Dare to Love: A Sweet Contemporary Romance (Finding Love Book 4)

by Delaney Cameron

  She broke up with him? That probably didn’t happen often. “I’m sure it won’t take him long to find a replacement,” Sabrina countered as she unlocked the car and put her bag in the trunk.

  “That sounds as if you don’t like him.”

  Sabrina hunched her shoulder, realizing she’d dug herself into a hole. How could she explain having such strong feelings about someone she supposedly barely knew? “It’s not that I don’t like him; I’m indifferent to him.”

  Madeline didn’t speak again until they were on the road. “I don’t think he’s indifferent to you. With a little encouragement, I think he’d ask you out.”

  “Where did you get that idea?”

  “From the things he said about you. I was telling him how you gave up a good job to come to Alpharetta so I could go to school.”

  “You shouldn’t have told him all that, Maddie. I work for him. I don’t want him knowing everything about me.”

  “You won’t be working for him forever. Do you want to know what he said?”

  “Not really.”

  “Too bad. I’m going to tell you anyway. He said something about you being one of those people who make sacrifices for those you love.”

  “You guys covered a lot of ground during the fifteen minutes you were alone.”

  “I’m not the smartest person, but I get the impression that you and Trent knew each other before you took this job.”

  Sabrina sighed soundlessly. She should have known it would be impossible to keep this under wraps. “We met a long time ago. It came to nothing. Can we leave it at that?”

  “I knew it! I hope he isn’t another example of something you sacrificed for me and Granny.”

  For a few seconds, the only sound in the car was the hum of the engine. Then in a low voice, Sabrina said, “You can’t sacrifice something that was never yours. He’s part of a past I’ve worked hard to forget. It was bad enough that everyone at college knew how he made a fool of me. I didn’t want my family to know, too.”

  “Sometimes you’re too independent. You don’t have to handle everything alone.”

  “It wasn’t just that. There was the humiliation factor, too.”

  Madeline turned in the seat to stare at her. “What did he do? Cheat on you?”

  “Not in the way you mean. Trent and I dated for four months during my sophomore year. I fell in love, and I thought he did, too. Then I overheard him telling a friend that it was all a lie; that he got close to me so I’d help him pass chemistry. It was mortifying to find out that the person to whom I’d shared my deepest thoughts didn’t care anything about me. Meeting him again brought it all back. I was foolish enough to think I’d worked through it, but every time I see him I remember.”

  “You never can tell with people, can you? He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would do something so mean.”

  Madeline looked like a child who’s been told there’s no Santa Claus; which was exactly why Sabrina hadn’t wanted to tell her. But now that the cat was out of the bag, she could explain her position regarding Trent and end all the speculation.

  “He says he’s changed. I hope for his sake that it’s true, but for obvious reasons, I don’t plan to be around him long enough to find out. He has this grand idea that we can wipe the slate clean and be friends. I disagree. How can I believe anything he says? What he did to me will always be there. I can’t just flip a switch and forget.”

  “I can understand why you feel that way, but at the same time, doesn’t he deserve a second chance? Everybody makes mistakes, Sabrina, and everyone should have the opportunity to redeem their character. Trent shouldn’t be forever judged by something he did back in college.”

  This wasn’t what she wanted to hear. And what made it worse was the conviction that her grandmother would have agreed with Madeline. “He can have all the chances he needs, just not with me.”

  “Be careful what you say. You might have to eat those words.”

  Sabrina pulled into the parking lot of the mall, glad to have a reason to end this conversation. Unfortunately, getting her thoughts to move in another direction was nearly impossible. As she followed Madeline in and out of stores, giving her opinion when asked and a few times when it wasn’t, she kept thinking about her sister’s warning. A week ago, she could have safely denied such a possibility. She’d firmly believed that nothing could change her mind about Trent. The fact that she could no longer say that with the same amount of conviction was troubling.

