She stared at him with shock. “You wouldn’t dare,” she began, then shook her head. “No, of course you would. Okay, I’m coming, but just to talk.”
“Right,” he said, his skepticism plain.
At the Serenity Inn, when Dana Sue would have stopped to chat with the owners, Ronnie’s hand in the middle of her back steered her straight past them and toward his room.
“That was rude,” she huffed.
“Did you really want to stand there and exchange small talk with them so they’ll have even more hot news to report when they go to Wharton’s for lunch?”
“Do you honestly think that rushing past them is going to stop that? Now they’ll just tell everyone that we were so anxious to get to your room, we barely said hello. I’m sure folks will draw their own conclusions about that.”
“Let them,” Ronnie said tersely as he pushed open the door to his room. “Since you’re so convinced that Mary Vaughn is after me, maybe the news of our reunion will call a halt to any wild ideas she might be having.”
“You’re dreaming if you think that,” Dana Sue replied as she followed him inside. “It’ll just make you more of a challenge. Don’t you know her at all?”
He grinned. “Not half as well as I know you.”
She concentrated on surveying the room. To her surprise, it was reasonably tidy. There were no clothes strewn about, no towels left lying on the floor where he’d dropped them after his shower. The decor was a little flowery and feminine, which made Ronnie look all the more masculine by contrast.
Impulsively, Dana Sue sat on the edge of the bed, rather than in the room’s only chair. Since she had a hunch about how this was going to go, she might as well not have far to move.
“Okay, what did you want to talk about?” she asked, her hands folded primly in her lap.
Ronnie looked amazingly uncertain, now that he had her here. His eyes traveled over her slowly, darkening with passion during the journey.
“You want anything to drink?” he asked, his voice oddly choked. “There’s a vending machine just outside.”
She shook her head. “I’m good.”
“Candy? Chips?”
Now she knew he was nervous. Otherwise he would never be suggesting junk food. Ironically, she found that unfamiliar hint of uncertainty charming. Her annoyance began to fade.
“Maybe we should change the agenda,” she suggested.
His gaze narrowed warily. “Oh?”
“You could join me on the bed, instead of hovering by the door, and we could make love. Then we could talk later.” She shrugged. “You know, about whatever you had on your mind when you dragged me over here.”
He shook his head. “No, I am not getting anywhere near that bed until you hear what I have to say. I want to put that betrayal of mine to rest once and for all.”
She regarded him with regret. “That may not be possible.”
“Then maybe we don’t have a future, after all, Dana Sue,” he said, so flatly that it left her shaken. “I won’t go through the rest of our lives having you throw that in my face every time you get mad at me. I won’t have you going into a tailspin and imagining the worst every single time some woman looks at me twice.”
“I know you’re right,” she said, feeling more scared than she’d been in years. Could they get this close to a reconciliation, only to blow it because of her stubborn inability to forget about the past? “I don’t know why I can’t just let it go.”
“I imagine it’s because I’ve never explained why it happened,” he suggested. “And that’s probably because I can’t. I’ve tried telling you this before, but I’ll do it again. There is no excuse, Dana Sue. I was drifting. I was looking for excitement without even realizing it. Something. I honestly can’t explain it. I loved you with all my heart. I loved our life. I adored Annie, but on that night, when that woman came on to me, I felt a spark of something I hadn’t felt in a long time. Maybe it was the danger, the risk of getting caught. I do know it had nothing to do with her and nothing to do with you. It was like she lit a match and touched it to something I didn’t even know was flammable. It was the first and only time I was even remotely tempted to be unfaithful.”
Dana Sue didn’t know what to say to any of that. None of it made her feel any better. “If you don’t know why that night was so different, how can you be sure it won’t happen again?”
“Because in the last two years I finally learned to value what we had, instead of taking it for granted,” he said candidly. “Practically from the day we met, I knew you were crazy about me. I guess I thought you’d forgive me anything. Or maybe I wanted to find out if you would.” He shrugged. “I just don’t know. I do know that I will never take a chance on ruining our relationship again. I want our life back, Dana Sue. I want you back.”
The sincerity behind his words was real. She believed that’s what he wanted, today, anyway. But what about tomorrow and the day after that? If what they’d had was so fantastic, and still he’d cheated, what would happen when they hit a bump in the road?
Life was all about taking risks, she reminded herself. She didn’t have to take a giant leap of faith, just one small risk today and another tomorrow, until the days added up to something she could trust. Maybe she could do that much. She’d told Dr.
