Page 72 of Luke

"Or the dream of a woman in love," Shari said gently, as she stood up. "You do love him, don't you, Lizzie? I saw the sparks between you right from the start."

She got to her feet. "It doesn't matter how I feel. Luke's life has always been somewhere else. And to be fair, mine has, too. We just can't get the timing right."

"Maybe that's about to change," Shari said.

"What do you mean?"

Shari tipped her head to the door behind her.

Liz turned around, shocked to see Luke walk into the room. Her stomach immediately clenched, and her head spun at the sight of his handsome face and rugged body. She hadn't thought she'd see him again. She'd really believed their next contact would be an email or a certified letter or maybe a text.

"Hi," Luke said, his gaze on her face as he walked forward.

"Hi," she murmured back.

"So, I'm going to go," Shari said.

"How's the baby?" Luke asked, dragging his gaze from Liz to Shari.

"She's beautiful. Brad just took her home. Come by later if you want to meet her."

"I will. Congratulations again."

"Thanks for the flowers you sent. They were beautiful."

After Shari left, Liz didn't know what to say, so she settled for something completely irrelevant. "You sent Shari flowers?"

He nodded. "It seemed like the right thing to do."

"That was nice."

"I can be nice."

He could be nice. He could be a lot of other things, too, but she didn't want to think about his good traits, only his negative ones. She had to prepare herself for bad news, so she needed to get her armor up quick. "It would have been nice if you'd said good-bye before you left."

"I thought about it. I was actually on my way into the lodge last Saturday when I decided I wasn't ready to say good-bye yet."

"So you just left?"

"I needed to think."

"About what?"

"You."

Her heart fluttered with impossible hope. "What about me?"

"Last week when Kaitlyn ran away, and you and I went past Last Chance Rock, I couldn't help thinking that that rock symbolized our relationship. It was our opportunity to forget the past and move forward. How many people get a second chance in life, Lizzie?"

"Do you want a second chance?" she whispered, trying not to get too carried away by his words.

"I do."

"But how could we possibly work? It's not like that much has changed. And what has changed doesn't tip the scales in our favor. You didn't want to stay before because the world was calling, and I didn't want to leave because my career was calling. But now I have Kaitlyn. It's not just me anymore. It's me and a thirteen-year-old who has already proven how much trouble she can be."

He smiled. "I think Kaitlyn has turned a corner. She's texted me a few times since I left."

"She has? She didn't tell me that."

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