  * * * * *

  Trent motioned his sister-in-law and niece to come closer. “Okay, girls, we’re down to the last play of the game. It’s time to make our move. We’ve got them right where we want them. Faith, your job is to distract Landris.”

  “How am I supposed to do that?”

  “Do I really need to give details? Use your imagination. It shouldn’t be too difficult. Even after a few months of marriage, he can’t keep his eyes off you. Blow him a kiss or something. Olivia, your job is to hold on to Uncle Clint’s leg so he can’t move. All I need is a few seconds to get past him. Once I do, Aunt Taryn will never catch me. I’ll coast into the end zone and this game will be history.” He held out his hand and the other two put theirs over it. “Let’s do this.”

  Trent went through the motions of hiking the football to himself and then dropped back as if he was going to pass. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Olivia running toward Clint. In her effort to grab his legs, she almost knocked her uncle down. Threat neutralized. His gaze slid to the other side of the field to see how Faith was doing. She hadn’t moved an inch. Instead, she dropped to the ground and started taking off her shoe. How was that going to help anything? He looked at his brother and started grinning. Landris wasn’t merely watching his wife; he was jogging in her direction. The damsel in distress! What man can resist that?

  Now Trent just needed to take care of Taryn. That shouldn’t be too difficult. She’d never been very athletic. He started running down the middle of the field.

  “It’s just you and me, sis,” he called out.

  “I can see that,” she hollered back. “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”

  Trent laughed. “Not really. I just made the most of the hand I was dealt.”

  Taryn took a bad angle and ended up behind him. From there all he had was a lot of green grass in front of him. He heard her urging Clint to speed up, which was asking a lot of a guy who was almost six-foot-six. Trent glanced over his shoulder to see exactly where his brother-in-law was. When he turned back around, a little boy was standing a few feet in front of him, seemingly having appeared out of nowhere. In trying to avoid running him over, Trent cut too quickly and tripped. He landed hard on his left arm, the one carrying the football, and in the process knocked the wind out of himself.

  Biting his lip to keep from groaning, he rolled over on his back just as Taryn reached him. She dropped down on her knees. “That was close. Are you okay?”

  Throbbing pain shot up his arm. “I felt something pop in my wrist when I landed,” he managed to get out.

  “Clint,” Taryn yelled. “We need you over here.”

  “What good can he do?” Trent asked irritably, trying to sit up while at the same time keeping his hand cradled against his chest. “He’s an ear, nose and throat doctor.”

  “He knows other stuff, too.”

  Clint came running up to them, with the other three of the group right behind him. “That was some move you made. I thought you were going to mow the kid down.”

  Trent grimaced. “I did, too. Where did he come from?”

  “I have no idea,” Taryn said. “Let Clint take a look at your arm.”

  Trent held out his hand, wincing a little. “It’s my wrist more than anything else. It really hurts.”

  Clint slowly bent Trent’s hand up and down, oblivious to the latter’s mutterings. “I don’t think anything’s broken, but you need to have an x-ray to be sure.”

  “That’s just great. I get to
spend my Sunday afternoon in the ER.”

  “Stop complaining,” Landris told him. “You could’ve broken your leg again. I’ll drive you to the hospital. Faith and Olivia can ride back to the condo with Clint and Taryn.”

  An hour later, Trent was staring at the ceiling of the curtained-off cubicle where he and Landris were still waiting for the verdict on his wrist. An exasperated sigh slipped through his lips. He really disliked hospitals. He wasn’t sure if this attitude was because of his water skiing accident or because in his mind, he associated them with Sabrina. Either way, he couldn’t understand how Clint could stand to work in such a gloomy, off-putting atmosphere. Talk about depressing.

  “It shouldn’t be long now,” Landris assured him. “The doctor is probably looking at your x-rays.”

  “Or flirting with the nurses,” Trent put in grumpily.

  “I doubt they have time for that. The waiting room is overflowing.”

  “I wish he or she would hurry. I’d like to get home before midnight.”

