Second Chances (24 page)

Kristin tossed the damp scarf onto her desk and turned back to face him. “You should invest in an umbrella or something. It has been known to rain occasionally in England.”

David flashed a brief smile at her attempt at a joke. The dimple that pulled at the corner of his mouth also tugged at her heart. “I think I heard that somewhere as well.”

A small chuckle escaped her. “So, your note said it was urgent you speak to me. Is something wrong?”

He brushed a strand of wet hair out of his face. She wanted it to be her fingers caressing his face. He crossed his arms in front of him and leaned against the doorframe. “That depends on your view of it, I guess. Have you had enough time to sort out your head?”

Here we go again. She sighed and stood beside the desk, afraid to move. “David, matters of the heart don’t exactly enjoy being put on a timetable. In fact, that usually makes the outcome less than desirable.”

He moved and reached out to grasp her hand. “I am sorry about Glasgow. Hell, I’m sorry about a lot of things. I can’t bear for you to hurt because of me.”

Kristin dropped his hand, walked to the window, and leaned her back against the frame.
Space, yes she needed space between their bodies
. “I think that’s part of the problem, David. Despite how much you say you love me, I keep getting hurt. I can only take so much of that.”

He lowered his head in a posture she took as defeat. “You still think I cheated on you with Sophie.”

Kristin stared at the ceiling while she processed a response. “I have no doubt that Sophie is capable of doing what you claim, and I am inclined to believe you. It’s just that everything has gotten so much bigger than that now.”

David raised his head to meet her gaze. The intensity in his dark eyes stabbed her in the gut. It would be so easy to give in, to fall into his arms again, but Kristin was determined to stand her ground for once. “What’s so urgent?”

His brow pinched together in what looked like confusion, but only for an instant before he understood what she’d asked. He inhaled deeply. “I have to go to Wales for a month. I have a part in a television movie filming there. With everything that has been going on, I completely forgot about it.”

Kristin steeled her shoulders. “When do you leave?”

“Tomorrow.”

“That’s just wonderful.” Aggravation skipped down her back. She threw her hands up in the air. “So you came here to what, fit our little lover’s tiff into your busy schedule?”

David’s body flinched as he cringed from her words. “I want to make this work with you, Kristin. We’ve fought so hard already, I don’t want us to give up now. I’m not giving up now. Or ever.”

Her head shook back and forth. “How are we supposed to work this out if you’re in Wales, and I’m in London?”

David walked over to where she stood. His chest rose and fell rapidly with his ragged breathing. “That’s why I want you to come with me.”

Kristin stared at him in disbelief. “I just got the gallery back in order. I can’t take off for a month. Why don’t you stay here and not go to Wales instead?”

His shoulders sagged. “That’s not fair. I can’t back out of a contract like that, and you know it. Things in my career are booked too far in advance for such an option to be possible on a whim.”

What did he expect her to do? Always uproot her life for him? Didn’t she deserve the same courtesy?

She shrugged. “I guess we’re stuck, then.”

David clasped her hand, raised it to his mouth and let his lips brush the knuckles tenderly. An involuntary shudder rippled through her at the contact. “I know how hard this whole thing has been for you, so I have a compromise. A car is supposed to pick me up at my flat tomorrow at five o’clock. Pack a bag, show up, and we can have a few days in Wales to talk about things. A few days are easier for you to justify being away for than an entire month.”

It looked like he wasn’t going to give up. His dark eyes flashed a gentle but firm warning, “If you don’t show up, I can assume you decided that you no longer wish to fight for us anymore, and I will go on to Wales without you. And you can go on with your life without me.”

Kristin’s mind jarred into motion and tried to make sense out of his proposal. It sounded simple enough. Either she wanted to work this out, or she didn’t. But how could simple feel so complicated?

David leaned forward and kissed her deeply, his lips stealing her breath. Kristin wanted to be furious, but she was too surprised to react with anything but acquiescence. His hand cradled her cheek as his thumb caressed her skin, leaving fiery tingles in its wake. He removed his lips and straightened, his tall frame towering over her small one. His ebony eyes searched hers with a yearning she knew so well.

