“So what? I still haven’t heard a reason for us to throw this away.” He crossed his arms and waited. In pink silk.
She gulped, torn between hysterical laughter and a horrible vulnerability. “Okay, it’s not you. It’s me.” She paused, then admitted the truth. “It’s all me. I…I don’t get love. I don’t trust it. I don’t want it.”
“That’s because love’s always cost you.” He stepped close, dipped down to meet her eyes. “It’s always been a burden, holding you back. It doesn’t have to be like that, Lizzy, not with us.”
“Stop.” Shakily, she lifted a hand to hold him off as she shook her head and backed up. “I can’t take you seriously in that thing. I’m sorry.”
“Fine.” He dropped it, smiling as silkily as the material of the robe. “Better?”
Was he kidding? “Okay, listen. I know what you’re saying. Hell, any shrink out there would have a field day with this, my textbook fear of commitment. I lost my parents young, had to raise my sister, always had to be in control and now I can’t give that up to share my life, blah, blah, blah…” She let out a breath. “Listen, you said you’re screwed up, but the truth is,
“No.” He shook his head. “No, not okay.”
From somewhere in the depths of the bathroom where she’d left her clothes, her cell phone went off. Grateful for the interruption, she whirled toward it.
“Lizzy.”
She kept going.
16
LIZZY RAN INTO the bathroom for her cell phone. “Please,” she whispered as she yanked it out of her pocket. “Be Cece…”
But the incoming number was unfamiliar to her, and she sagged in disappointment. “Hello?”
“Lizzy?”
It
“Well, I was halfway between my place and yours, in a Hummer, but now-”
“I am now. Lizzy, this phone’s going to die. Can you come?”
“Yes, of course, I’ll come help you.”
“That’s the thing. I don’t need help, I managed. On my own. Well-” She laughed. “Not on my own, not at all. Hunter was there with me.”
“Who? And where are you?”
“We’re…Hunter, where are we again?” Cece’s voice broke off and then there was some rustling.
“Cece?” Lizzy said. “Cece? Who’s Hunter-”
“That would be me,” said a deep, masculine voice in her ear. “We’re at the San Luis Memorial.”
And that was it, the cell died. “San Luis Memorial,” she said to herself, whirling to get dressed only to plow into Jason. He tossed her clothes at her as he hopped into his jeans.
“Come on,” he said, and grabbed her hand.
She spared the split second to stare at him in eternal gratitude. “Jason. You don’t have to-”
He didn’t even slow, just sent her an annoyed glance over his shoulder. “Really, Lizzy? You’re going to dump me
No. No, she wasn’t. “She’s with some guy.”
“Okay.”
“No, you don’t understand. She gave up men. We both did.”
“Beg to disagree on that one.”
She sighed. “I had a momentary slip. You sneaked in past my defenses.”
“Right back at ya, babe.”
CECE LOOKED UP at Hunter as he replaced the hospital phone by her bed, then leaned in closer and stroked her hair from her face. “How are you feeling?”
He’d delivered her baby and then managed to wave down a boat floating past them, who’d transported them to a roadblock and emergency personnel. From there they’d gotten a ride to the hospital in San Luis Obispo, since Santa Rey’s had been so badly damaged they’d not been accepting patients.
How did she feel after all she’d been through? “Shockingly good.” She looked down at the sweetest little baby girl she’d ever seen. The infant lay on her chest, looking up with bright blue eyes, mouth pursed seriously. The peach fuzz on her bald head softened the rather severe expression, and Cece fell madly in love with her all over again.
“She’s beautiful,” Hunter said.
“Yeah.” She paused, then screwed up the courage to voice the thought foremost in her mind now that she could breathe. “I guess it’s over now, right?”
“Which? The storm?” Hunter glanced out the window and shook his head. “Not quite yet, though the worst has passed, I think.”
“Not that.” She paused. “This.”
He paused, too, and she figured he had no idea what the hell she was talking about.
Hell, she barely knew what she was talking about.
No, that was a lie, and she no longer lied, especially to herself. She knew exactly what she meant.
“Cece.” His voice was achingly soft, achingly deep as he hunkered down to her eye level.
Oh, God. Here it came. Another rejection. She should be good at them by now, but she wasn’t. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “I-”
“I don’t want it to be over.”
She closed her eyes, then opened them and saw his steady, patient gaze. “You don’t?”
Slowly he shook his head, then bent to press a kiss to the baby’s head, and then Cece’s mouth. They’d been through so much that she felt as if she knew him better than she’d ever known anyone, so it was a bit shocking to realize that it was their first kiss.
It was perfect.
Cupping her face, he looked into her eyes for a long moment, then kissed her again, letting her feel and taste the truth.
Yeah. He was right. It wasn’t over.
Not by a long shot.
JASON GOT THEM back to his Jeep in an hour which, considering the conditions, was nothing less than a small miracle.
They didn’t speak, which was for the best. Lizzy could sense his frustration, his hurt, and it killed her that she’d caused it.
She hurt, too. It was the one thing she’d wanted to avoid, and yet here she was.
Sporting a damn cracked open heart.
The rain finally slowed to an immeasurable drizzle as they drove back the way they’d come to get to the highway. Lizzy couldn’t take her horrified eyes off the destruction. Houses had taken on up to ten feet of water depending on where they were and how high the foundations were elevated. There were bricks knocked off retaining walls, fences down, roofs missing. Entire streets gone.
“I can’t believe it.”
Jason managed to get them heading north along the coast with no mishaps.
And no words.
“Jason?” She hesitated. “Are we still friends?”
He gave her an inscrutable glance. “Is that what you want?”
It was the