  “Do you mind if I go get something to eat? I’m starving.”

  “What’s new?” Trent waved his good hand. “Go right ahead. I’m not going anywhere.”

  A few minutes after Landris disappeared through the curtains surrounding the bed, they parted again to admit the doctor. Trent was relieved to hear that his wrist was only sprained. He was provided an elastic bandage and given instructions on icing and elevation. It was nothing he hadn’t done before when he injured his elbow.

  Taryn and Clint were preparing to leave when he and Landris got back to the condo. They’d returned from their honeymoon the afternoon before and were driving back to Augusta tonight. Landris, Faith and Olivia had arrived this morning and were staying until Wednesday so Landris could attend a series of pro-days at several colleges in the area. Olivia was out of school for a few days so she and Faith came with him.

  Trent took some Advil, fixed a bag of ice and went to the living room to sit down. He didn’t have to worry about Butterscotch. Landris and Olivia volunteered to take the puppy for a walk. Faith had gone to the store to get what she needed to make some kind of chicken dish for dinner. Left to himself, Trent arranged the ice bag on his wrist and closed his eyes. There might not be anything broken, but his arm sure did hurt.

  Later when Faith was helping Olivia take a bath, Landris joined him on the couch.

  “You look terrible.”

  Trent attempted to smile. “I feel terrible. The ice helped a little, but the Advil hasn’t seemed to make any difference.”

  “What in the world made you get a puppy?”

  “It just sort of happened. Remember when you and I were talking on the phone the other day, and I told you about the woman standing on the side of the road. Turns out, she was the temp who’s filling in for Debby. She found Butterscotch in a ditch. Someone had just dumped him there. I helped her get him out. She couldn’t keep him so I did.”

  “I hope you didn’t do it to impress her because getting involved with someone who works for you is trouble.”

  “It’s funny that you should say that. Sabrina – that’s her name, by the way – is actually an old girlfriend from college. I hadn’t seen her in something like six years.”

  “Hiring an old girlfriend is even worse.”

  “Jared interviewed her first. By the time I realized who she was, it was too late to say anything on my end. I figured once she saw me, she’d leave. I treated her pretty bad.”

  “You don’t usually stay with anyone long enough to hurt them.”

  “Let’s put it this way: she was a challenge I couldn’t resist.”

  Landris shook his head. “What is she now?”

  Trent shrugged. “We’re back where we started. She can’t stand me, and I want to change it. I wonder how our story will end this time.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “I’m trying to right a wrong, Landris. And I’m way overdue.”

  Chapter Five

  Sabrina arrived back from lunch with Camille to find a medium-sized box sitting in the middle of her desk. Attached to the top was a card that read, “Happy Birthday!” There was only one person in the office who could possibly know the date of her birthday. She ignored the tiny voice in her head that said there was something significant in the fact that Trent could remember so much about a person he’d only pretended to like. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to know.

  For the next ten minutes, she stared at the box as if whatever was inside posed some kind of threat. It was almost certain that it would disturb her peace of mind just as every encounter with Trent tended to do. Curiosity finally overrode her resistance, and she opened the lid. Inside was a miniature cake with one candle stuck in the middle. She sat back in the seat again. Was it red velvet? And if it wasn’t, would she be relieved or disappointed?

  During one of their late night study sessions, she told Trent that she wanted to visit the lodge on Lake Chatuge where her parents had spent their honeymoon. She wanted to see for herself the place where they’d been so happy. It just so happened that Young Harris was within driving distance of the lodge. Trent surprised her one evening by taking her there for dinner. He even went to the trouble of asking the chef to make a red velvet cake, which at the time was her favorite. Afterward they walked around the lake, holding hands and kissing in the pine-scented woods. Her feet had been so far off the ground she didn’t think anything could bring her back down to earth. Sadly, the magic of that evening didn’t last long. Five minutes’ worth of words was all it took to wipe it out.

  How could someone who had the thoughtfulness to plan and carry out something like that be capable of deceiving someone so cruelly?

