going to let fear force her away from something pure and joyful?
She carried the mug inside, rinsed it and left it in the sink, and walked slowly through the house.
She would miss this place. It had provided quiet refuge when she needed it most, but now it seemed to whisper to her that it was time to move on. Taking a deep breath, she entered the last room and approached the bed. Smiling down at Billy, her heart swelled.
She loved him.
And he wasn’t leaving without her.
Her suitcase was in the hall closet. She got it out, leaving it open on the living room floor, and went back into the bedroom. Frowning, she looked around. The furniture, the knick-knacks, the dishes
—almost none of them were hers. She’d pretended the place was home, but she hadn’t done much to make that claim a reality. She did have all her clothes and books with her, though, and there was no way those items would fit into one suitcase. She shrugged and started searching the closet. She’d take what she could and get Joanne to send the rest.
It took her an hour of trial and error to finally cram the suitcase full. She had to sit on it to get the snaps shut and in doing so, bit back a fit of giggles. The action reminded her of her teenage years, when wearing her ‘party jeans’ meant laying down flat on her bed and pulling the zipper up with a coat hanger.
Her make-up bag took only a few minutes to throw together and she tossed it into a small bag she could use as a carry on, along with her laptop and a couple of paperback books she hadn’t yet read. Leaving both bags by the front door, she made more tea and went to the back deck to watch the sky lighten with dawn.
Billy found her there twenty minutes later, his eyes burning and his body vibrating with anger. He fought a smile when she didn’t automatically cringe from that look. He was definitely making progress.
He glared down at her and yanked out one of the empty chairs. Spinning it around, he sat in down in front of her, crossed his arms over the top, and tried to control the hammering in his heart.
When he woke up alone, he hadn’t worried too much. He figured she was either in the house or out on the deck. His worry grew when he realized the house was too still for her to be inside, but still he’
d assumed she was just outside. But when he’d walked out into the living room and seen her bags by the door, his concern quickly morphed into possessive rage. No way was she leaving him.
He found her outside, not sure if he should be happy that she’d at least waited for him to get up, or angry that she’d thought he would let her go. Then she smiled at him, without an ounce of fear in her eyes. And those eyes drank him in, lingering over his body as he moved towards her and aggressively pinned her. She didn’t look like a woman getting ready to run.
“You are not going anywhere,” he bit out between clenched teeth.
Her eyes widened, and hurt flashed through them. “Aren’t you going home today? And you expect me to stay here?”
She looked at her lap, and he followed her gaze, watching her fingers twist together. When she looked up, she was glaring at him. She took a deep breath, the action lifting her breasts under the thin cotton of his old T-shirt. He hadn’t even noticed she was wearing it until then. It looked better on her.
Her nipples were hard in the cool morning air and he had to force his eyes up when she spoke again.
“I thought the whole point of this was to get me to go home. And now you’re telling me you don’
t want me to go with you? What’s going on Billy?”
His relief was so intense he was sure his heart skipped a few beats. She had packed to leave. To go home. With him.
“I thought you were trying to take off,” he whispered, not sure he could trust his voice not to crack.
They stared at each other a few minutes while his implication sunk in. She was choosing him, but she had one more step to take. He gripped the back of the chair as his