Loving Laura (The Cantrelle Family Trilogy) by Kay Patricia

Author:Kay, Patricia [Kay, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
Published: 2012-10-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

On the drive back to Patinville, Neil was very quiet. Earlier, after the electricity came back on, and the elevator jolted to life, he had seemed to take it for granted that they would skip the visit to Norman and just go home. Emotions in turmoil, Laura gave him no argument. Neither could have carried on a normal conversation with Norman—not tonight. Not after what had happened between them. Norman wasn’t stupid; he would have sensed something was wrong.

When Neil insisted that she ride back with him in the company truck and leave her car at the hospital, she agreed to that, too. She was in no shape to drive herself home.

So she climbed into the cab of the truck, mind and heart numbed by Neil’s silence, by the almost impersonal way he helped her into the truck, by the set lines of his jaw and the distant expression in his eyes. A great tiredness seeped through her, the trauma of the night’s events finally catching up with her. As they headed west toward Patinville, she stared out the window. It was still raining, but the wind had died down, and there were only occasional flashes of light-ning streaking across the sky. Laura pressed her forehead against the window glass and closed her eyes. She shivered, pulling her coat closer around her. She was so cold.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s cold in here. It’ll just take a few minutes for the heater to warm up,” Neil said.

But will it warm up my heart? If only he would tell her he loved her. She knew there would be problems. She knew it would be hard to face Norman. But together, if they loved each other, they could overcome anything.

Only, Neil hadn’t said he loved her.

He’d said he was sorry. He’d said he didn’t want to hurt her. And he’d said he didn’t want to lie to her. Lie to her. Every time she thought about those three words, she felt sick. What had he meant? She shivered again. What else could he mean except that he couldn’t say he loved her because it would be a lie?

She sat in the dark cab watching the rivulets of rain snake across her window, the darkness outside relieved only by an occasional watery light in the distance, and she couldn’t evade the harsh reality any longer.

Neil didn’t love her.

He just felt sorry for her. What they’d shared hadn’t meant the same things to him as they had to her. And he was a caring person, so he hadn’t wanted to hurt her by telling her.

An icy coldness wrapped around her heart and an emptiness settled into her stomach like a dull ache.

She was suddenly afraid. So terribly, terribly afraid.

* * *

On the long drive home, Neil was all too aware of Laura sitting huddled against her door, face turned toward the window. The knowledge of what he’d done hammered at him.

Her misery was all his fault. Tonight was all his fault. He couldn’t place any of the blame for tonight on Laura.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.