She smiled, but didn’t want to. And she didn’t ask what had become of that convertible.
She had a hunch that it was among the things auctioned off when his dad had been hauled away to jail.
The loss of everything must have been terrifying; it must have felt like being sucked toward a drain.
She fought the urge to reach out and grip his hand. As if she could pull him out of the rubble the way he’d hoisted her out of the attic. Her heart was an amnesiac; it ached as if it was actually being pulled toward him, even though this guy had once made a fricassee of it.
But maybe... maybe he was working toward some truth, now. Maybe she was about to hear some explanation she’d longed nearly her entire life to hear. Something that explained that chasm between how things had felt when she was with him and the things he’d said.
And hope was like a glittering shard, shortening her breath. Hope... and fear.
“Mac... I’m—I’m sorry all of that happened to you.”
He nodded once. Quirked the corner of his mouth. And sighed.
“Those days at Devil’s Leap were the happiest I’ve ever been.” He almost whispered it. Confiding a secret.
Her heart was now pounding so hard it was a wonder it didn’t send ripples of water toward him.
“That’s why...” He gave a muffled little laugh. “That’s why I originally wanted to buy the house. If you do sell it to me, you can use the hot springs any time you want.”
His eyes were on her. Soft and dark. Mesmeric. Once so beloved.
But something about his last words struck her as just a little... odd.
A bolt of suspicion smote her.
She coughed a laugh. “Oh. My. God.”
Conviction violently uncoiled in her like a spring and practically shot her out of the water. She grabbed her towel and rubbed almost viciously over herself as if she could strip off whatever remained of her idiocy.
She’d startled him. “Avalon... what the... are you okay?”
She paused. “This whole...thing...” She gestured to him and the hot springs with a swoop of her hand. “...theabs, the voice, the hot springs... was a ploy, wasn’t it? To talk me out of the house?”
She could hear her voice stag-leaping octaves. She was aware her fury was all out of proportion to the circumstances. She was furious at herself for getting sucked in again.
She rammed her jeans on, which required a lot of rapid, dramatic hula-hooping, and jammed her feet into her flip-flops.
“I’M NOT GOING TO SELL YOU THE HOUSE,” she said, once dressed.
He was clearly shocked. “I swear toGod, Avalon, that’s not what—”
He lifted himself out of the water.
Oh, that dripping, gleaming, lean muscle.
She wouldnotlook at it.
And then she did.
Turned and stared at him hard. If there was any luck, he’d turn to stone right there because that was the direction he was heading anyway.
“You... you... God, you really turned into a Coltrane, didn’t you, Mac?”
Mac froze. “Now wait a goddamn minute!”
What the hell had just happened? One moment he was sitting in the warm pool, wading into deeper emotional waters than he’d yet dared. And the next she was running away as though a scorpion had bit her on the ass.
