Rekindled by Barbara Delinsky Read Free Book Online Page B

the gentler one. Uncomfortable now, she bent for her towel and straightened holding it tight. “You could have called if you wanted to discuss the Rye Beach Complex. Nothing much will happen until the referendum in November. Unless, of course, you alter your proposal.” Satisfied with her minor dig, she began to mop her face and neck. Ross ignored the barb. “I’m not here on business. I came to see you.”
    “That’s a mistake,” she whispered, hearing pain, feeling pain. He replied as softly. “Then again we differ in opinion.” He sighed. “Look, can we walk? Your house seemed pretty crowded. I’d like to talk.”
    All too aware of a tingling inside, she shook her head, then tore her gaze from his and looked out to sea. “It’s not a good idea.”
    “Just talk?”
    “Fine, if it has to do with the complex. Anything else …”
    “What are you afraid of?” he asked. “I see the same fear in you now that I saw two weeks ago. What is it?”
    She shot him a chiding look that said You’re imagining it, I’m not afraid of a thing.
    “Then what can be the harm in talking? What can be so awful about walking along the beach with me for a few minutes?” He tossed his dark head back toward the house. “You have a whole crew in there just waiting to come if you scream.”
    “I won’t scream.” She spoke softly, blushed lightly. “It’s not my style.”
    He studied her for what seemed an eternity. “Maybe that’s your problem,” he finally decided. “You’re too composed. Maybe you need a good yell and scream to let it all out.”
    “Let what all out?”
    He took her arm. “Come on. Let’s take a walk.” He pulled her gently into step beside him, and she went along. After all, what harm could come from a walk on the beach?
    One fast glance at Ross supplied an answer. The magnetism was there in all its force, coming from him, tugging at her. If only they had never met before, if only they didn’t have a past, there might have been hope.
    “What if,” he echoed her thoughts with uncanny precision, “we had never met before? Would you feel differently?”
    “Maybe.” She clutched the ends of the towel that circled her neck. “Would you?” some inner voice made her ask.
    “No.” There was no hesitancy in his response. “I saw a woman two weeks ago who interested me. I would be here regardless. It’s just…”
    As Chloe waited for his voice to pick up again, their paths crisscrossed her earlier footprints. Ross easily measured his pace to hers. “It’s just what?” she prodded.
    He stopped walking. She went a step farther, then turned to face him. He frowned, seeming deliberative. “It’s just that after what happened eleven years ago, I feel even more justified…”
    Her voice rose, as it often did when she was distressed. “Are you saying you feel guilty so long after the fact? Is that why you’ve come? To ease some long-harbored guilt? Where were you then?” she cried. “Where were you when I-“
    She cut herself off. For the very first time she wondered what might have happened had Ross been with her at the time of Crystal’s death. It had been late Saturday night, two days after Thanksgiving, when she and Crystal argued, Crystal raced off in her car, the accident happened. By that time Ross was on his way back to Africa. What if he had been with her through the ordeal? Would things have been different?
    But he hadn’t been with her. There was no changing that fact. She had survived. She had survived. Not Crystal, though.
    When she closed her eyes for a moment in search of composure, Ross took her arm and said a quick, “Over there. Those rocks. You should sit down.”
    “I’m all right-“
    “Then I want to sit down! Indulge me!” He led her to a jagged outcropping of rocks. When they were seated on side by side boulders, he said, “Okay. Why don’t you tell me about that night-and stop looking at me like I’m crazy. You know what I’m talking about. I know what I