Page 93 of Halstead House

“It’s not like we didn’t know this was coming,” he said. “I’ve known since you arrived that it was a temporary thing.”

I covered my mouth with both my hands as the reality crashed over me. “Oh my gosh. I’m nothing more than your summer fling.” I barely choked out the lasts words before I had to start blinking rapidly.

“That’s completely untrue,” he said. The anger flooded out of him, leaving a look of misery on his handsome features as he came around the table and reached for me.

I darted back out of his reach. “This has to be the most humiliating experience of my life.” The words were carried on a tormented breath as I continued to back out of the room.

“Grace, sweetheart, you’re wrong.” He tried to close the distance between us, but I scooted back again.

I reached the doorway and fled before he could say any more. I couldn’t believe he’d called me sweetheart. It had been cruel and uncalled for. I heard his footsteps coming after me, but I ran as fast as I could through the kitchen, out of the great hall, and down to the basement. I took the twists and turns of the corridors as quickly as possible, all the while trying to tune out his voice calling my name.

I burst out of the side door and took off toward the beach. I hoped he thought I’d gone upstairs to my room. I needed him not to find me. My heart was fragmented. I wanted to be alone. My feet hit the sand, and I turned blindly in the opposite direction from what I usually took. The sand felt cold as it worked its way into my sandals. I left them on. Sand was the least of my worries. Right now, I was doing my best to keep the shattered pieces of my heart from littering the beach behind me.

After jogging along the sand for five minutes or so I stopped abruptly and crashed down onto my hands and knees. I was breathing hard, and tears flooded my face. I’d known it was a possibility to have my heart broken, but I hadn’t been prepared for the reality of it.

I changed positions so that I was sitting down and hugged my knees to my chest, watching the water and trying to get my breathing calmed, but before I’d fully succeeded I saw a small figure coming my way. It was Ana. Tears fell again at the sight of my friend.

“Of all the...” she puffed as she came to where I was sitting and flopped down next to me. “If I’d wanted to chase a fool having a tempter tantrum down the beach I’d have gone to visit my nieces and nephews.”

Her lack of sympathy rocked me. “Ana!”

“What?” She looked at me and pursed her lips. “I’m supposed to just pretend that it’s normal for adults to run away and cry on the beach instead of talking it out?” She looked back out to the water and made another noise of annoyance. “Seriously, child. When we started your therapy program it was to help you loosen up a bit and help you stand up for yourself, not to turn you into this droopy mess.”

I was too stunned to respond, but she’d certainly caused my tears to stop falling, so that was good I supposed. “Droopy mess? Ana, he broke my heart.”

“No, he didn’t.”

My jaw dropped. “You weren’t there. You have no idea what was said.”

“Let me guess. He said he wasn’t going to ask you to stay. It made you feel bad, so you attached it to your worth somehow rather than asking him why he wasn’t going to ask you to stay and then talking it out.”

“I...” Oh, how I hated that she’d pinned it so concisely. “It wasn’t exactly that way,” I hedged.

“Mm-hmm. That’s why the poor guy was running around the house calling your name. Because he doesn’t care about you.”

“He said my work was in Providence and his work is here.” I hiccuped a little as my breathing fully returned to normal.

“So, he told you something you already know.”

“You’re oversimplifying this.”

She turned to look at me. “Okay, so tell me what I’m misunderstanding.”

I couldn’t meet her eyes. “He said that we knew this was coming and that he couldn’t and wouldn’t ask me to stay. I’m his summer fling.”

She made a sound of annoyance. “Well, I suppose thirty-two is a good age to have your first ever fling.” I didn’t reply, just looked at her with raised eyebrows. “I’m saying, Grace, that I’ve worked here for ten years now, and I’ve never seen that man have a fling of any kind. He doesn’t ever bring anyone to the house, much less spend every evening with them. He’s been a total loner. A man doesn’t suddenly go from loner to fling master. Especially in middle age.”

“Maybe I’m his mid-life crisis,” I harrumphed.

At this she laughed. “Fine. You’re his mid-life crisis.”

I replayed our conversation as we settled into quiet. Had I misunderstood something? Was Ana right and I wasn’t seeing this how Lucas had meant it? I thought I’d taken him at face value, but then the look on his face when I’d stood and started out of the room flashed before my eyes. He’d looked stricken, and told me I’d misunderstood him. Had I?

“You know what you have to do here, right?” Ana asked.

“You’re going to say I have to talk to him.”

“Right.” She stood first and pulled me up with her outstretched hands. “Come on, you watering pot, let’s get you back so you can be a grown-up about this.”

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