Their Unfinished Business by Braun Jackie

Author:Braun, Jackie [Braun, Jackie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-05-14T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

THEY somehow managed to avoid one another throughout the rest of the week and Ali was never so happy to have the weekend arrive. She had another date with Bradley that Saturday evening and she had considered canceling it. After what had gone on in her kitchen with Luke, she felt she should. She still blushed every time she recalled the way she had tossed a leg over his lap and arched back against the table.

But in the end she didn’t cancel the date. Memories of Luke had caused her to cancel too many dates. She could see that now. She could see the way she’d been in a virtual holding pattern for the better part of eleven years, waiting for him to return to the island and tell her that he’d made the biggest mistake of his life by walking away.

Well he was back, although not for good. And while he’d made it clear he still wanted her, it was plain he didn’t regret leaving.

I can’t imagine living anywhere else, he’d said of New York.

The truth was leaving hadn’t been a mistake for him. He’d made a different choice, chosen a different road, just as it had been Ali’s choice to stay on Trillium when she could have gone after him or gone anywhere else for that matter. She hadn’t, because to her the island was more than an isolated hunk of rock and soil cropping out of the vast lake that girded Michigan’s western boundary. It was her home, her center, the one place where she felt complete and at peace.

Ali and Luke might be on speaking terms once again but that didn’t change the fact that for him Trillium was not a paradise but a prison of unhappy childhood memories from which he was glad to be free. She would be wise to remember that.

And so she prepared for her date.

Audra showed up at the cottage just after Ali stepped out of the shower. She strolled into the bathroom and plopped down on the edge of the big claw-foot tub while Ali toweled the excess water from her hair.

“Hot date tonight?”

“Bradley will be here in about thirty minutes. We’re having dinner at the resort.”

They were dining at Saybrook’s at his suggestion. He’d never eaten at the resort and wanted a chance to sample the offerings of their new chef, whom the Conlans had courted away from a mainland restaurant.

Audra frowned. “You’re having dinner with Bradley? You’re seeing him tonight?”

“Who else would I have a hot date with?” Ali challenged.

“I just thought…Luke’s been spending his evenings out this way. I assumed…”

“He’s working with Tom Whitey on repairs and I think he’s had a surveyor out. He’s selling the property and maybe splitting it into a few parcels.”

“But—” Audra began.

Ali cut her off. “There’s nothing going on between us. Nothing,” she repeated, even as the scene from the kitchen replayed itself in intimate detail. In the mirror, Ali watched her face flush scarlet. Beyond her reflection, Audra’s eyebrows inched up.

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