Page 58 of Rocky Mountain Devil
Hell, no.She barely kept from blurting it out. “I’d prefer not, thanks.”
He let out a heavy sigh. “Laurel, I want to make sure there’re no misunderstandings left between us.”
Against her better judgment, she tilted her head toward the hall off the kitchen. Half a dozen volunteers were cleaning up and dealing with the coffee cups, but at one end of the room the tables were empty. It was private enough, yet public. She marched quickly to the back of the hall, taking the chair on one side of a table where the only other place for Jeff to sit was on the opposite side.
Putting lots and lots of barrier between them.
He settled in, looking all impressive and friendly. “I’ve been meaning to get in touch for a long time.”
“It’s been two and a half years,” she pointed out. “Oh, wait. You were with Jessica for some of that, right? I suppose you couldn’t really talk to me then, could you?”
“I wanted to apologize,” he said. “Things didn’t end well between us, and I’m sorry.”
She waited.
He’d gotten the expression just right—contrite sadness. “My timing wasn’t very good.”
She waited some more.
Jeff glanced away. “You know, you might consider giving me a clue of what it will take to make a difference.”
“There’s no difference to make. We dated, then we stopped, end of story. So if that’s all you have to say… Goodbye. Safe travels.”
She made as if to stand, but he caught her by the wrist, pinning her hand to the table. “Laurel, I—”
“Let go of me, or I will break your fingers,” Laurel snapped before clenching her teeth.
Shock slid across his expression, but he let go. “That’s a little extreme, isn’t it?”
“Jeff, what do you want me to say? That I forgive you for leading me on?”
“I never led you on,” he said softly. “What was between us was real. We liked each other, and we were attracted to each other. That didn’t stop.”
He was being deliberately obtuse. “That’s what breaking up meant, Jeff. That westopped.”
“No, what it meant was we were getting too serious, too quickly, and I felt for both our sakes we needed some time away from each other.”
The numbness inside her grew heavier. She’d dealt with this once—with all the stresses she’d had to face without him. Why was he dragging her back into hell? “So, youdidn’tbreak up with me?”
“I certainly didn’t plan on it. I wanted us to slow down. Once we’d taken a breather, I figured we’d start over, only with a little more restraint…” He gave her a wry smile. “I’d never been in the situation I was with you before, and I lost control. I’m sorry for that.”
The irony of Jeff telling her they should’ve gone slower contrasted with the iron control Rafe had displayed, years earlier and years younger.
But that wasn’t the point right now. Her mind reeled at the idea he was presenting.
“I’m confused. It sounds as if you intended for us to be together, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t just take a break. You were with someone else. In fact, my memory must be really terrible, because I seem to remember an engagement announcement.”
“That was long after.” Jeff reached across the table as if to take her fingers again. He paused, then sat back and folded his hands, resting them on the table. “Laurel, I don’t understand what happened. I told you we needed to take a break, then I left for my trip. Before we could fix things, you left school with no warning, months before classes were done.”
She didn’t need the play by play. That part she remembered. “I did leave. And how longbeforeI left did you start going out with Jessica?”
“That’s not really fair,” he complained. “All the clues said you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“And what clues were those? Were you reading my mind?”
“Laurel.” He lowered his voice. “I know it doesn’t make it better, but we aren’t the first couple to get carried away on the physical side of things. I thought maybe you were punishing yourself for us…going too far.”
“Having sex, you mean,” she said.
