“Kansas.”
“Euh?” My answer had him spilling some of the liquid over his chin.
I took a mostly-clean napkin from the table and handed it to him.
“I know him from Kansas, not Texas.”
“Same thing,” he dismissed my correction with a wave. “Big space, burgers, and cowboys.”
Was this jerk for real?
“Cassie?”
My heart squeezed real hard.
His voice was the same, but it still felt like centuries had passed by since the last time I’d heard it. I forced myself to turn around and tried to ignore the tornado swirling inside me.
Looking at him was like time-travelling. Josh hadn’t played ball since high school, yet his shoulders were strong and well-muscled. Same square jaw, same Coca-Cola brown eyes. Only I didn’t see me in them anymore.
What did I expect? The guy had gone to college, not Mars.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
My mouth shaped into a “oh” or maybe it was an “ha.” It didn’t really matter because I only answered his question with a croak. For the first time in my life, my legendary wits failed me.
Josh bridged the space between us and grabbed my elbow. His fingers burnt through my leather jacket. I felt his warmth seeping into me, and I focused on his touch while he dragged me away from the party.
“I was talking to Cass—” Freddie shouted from behind.
“—Later,” Josh cut him off.
We climbed a staircase and stepped into a bedroom on the second floor. Hanging from a chair, I recognized his old Chiefs cap.
I was out of breath. Josh freed my arm and crossed the room, creating an area of safety between us. He stared at me as if I were a two-headed monster.
“You could have mailed the divorce papers. No need to hand-deliver them.”
I swallowed hard. I’d spent a fortune and crossed a fucking ocean to see him face-to-face. There was no chickening out now. I shuffled on my feet so that I could hold myself straighter.
“I need to tell you something. Face-to-face. I… I’m not ready to sign the papers. Not yet. We need to talk. And then, if you still want me to sign, I will.”
When I’d told Josh I was pregnant, his mouth hadn’t dropped open nearly as wide as this. But, credit to him, he recovered quickly. “You’ve been begging for one for the last six years. Now that I’m ready to give it to you, you change your mind. Have you dedicated your life to ruining mine?”
Those sweet words of love… I shook myself. This wasn’t about me, or Josh. I had to think straight, “big picture,” and work at reaching my goal.
“What happened between us, it’s sad.” I moved toward him until we were nearly arms’ length away. “But we can work things out, try and get over what happened when…”
“When you killed my child?”
I shuddered.
“When you went behind my back and had an abortion?”
His words pierced into me like icepicks. I couldn’t hold his gaze, so my eyes focused on the tips of my shoes instead.
“Or when you forgot about our vows and went on tour with your new rock star boyfriend?”
Josh was now close enough that I could smell him, and he smelled the same. All man now, but still with some of the scent of the boy I grew up with. He smelled like the lemons from his mother’s award-winning garden. I wanted to throw myself into his strong arms, have them wrap around me and make me feel like he did when we were younger—when love was easy.
“I did what I had to do, and I did it for you.”
His body jerked backwards and his hands flew up to his face. “You have absolutely no shame.”
His words should have floored me. Instead they fired up frustration. “No shame? Do you think you’d be where you are now, Ivy League and all, if I had burdened you with a baby when you were seventeen?”
First, Josh didn’t react. Then I saw the thoughts processing all over his face, as if it were the first time he’d looked at the past that way. So I hammered my point home. “If I’d had the baby back then, you’d still be in Steep Hill, and not even close to getting your butt out of there. Just like Woodie and me.”
When Josh finally talked, it was like a judge passing a death sentence.
“You did not have the right to make that choice for me. But you did and now there’s no way back.”
Whatever the “real” truth was, Josh was right.
“Maybe you’re right.” I gave in, my voice cracking. “But you had so much going for you. I knew I had to let you go.”
“Why?” His eyes widened. “We could have made it work.”
We’d already had that conversation. For someone that smart, Josh had always lacked common sense.
“Really?” I cocked my head. “You’d have stayed in Steep Hill, so that I could look after both my sick gran and the baby”
Josh opted for silence again. Seriously, had he ever extracted his head from his butt and looked at a situation the way it really was?
I took a deep breath to focus on tidying my thoughts. Now was the time to share the truth with him. If he was to be angry with me, better make it for the right reason. I bridged the space between us. He didn’t budge. Good. I extended my arm to touch his forearm. He didn’t react. The contact filled me with hope.
“Josh,” I whispered, “I came here to tell you… I didn’t—”
The background sound of the music downstairs burst into the room, then receded when the door behind me slammed shut again.
“Darling?” A girl’s voice.
Josh stepped back, his jaw tightened. Before he had been looking down at me. Now he wasn’t looking at me at all. That was when I noticed the bottle of fancy perfume on the table next to the double bed.
I spun around. A stick-thin brunette stood two yards away from me, all designer jeans and turtleneck top. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders in a way only a professional’s blow-dry could have delivered.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” The girl’s accent was East Coast, all clean and polished.
“Sorry, Lenor.” Josh struggled for his words. “I bumped into a friend from home.”
“How sweet.” Lenor approached me, her manicured hand extended for a shake. “I’m Eleanor, Josh’s fiancée.”
Table of Contents
You Turn Copyright © 2014 by Marion Croslydon
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About Marion
** SNEAK PEEK **
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
THREE
You Turn Page 27
