The Edge of Recall by Kristen Heitzmann

Author:Kristen Heitzmann
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Christian, ebook, Fiction, Romance, book, Suspense
ISBN: 9780764228315
Publisher: Bethany House
Published: 2008-07-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

22

“I’m driving you back.” Smith left no room for argument, though Tessa didn’t mount much resistance.

“You’re overreacting.”

“So what if I am?” He set his jaw.

Her teeth chattered as he wrapped her in a thick blanket and tucked her into the passenger seat, not unlike the times he’d rescued Bair from equally unwise decisions. Tess maintained the position that she hadn’t required rescue. She had merely run for the woods in a lightning storm instead of joining them in the trailer. If she was that skittish, how could he make any of this work?

He got in and started the car, as annoyed with himself as with her. He had complicated an already tenuous situation, mixing business and personal matters, and had quite possibly compromised the project. Moreover, he’d endangered a consultant by creating a hostile environment she had avoided by exposing herself to hazardous weather conditions—a litigator’s dream. But that wasn’t the crux. The crux of it was letting down the people he cared about.

Smith gripped the wheel and backed out. Danae had temporarily derailed him, his lapse upsetting both Bair and Tessa. He couldn’t help that Bair couldn’t stand Danae, but now Tessa thought she would have to play second fiddle. Maybe it was still too soon to move on—except the feelings he had expressed to Tessa were real.

That was what he wanted her to know. His heart had nearly stopped when he’d seen the Bobcat standing empty in the field with lightning striking all around and rain pummeling the ground. He’d thought all kinds of awful things and nearly gone out of his head when her line kept going directly to message. Only by grace had he found her. And maybe that grace would help him now.

He believed, so help him, that they’d been brought together again for a reason, that it was bigger than either of their personal desires. He wanted her to know she mattered to him. But she had processed the emotions with someone else and returned to her dim view that nothing could ever be good and worthwhile. Why did Dr. Brenner allow her that dismal default position? To keep her dependent on him?

Smith scowled. He’d never done battle with someone’s psychiatrist, but he would if it came to it. He wanted Tessa to believe, to accept the possibility of happiness. Even if he wasn’t the one to give her that, he wanted her to know it was possible.

When they reached the inn, he said, “I’ll wait in the foyer while you shower and change. Then we can talk.”

“You’re as wet as I am.”

“But not muddy.”

She went up, unaware perhaps of the bedraggled state that made her look more vulnerable than ever. Foolishly, he imagined washing the mud from her hair, feeling the water stream through the tresses, the scented lather, his fingers stroking her scalp. He tried not to imagine the rest of her, clean and wet, and forcefully dragged his mind to the issues between them.

After a while, she came back downstairs fresh and dry, her hair temporarily and disappointingly controlled by a clip.

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