“I love you, lass.” David dropped his hand and walked out of her office.

Kristin stared ahead, dumbfounded. She touched her lips, still moist from David’s kiss. Did she want to keep fighting, or find another life to fight for?

Well, she had twenty-four hours to figure that out.

~~~

“Tell me what to do, Ingrid,” Kristin begged her best friend from the other side of the desk. A sleepless night and restless afternoon had passed, with little result. David’s proposal still hung in the air, and she had only hours before she had to make her decision.

Ingrid fluffed her short hair. “I’m not telling you anything, love. This decision is yours to make. But I’ll support you in whatever you choose.”

A frustrated groan emanated from Kristin as she sank her head to her desk with a thud.
Ingrid voluntarily shutting up? The woman must be ill.

“Oh, all right. Cut out the dramatics.” Ingrid tapped the back of her head with a pencil. “The way that I see it, you had given up all hope of ever finding love after James died, and David gave you that hope back. Isn’t that worth something?”

Kristin raised her head and nodded. “Of course, but does that outweigh all the hurt, fear and betrayal I’ve had because of getting back that hope?”

Ingrid patted Kristin’s hand on the desk between them. “Only you can answer that, love.”

Kristin sighed and stared down at her hands. If only that answer weren’t so fleeting.

Her friend stood and flung her bag over her shoulder. “I have an evening meeting to go to, so I have to run.” She opened the office door and glanced over her shoulder. “Call me from Wales, all right?” She smiled and blew Kristin a kiss before she disappeared through the door.

A loud chuckle of disbelief left Kristin’s lips. Her friend knew her heart before she was even aware herself. She shook her head in amazement.

After she told Celia she would close for the night and be gone for a few days, Kristin ran upstairs to pack. Clothes landed in the suitcase randomly, as she didn’t really pay attention to what she grabbed. Her head spun with her decision. She smiled and zipped the bulging baggage, carrying it downstairs and to the gallery.

Kristin walked back to her office to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything important. She could leave a note for Celia if anything came to mind. The sound of the gallery’s front door opening jolted her to attention.

“I’m sorry, we’re closed.” Kristin turned around and froze in her tracks. Sophie Miller stood there, her eyes sending daggers at Kristin. The actress wore simple jeans and a white T-shirt, her blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. Even casual, her beauty resonated throughout the room.

“Hello, Kristin.” Sophie’s words dripped with distaste. The actress slowly walked forward, touching objects with her fingers like she inspected them for dust. The familiarity of that touch sent shivers down Kristin’s spine. “Mind if we have a little chat?”

The woman’s mere presence made Kristin bristle. “Actually, I’m about to go on a trip.”

Sophie sat in the chair that had been vacated by Ingrid not too long ago. “Please, have a seat.” The actress gestured to Kristin’s desk chair.

“I have no intention of listening to any more of your lies, Sophie. You need to leave.” The blood in Kristin’s veins rushed into her ears.

The actress’ blond ponytail bobbed while she shook her head back and forth. “Tsk, tsk. Such rude behavior. No wonder your business is suffering.”

Kristin stormed over to the back of her desk chair so she could face the psycho. “Your ploys didn’t work. I found out what you did, and have since corrected everything, so why don’t you just shove off?” Anger filled her body with its searing heat.

The psycho didn’t move and arched a perfectly shaped blond eyebrow. “I’m impressed. I figured you more for the giving up type. Now I can see you have some fight in you.” She leaned forward. “But maybe you need to think twice about what you’re willing to fight for.”

Kristin’s breathing came heavy. “What do you mean?”

Sophie dug through her yellow designer bag and pulled out a large envelope. She removed some sheets of paper and tossed them on the desk toward Kristin. The paper turned out to be colored photos, and Kristin picked the stack up gingerly.

On the first picture she looked at, David was in a rumpled tux, and Sophie was in the blue robe Kristin had seen the actress wearing in Glasgow. The second photo, the pair just stood facing each other, nothing else. David’s face obscured a little bit.

