Page 78 of Hearts on Ice
When he got back to the rink, his phone alerted with a text message.
I’m in California. I’ll be back Sunday night.
California. With Xavier? Planning what?
Now he felt worse than he had before he texted. Maybe he needed to figure out how to end things for good, instead.
Colby knewshe could have told Declan she was in San Diego with her mom. She knew she’d probably started a brand new fire by not being specific about her whereabouts. She also probably should have told him she was leaving town so he could go back to his apartment instead of staying at Meghan and Evan’s, but she hadn’t really been feeling very charitable at the time, and he’d closed their last conversation down.
Now he was ready to talk. She’d been ready to talk for days. She hoped that putting him off until Sunday gave him time to really think about what he wanted to say, because she knew what she was going to say. She was taking a chance, and hoped he didn’t think she was playing games.
She didn’t text him again until Sunday morning.
My plane is landing at 8:30. Can you pick me up and we could talk then?
She didn’t get an answer before she had to turn off her phone on the plane. She tried to shut out her anxiety over his reception by opening a book she bought in the airport, but she just couldn’t read about the hero and not think about Declan. Maybe if she skipped ahead to the end of the book, saw how the characters worked out their happy ending, she would be encouraged, but finally she just closed the book and stared out the window.
What would she do if he rejected her without letting her say her piece? She had to admit she was surprised he hadn’t let her talk to him before. One of her biggest regrets when she left the first time was that she didn’t have the courage to tell him to his face why she had to go. Now he was doing the same to her. She didn’t think he was like that.
When the plane landed, she instantly turned her phone back on,
No message.
Okay, well. She drew in a deep breath. That was what he wanted, that was how it was. Time to plan what to do next.
She walked through the airport to baggage claim, collected her bag. Honestly, if she didn’t have to go back through security, she would just buy another plane ticket and head back to her mother’s in San Diego. Her mother and stepfather had made sure she knew she was welcome back, if things didn’t work out.
But Colby had been determined to give her relationship with Declan another shot.
More fool she.
No, she would go back to the apartment, sleep on it, go to the rink tomorrow and force him to talk to her. To listen to her. Their love was worth whatever pride she was going to have to swallow. She wasn’t going to plan for a future without him because she was not going to accept a future without him.
She dragged her bag through the sliding glass door, pulling out her phone to check for any messages, and then order a ride share. The ride would cost a fortune, but she didn’t have a choice.
“Colby.”
Her heart jolted in her chest and she snapped her head up to see Declan standing against the hood of his truck, arms folded, and her first instinct was to run to him, bury her head in his chest, and never let go.
But she didn’t know how he’d react to that, so shields up, it was.
She held up her phone. “You didn’t text me back.”
“Felt like there wasn’t a point since you couldn’t have your phone on on the plane, and then I was here, so.” He shrugged, then stepped forward to take her bag, toss it into the back of the truck.
She didn’t want to talk while he was driving. She wanted to look at his face, wanted to be able to look into his eyes and argue that what they’d found this time around was worth fighting for. But the mere fact that he was here—didn’t that show that he believed that, too?
“Can we go somewhere and talk? I don’t want to wait until we get back to Vail.”
He nodded and walked around to the driver’s side of the truck, not opening the passenger door for her, but that was okay. She wasn’t going to read anything into that. She climbed in herself, and he pulled into traffic.
They rode in silence for a few minutes before she spoke up.
“Thank you for coming to get me.” The drive from Vail was not a short one, so he’d made a commitment.
“Isn’t that what the text was about? You didn’t tell me you’d gone, only that you were coming back. You wanted me to pick you up.”
“I did, so we could talk.”
