Under the Boardwalk by Carla Cassidy

Author:Carla Cassidy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Six

Nikki watched the sun rise from her front porch, wishing she could swallow the yellow ball of fire to warm her insides. She’d never been so cold in all her life, and never had she felt such emptiness…a vast abyss deep within that yawned like a black hole of nothingness.

Before last night, she’d at least had her anger to buoy her, her bitterness to keep the grief at bay. Now that Grey had taken that, she was frightened, scared of what emotions she might face once the numbing emptiness went away.

He hadn’t known about the baby. He’d never known. He hadn’t betrayed her. He’d had nothing to do with it. The words reverberated inside her head, echoed in her heart. Although they should have filled her up with a kind of joy, they didn’t. They merely made her sorrow deeper, her vague dreams of what might have been more intense.

Last night’s lovemaking had added to her confusion and sense of loss. This morning, her body was fulfilled, sated by the depth of his lovemaking. But her heart was still as empty, as cold as ever. And she simply didn’t know what to do to make her heart warm again.

Overwhelmed by her turmoil, she went into the house and made coffee. As she watched the dark liquid drip through the machine and into the glass carafe, she wondered what would happen next.

Somehow, she had the feeling that nothing had changed between her and Grey. Although her bitterness and anger against him had eased, the result of their shared past was still too painful to overcome. Even though he hadn’t known about Lolly, it didn’t change the reality of her death and Nikki’s deep, abiding grief.

The fact that Thomas Blakemore had been able to manipulate them so easily only pointed to the fact that their love hadn’t been strong enough to trust in. They hadn’t questioned the circumstances. When she had received the money, she’d never doubted that it came from Grey. And when he had received his letters back from her unopened, he hadn’t questioned that for some reason she’d fallen out of love with him. Their love hadn’t been enough for them to seek out each other, discuss what was happening. They’d allowed circumstances and a wicked old man to destroy them.

And now, too much time had passed and their baby’s death would always remain between them, a tragedy Nikki would never be able to put behind her.

She sighed heavily and poured herself a cup of coffee, knowing that even though they had managed to straighten out much of the tangled events of the past, it had done nothing to ease the strain of the present.

Grey was waiting for his mother when she came downstairs for breakfast. “Good morning,” she said, smiling pleasantly as she went to the sideboard and poured herself a cup of coffee from the silver server.

“We need to talk,” he said without preamble.

“Is something wrong, dear?” She joined him at the table, looking at him curiously.

“I had a long talk with Nikki Young last night.

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