  Her hand slowly inched across the surface of the desk and closed the box. Why did he keep reminding her of the past? Didn’t he realize that she didn’t want to remember how easily he’d made her love him? She wanted to tell him to stop doing things like this and leave her alone. But to do so was to admit that his actions could affect her.

  Later when she had to go to his office, the sight of him trying to type one-handed took her thoughts in another direction. Her glance went to the elastic bandage covering his swollen left wrist. He had to be in pain. She’d heard him telling Jared how he injured it. He’d been laughing then. Right now he looked like a frustrated little boy who couldn’t get something to work right.

  “Here are those reports if you want to look over them.”

  He glanced up from the screen. “That was fast. I’ll have the attachments that go with them ready later on.”

  “Sounds good. I should be able to get them in the mail today.”

  He smothered a yawn. “If not, tomorrow will be fine, too.”

  “You look tired.” That wasn’t what she meant to say.

  “I am tired. I’m not used to sleeping with a puppy. I’m so afraid I’m going to roll over on him that I spend half the night awake.”

  “I thought it might be because your wrist is bothering you.”

  “That didn’t help, but it’s mostly Butterscotch.”

  “You don’t have to let him sleep with you. Buy him a bed of his own and put it in your laundry room or guestroom.”

  “I tried that. It didn’t work. He stood at the door and whined.” He saw her smile and looked embarrassed. “That’s not the worst of it. The entire time I was lying there listening to it, I couldn’t get that picture out of my head of him spending goodness knows how many nights in that ditch with nothing more than a wet cardboard box for company.”

  She couldn’t remember ever seeing Trent self-conscious. When combined with his sensitive handling of the puppy, it gave some credence to his claim that he’d changed. “You’re just a big softie underneath that tough businessman exterior, aren’t you?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Thank you for the birthday cake.”

  “You’re welcome. What are you doing to celebrate?”

  “Nothing until the weekend. Madel
ine left yesterday to spend a few days at the beach with some friends.”

  He ran his fingers down his face. “In that case, would you have dinner with me tonight?”

  Sabrina dropped her eyes to his green silk tie, startled by the turmoil his invitation created inside her and annoyed that he put her in this position. He was like a relentless tide that just wouldn’t stop coming. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Trent.”

  “It was just a thought. I didn’t want you to be alone on your birthday.”

  “It was a nice thought,” she conceded, taking a step toward the door. “I appreciate it.”

  “But not enough to change your mind and go with me, huh?”

  Her gaze slowly rose to meet his. The same hesitant expectation she heard in his voice was visible in the eyes watching her so intently. A feeling stole over her that she hadn’t felt in a long time. “Not yet,” she heard herself say.

  He looked as stunned by this reply as she was at voicing it.

  “Does that mean if I ask you again in the future, I might get a different answer?”

  She wasn’t sure what she meant. It was like someone else was inside her head calling the shots. “I don’t know. I need to go. I’ve got some things to do for Jared.”

  “Sabrina,” he said softly, effectively stopping her exit.

  She glanced warily over her shoulder. “What?”

  “Even if you never say yes to dinner, just the fact that you’re willing to consider it means a lot to me. It’s more than I expected and so much more than I deserve.”

  A giant-sized lump formed in her throat. She stood looking at him a moment longer and then fled. By the time she gained the relative safety of her office, she knew why her heart was pounding and her limbs were shaking. It was only partly because she’d been guilty of sending Trent mixed signals. That she could rectify. The main reason for her distress was the realization that in spite of everything that had passed between them, he could still stir her emotions. That problem wasn’t so easily solved.

  Later that evening when she sat alone in her living room, she took a knife and cut into the cake. At the discovery that it was indeed red velvet, Sabrina broke down and cried in a way she hadn’t done since her grandmother died. She didn’t know if she was crying for the girl who’d been so easily fooled before or for the woman who hadn’t seemed to learn from her mistakes.