Page 36 of The Last Resort
I don’t know if I would have that in me if my partner cheated.
“You two are together again. How ... how did you get Dan back?”
Kellie nodded. “We are reunited, and happy, but it took a long time for us to get to this place. The man I love is capable of such a degree of forgiveness that I still can’t fathom it. Dan did file for divorce, and I couldn’t blame him. I broke my vows, and I broke his heart.”
Tears welled once more in her reddened eyes. “And then just when I thought it was all lost, I was granted a miracle. We ran into one another at the grocery store. Dan took one look at me, realized I was suffering as badly as him, and the next thing I knew he was hauling me out of there and into his big ol’ SUV. He cancelled the divorce proceedings the following morning.”
While it would take some time for her to come to terms with what her sister had done, Rachel had no problem in understanding the reason for their father’s rage. He would have been counting on Kellie’s divorce settlement to try and buy himself out of some serious prison time. The notion of forgiveness would never have crossed his mind. As for his eldest daughter’s happiness, that had never figured in their father’s life.
But now I can finally fix something in my family.
“I promise I will be nicer to Dan. I’ll talk to him, let him know that I wasn’t aware of the situation.”
It hadn’t occurred to her that her sister might have beenthe one at fault. With their checkered family history she was naturally predisposed to blaming the male whenever things went wrong.
I have to stop thinking that every man is like my father.
“Kellie, why didn’t you tell me what had happened? When you said you were getting a divorce, and that there had been an affair, I assumed it had been Dan who’d cheated.”
I was judge, jury, and executioner when it came to him.
Her sister raked her fingers through her short, fair hair and sighed. “I was so ashamed. And being in the middle of dad’s trial, I didn’t want to add more pain to our family. Everything was broken.”
Rachel rose from the table, her taste for the coffee gone. “I’m going to go change, then I might head out to the lodge to do some final work. Are you okay if I take your car for an hour or two?”
Kellie’s chair scraped over the tiled floor. “Hang on a minute, you’ve just got home.”
“Yes.”
“How did last night go? You haven’t mentioned anything about this mystery man.”
And this is why I didn’t let Matt come to the door when he picked me up.
She gently waved her sister’s demands away. The privacy of her bedroom beckoned. “Drink the coffee I bought you. All you need to know is that he’s a really great guy, and I am seeing him again tonight. And yes, I will make a point of being nicer to Dan.”
She’d rather put the shock of Kellie’s revelation to the back of her mind, and deal with it later. When she had capacity.
Right now her head was already filled with the thought of spending another night with Matthew. And finishing up the plans for the ski lodge.
If I can save the ski lodge, it will give me the credentials and money to decide where I want to go. To follow my heart’s desire.
It was great that Kellie and Dan had their future sorted, but she was still a long way from figuring out her own. This new thing with Matthew had just added another layer to her life. She was determined to not make another mistake and pin her hopes for happiness on a man.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Matthew’s apartment
The first Friday in April
The morning of the council meeting.
Over the next week Rachel and Matthew settled quickly into a comfortable daily routine. After heading home in the early hours, an exhausted but thoroughly sated Rachel would work until late in the morning, then make her way down to the coffee shop and grab a table. Matthew would arrive ten minutes later, after which they would play another round of their little game of “fancy meeting you here” before one of them would order lunch. In the evening, Rachel would grab an Uber to Matthew’s hotel and spend the night in his bed.
After their second date at a restaurant whose steaks not only did Aspen but the entire state of Colorado proud, they started staying in at his apartment and ordering off the hotel menu. At the end of the evening, they would retire to Matthew’s kingdom of pillows where they would make slow,tender love. And when sleep finally overcame them, it would be in each other’s arms.
There was no doubt in Rachel’s mind that she was falling for him. If this relationship didn’t last, and they eventually went their separate ways, he would be a hard act to follow. Matthew Jones would be the man who every other man in her life was going to be measured up against.
But not yet. Let me have this time with him.