The next one, the actress had her arms around David, and he had his arms around her. The third, Sophie had her lips on his neck. The fourth made Kristin’s stomach lurch with nausea. Sophie was naked and she had her arms around David’s neck, kissing him. He seemed to be liking it. Nothing about his body language showed he tried to remove her.

Kristin sank slowly into her desk chair, her body numb. David had lied about cheating on her with Sophie? These photos sure made it look that way. She glanced across the desk to find the actress staring smugly at her.

“I told you that he belonged to me. Now, do you really want to fight for someone who would betray you so easily?”

The numbness spread throughout Kristin’s body, turning her cold. David had lied to her. His eyes full of pain at her anguish, he had lied to her. How could that be?

The actress smirked, obviously delighted with Kristin’s heartbreak. “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Kristin shook her head in disbelief. “You are actually enjoying seeing me hurt like this. You are unhinged, Sophie.”

The psycho laughed, and the sound sent shivers down her spine. “I’ve only just started, love. I haven’t even mentioned the baby yet.”

Kristin’s stomach did a somersault. That last statement knocked the wind out of her.
Baby
? “What did you say?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“I’m pregnant. I only found out a few days ago.” Sophie’s cold blue eyes looked directly into hers, the wide smile across her lips devoid of any merriment. “We have a passionate life that makes me hot even as I speak. I’m not sure how far along I am. I’ll have the doctor sort it out.” She fanned herself with her hand.

Kristin laced her fingers together to keep them from trembling as the photos glared up at her from the desk. Pangs of jealousy shot through her gut. She had always wanted to be a mother. But instead, this ruthless woman sitting in front of her had been given that blessing. “And David doesn’t know?”

“Not yet. I wanted us to have our little conversation first, woman to woman.”

“How thoughtful of you.”

Sophie grabbed the photos from Kristin’s desk and peered at them in triumph. “Isn’t it amazing the quality of photo you can get from those little web cameras? I mean, really!”

Kristin was unsurprised by this psycho’s level of self involvement. “I pity that poor child, having you for a mother.”

The actress tossed the photos back on the desk, where they scattered. “Again with the rudeness. You Americans have no class.”

She stood and gestured to the photos with a nod of her head. “You can keep those. I have my own copies.” Sophie turned to leave, but stopped briefly in the doorway. “And I do expect that you won’t be insulted if I say that I hope we never see each other again.”

“Consider the feeling reciprocated, Sophie.”

The psycho flashed her signature plastic smile. “Ta.” She strolled out the door, and hopefully, out of Kristin’s life forever.

Kristin gazed at the photos scattered across her desk. She gathered them in her hands and flipped through them once more. Her stomach rolled with nausea again, so she stuffed the photos into a desk drawer, out of sight.

Her body moved robotically as she locked Haven’s door and trudged up the stairs to her flat with her luggage. Throwing her keys on the side table, she dropped her luggage with a dull thud. The door closed silently behind her, that numbness still permeating her body.

In her bedroom, she picked up the one photo of James she’d left sitting out and traced her finger along the outline of his smile. Oh, how she missed him! He had given her so much strength when he was alive. Kristin could really use some of it now.

A child
. David was having a child with another woman. A psychotic woman at that.

Returning to the kitchen, she sat at one of the barstools and laid her head on the counter. The coolness against her skin gave some relief to her apparently flushed face.

That place deep inside, where she always hidden when she didn’t want to get hurt beckoned to her. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Somewhere in the back of her brain, her mother’s voice cried out.
See, I was right. You don’t deserve to be loved. You bring nothing but misery to yourself and everyone around you.

Her teeth clenched as she pushed desperately against the tide of abandonment that voice dredged up. Loneliness, sadness, and insecurity, all wrapped up in a nice, neat bow that her mother gave her over and over.
What a gift.