’s demeanor transformed like a change in weather, and Reid would rather see her angry at him than this ongoing fear. She’d seemed as if she was ready to talk about their past, maybe offer her forgiveness. Or at least that’s what he was getting from her. Until they reached her street, then her whole body tensed as if she expected to find Fowler standing on her doorstep.
Reid really hoped the creep had a change of character in prison and wasn’t actually stalking her. But then why had he come to the hospital? Reid had to remember that and not relax his stance a fraction until he was certain the guy wouldn’t harm Megan.
He parked in her driveway and made a quick visual sweep of the property. A generous lot surrounded a contemporary home boasting odd roof angles with icicle lights glowing in neat rows. Even in the drizzling rain and setting sun, the beige house appeared welcoming with the vivid green lawn, neatly trimmed shrubbery, and landscape lighting the walkway to a door featuring a large pinecone-studded wreath.
Tranquil.But he wouldn’t let the peaceful setting lull him into a false sense of security.
“You wait here while I make a quick check of the perimeter.” He opened the lock on the gun safe bolted to the floor between the seats. He withdrew his handgun and slipped in the clip before shoving the holster into his jacket pocket.
“Is that really necessary?” Her voice was low, her eyes watchful.
