Page 138 of A Soldier's Return

His laugh was rough, humorless. “You don’t have to apologize for not sharing my feelings, Sage. I told you love was messy. There’s nothing messier than one person feeling things that aren’t returned.”

She could say nothing, could only clutch the blanket around her with nerveless fingers.

“I guess this is goodbye, then,” he said, reaching for the doorknob. “I have to come back to Cannon Beach. There’s no avoiding that—I just bought a hotel here. But on the rare occasions I come back to oversee the transition of The Sea Urchin to Spencer Hotels ownership, I’ll do my best to stay out of your way.”

She thought her heart would crack apart again. How many times was she going to have to say goodbye to him? She couldn’t bear this. “You don’t have to do that.”

One corner of his mouth lifted in a grim ghost of a smile. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

He opened the door but turned back before he passed through it for the last time. “Goodbye, Sage. Thank you again for tonight, for Chloe. You gave me back my daughter and I don’t just mean by rescuing her from the tide. I’m not sending her to school, if that makes you feel any better. The two of us will tough it out and try to figure things out together.”

“That’s good. I’m happy for you both.”

Oh, please go!She couldn’t bear this.

He gave that ghost of a smile again then walked out, closing the door behind him.

She managed to keep it together, her hands gripping the blanket tightly while she listened to his footsteps down the stairs and then the creak of the outside door opening and closing.

She waited a few more moments, until she could be certain he was on his way back to his beach house, then a wild sob escaped her, then another and another.

By the time Conan climbed the stairs a few moments later, she had collapsed on the couch and was sobbing in earnest.

Her dog raced into the room, sniffed around the entire apartment, then barked. She opened her gritty eyes to find him giving her what she could only describe as an accusing stare.

She wasnotin the mood to deal with another contrary male.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she tried to snap, though it came out more like a wail. “You’re supposed to be on my side, aren’t you?”

Conan barked and she could swear he shook his head.

“It’s better this way. You’re smart enough to know that,” she muttered. “It never would have worked out. We’re just too different. Eventually he would figure out I’m not what he needs or wants. I can’t go through that. You understand, don’t you? Ican’t.”

She knew the tears she was wiping away probably negated some of the resoluteness of her voice but she couldn’t seem to make them stop.

After another moment of glaring at her, Conan made a snorting, disgusted kind of sound. She thought he would amble back down to Anna’s apartment. Instead, he came to her and licked at the tears on her cheeks, then settled beside her.

Sage wrapped her arms around his solid mass and wept.

Chapter Fifteen

She finally fell into a fitful sleep sometime in the early hours of the morning, only to be awakened a short time later by a cold nose snuffling the side of her neck.

“Oh, for the love of Pete,” she grunted. “Why don’t you go harass Anna for once?”

Now the cold nose was joined by a paw on her shoulder. Conan threw in a whine for good measure.

She glanced at her alarm clock. Six o’clock. He’d at least given her an extra half-hour of sleep. She supposed she ought to be grateful for that much. She scrubbed at her face with one hand and sat up. Every single muscle in her body ached.

Her penance, she supposed, for a night of only a few moments’ sleep. Conan whined impatiently at the emerging signs of life from her.

She frowned at him. “I guess a broken heart doesn’t win me any amnesty when it comes to your daily run, does it?”

He moved his head from side to side in that uncanny way he had. Obstinate male. He barked and cocked his head toward the door.Come on. Let’s go, lazybones.

For a nonverbal creature, he was remarkably communicative. She sighed, surrendering to the inevitable. She had to be up soon for work anyway. Perhaps a few moments of fresh sea air would help clear this wool from her head.

Ten minutes later, still aching and exhausted but now in her workout clothes, her hair yanked back into a ponytail, she followed Conan down the stairs at a much slower pace than his eager gallop.

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