You Must Remember This Part 2 by Marilyn Pappano

Author:Marilyn Pappano [Pappano, Marilyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Martin stood two dozen feet in front of the window that looked into Juliet’s office and tried to talk himself into leaving without speaking to her. After a half-dozen hours of dream-ruined sleep, he’d awakened making deals with himself. He could get out of bed if he didn’t leave the apartment. He could leave the apartment if he stayed away from the library. He could go to the library if he didn’t go to her office. He could see her if he didn’t speak to her.

Plenty of agreements, and every one of them broken. Hell, he couldn’t even keep a promise to himself. How the hell could he be expected to treat Juliet fairly?

Treating her fairly, in light of what he now knew, translated to one thing: staying away from her. She deserved better. With what little he knew of himself, he deserved nothing.

But here he was, a few strides away, watching her like some kind of lovesick—or just plain sick—fool. She hadn’t noticed him. Ever since he’d arrived, her attention had been focused on something on her desk. She seemed a thousand miles away, and he wished she was, literally as well as figuratively. Then she would be out of his reach. He would never know she existed, and she would be safe from him.

Abruptly, she looked up, her gaze locking with his. He tried to look away, but instead, for one long, greedy moment, he continued to look at her, to study her, to want her. She was so sweet, so innocent. He was neither and suspected he had never been.

Finally he forced himself to break the eye contact, to turn his back to her. He still felt her gaze, though, even when he crouched on the pretext of finding something on the shelves, even when solid wood and a forest of paper blocked him from her sight. He stared blindly, wishing she’d never come to this town, wishing he’d never come, wishing he’d gone over the side of the mountain with his damned car if this was what he had to live with. Pain, fear, doubt. Ugly truths and impossible wants. He wished—

She crouched beside him, her pale summer dress brushing the floor, the faint scent of her fragrance competing with the smells of papers and inks. “Can I help you find something?” she asked, her voice impossibly soft, her tone unmistakably hurt.

“No. I can find—” He pulled a book from the shelf, but he couldn’t read the title because his peripheral gaze was on her, a soft blur of colors, scents, sensations.

“Interested in college? Since part of my salary is paid by the local college, I feel obligated to recommend them first. However, that one’s good, too. I believe you’re a little old to become a cadet or to think about a career in the military, but since you can’t prove your age…”

Finally he forced his gaze to the book. It was a catalog for the U.S. Naval Academy. His face burning, he let her pull it from his hands, then sank back to lean against the bookcase behind him.

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