Page 85 of Finding Amanda

His gaze flicked to hers. "Okay." He made a sharp left turn—they were definitely headed to Nantasket—straightened the car, and sighed. "I love you, Amanda. I fell in love with you the time I saw you. My feelings for you have grown stronger ever since."

She swallowed. "Okay."

"What I'm about to tell you . . . Please remember how much I love you. Last night, when I got home, Annalise was there."

"At your apartment? How . . . ?" Her voice rose. "You told her we were separated?"

"No, I didn't. I haven't spoken to her in years. But when you told my mother, she called Annalise."

"Oh. Of course. I should've seen that coming."

Mark glanced at her. She shrugged.

"There's more. See, the apartment across the hall from mine was empty, and Annalise rented it."

"She moved in?"

"Uh-huh. Yesterday. She has a job in Boston, and I guess she decided, if I was getting a divorce?—"

"Your mother told her we were getting a divorce?"

"Yeah. Did you . . . ? I mean, I wasn't sure exactly what you'd said to her."

"I told her we were separated. I didn't use the D-word."

Mark smirked. "Wishful thinking on Mom's part, I guess."

"Well, sure. And what a great way to try to get between us. You gotta hand it to Pat. She might breathe fire, but she's clever."

Mark almost smiled. "So, I'm going to move out as soon as I can find somewhere else to go."

Amanda studied his profile, his beautiful strong jaw, his troubled eyes. Was it too soon for him to move back in with her? She stifled a giggle. After last night, she knew she wanted him back.

"Why don't you?—?"

"There's more."

They both spoke at the same time. Amanda swallowed. "Okay."

"Thank you for being so rational about it. I really appreciate that. And you . . . you've always stood by me. If you knew . . . I mean, you don't know the things I did when I was deployed."

She blinked at the change in direction. "Mark, you were a soldier. Of course you?—"

"When I got home, all I wanted was you and my family and everything to be . . . right. It was so crazy over there, and I needed things to feel normal."

"That makes sense." He'd been different after he returned from the war. More serious. More intense. As time went on, the Mark she'd fallen in love with returned, and though he wasdifferent, she loved him just the same. Six months after he returned from Afghanistan, Mark was discharged from the Marines and moved to Providence to be near her. He proposed on Thanksgiving, and she'd accepted. And then there was that disastrous holiday.

"I'm sorry about that Christmas, if that's what you're thinking about," she said, though she'd apologized for it many times. "I didn't understand how important it was for me to be with you. I didn't really grasp what you'd been through in Afghanistan. Not that I do now, but . . ." She let her voice trail off. "And of course, I didn't know about your parents' divorce. Still, I should've been by your side. I was insensitive and selfish, and I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, Amanda."

"But—"

"Don't." He turned to her, eyes burning in intensity.

Her words choked to a stop. There was something terribly wrong, something bigger than Annalise moving in across the hall.

He slowed into a parking space along the narrow stretch of beach and stared out at the waves. Tension filled the space between them, thick as peanut butter and just as clear. Minutes passed while she watched him. She couldn't stand the silence, but she didn't know what to say.

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