Last Call for Love by Maggie Marr

Author:Maggie Marr [Marr, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC027020 FICTION / Romance / Contemporary; FIC044000 FICTION / Contemporary Women
Publisher: NLA Digital LLC
Published: 2015-04-21T23:00:00+00:00

*

The shuttle dropped the four of them off just at the edge of the resort property line. He and Charla walked down a path to the beach, with Trevor and Poppy just ahead of them. The salty smell of the ocean led them through the plants to the sand. Stars peeked through the tiny wisps of clouds that remained in the sky from the storms earlier in the day. The moon shone down on them.

A beautiful night with a beautiful woman.

Peace filled Ryan’s heart. Hints of joy trickled through him. For the first time in what felt like forever his grief had parted. Much like the stars on this night, happiness played peekaboo through the sadness of his past. The goodness in Charla and his want for her parted his heavy sadness. The moon reflected off the ocean.

Ryan stopped walking and turned to Charla. Her beauty stunned him. When he lost Paloma and their future together, he believed that happiness and desire would be forever absent in his life. Charla changed that. Her honesty and her kindness called to him.

He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek.

“I feel so close to you,” Charla said. “As though I’ve known you a lifetime, and we’ve only just met. How is that possible?”

In just one night, he’d come to think of Charla as his. There was a force bigger than either of them that propelled them to each other. Like metal to a magnet, her closeness, though desired by him, was more than a choice. Charla was a compulsion.

“You never told me your story.” Her gaze contained more than simple playfulness.

“My story.” Ryan inhaled the salty scent of the sea and the fresh rain-scrubbed air. Where did he start? How did he start? What was best to tell Charla so that he might keep her? Not anger her. Not make her feel used or betrayed.

“You left to escape a marriage, and I left because I didn’t get to be married.”

Her hand fell from his. His palm was suddenly cool and wanting. “So you were in love and she left you?”

“Not because she wanted to leave.”

“I don’t understand.”

“There was a car accident, and I was driving.” An ache pulsed through his chest.

Charla’s hand flew to her lips. “Oh no. Oh …” She looked away from him and toward the ocean as though the pain must be too much for him to bear. “Oh, Ryan, I’m so sorry. How? When? Oh that is just … I don’t really have words.”

“Nor did I, for a very long time. There was rain. It was late. I was tired. I took a turn too fast, not faster than any other night, but on that night with the wet pavement … we slid into an oncoming car.”

Charla’s eyebrows pulled tight. “I can’t imagine.”

“She was beautiful, Charla. You would have loved her. Everyone did.”

“What was her name?”

“Paloma.”

How he’d raced through life always believing they’d have each other well into the dusk of their lives. But they hadn’t.

Ryan hadn’t said

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