Page 22 of A Kiss to Remember
Her shoulders straightened, and the deep breath she drew in resounded in the room. That, too, held the ring of finality.
“I love you, Declan. And you need to leave.”
“Remi, I’m sorry.”
“I know you are. And that makes you refusing to fight for yourself, for who we could be, sadder. Now, if you have any feelings for me, any respect at all, please go.”
Stay, dammit. Don’t you fucking go.
But he stood, exited the bedroom and her house as she requested.
Like the coward he was.
He drove through the dark quiet streets of Rose Bend, images of the evening bombarding him. Of them laughing and working together at the library. Of their kiss in the car. Making love in her bedroom. Of her eyes, dark with pain and pride, ordering him out.
A while later, he pulled his car to a stop and switched it off. But he didn’t sit, parked outside his home.
Opening his car door, he numbly climbed out, rounded the vehicle and climbed the steps to the blue-and-white Victorian with the dark blue shutters. Even before he knocked, the front door swung open and his mother stood in the doorway.
“Declan? What on earth? What’s wrong?” she asked, tying her robe belt.
“Mom,” he rasped. “I messed up.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“ILOVEYOURMOTHER,”Briana growled, sailing up to Remi with a smile that appeared more like a feral baring of teeth, “but she is seriously working my last living nerve.”
Remi hid her grin behind her glass of wine, sending up a prayer, not for the first time, that she’d found a safe corner out of the path of Hurricane Rochelle. The whole week before the engagement party, their mother had been driving all of them nuts with the preparations. And today, with guests crowded into their home, enjoying the hors d’oeuvres and sipping a variety of beverages and celebrating the happy couple, Rochelle hadn’t calmed down yet. After being ordered twice to circle the room with the appetizers, then told she wasn’t doing it right, then being barred from the kitchen, Remi had been trying to fly under the radar.
“You know she’s in her element. Even if she’s acting a little batty. She just wants everything to be perfect for you.” Remi slipped an arm around Briana’s shoulders, hugging her close. “Besides, you have to give it to her. The place looks ah-mazing. The food is great. The guests are enjoying themselves. And you’re engaged to a truly great guy.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Briana grumbled, then chuckled. As if she couldn’t help herself, her sister sought out her fiancé, locating him next to the living room fireplace, surrounded by several of his friends. “He’s wonderful. And I can’t wait to marry him.”
“There you go. Just keep that in mind. And avoid Mom, like I’m doing.”
Briana laughed, wrapping an arm around Remi’s waist and squeezing. But then she sobered, wincing. “God, Remi, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Are you okay being here with all—” she twirled her hand in the direction of the party “—this? You know I wouldn’t have minded if you begged off. I would’ve understood.”
“Iwould’ve minded, though. And I’m fine. No way I would’ve missed my sister’s engagement party. But thank you.”
God, she loved her sister. Both of them. After Declan left her house a week ago, she’d called her sisters. Sherri and Briana had come right over and stayed with her for most of the weekend, holding her while she cried, bingeing Netflix and snacks with her when she didn’t. And they’d been running interference with their mother, whose disappointment at her and Declan breaking up had seared her.
But it didn’t make her change her mind or call him. She’d made the right decision for herself.
“What are we doing over here in the corner?” Sherri shoved a sun-dried tomato and basil roll-up in her mouth, following it with a healthy sip of champagne. Her older sister, barely five feet and willow thin, could eat her weight in hors d’oeuvres, run roughshod over her adorable three-year-old twins and rule her husband, who worshipped the ground she walked on. “Talking about people? Ditching Doug so he can’t leave me with the kids? Avoiding Mom?”
“C,” Remi said, taking her sister’s glass and sipping.
“Oh, me, too.” Sherri scrunched her nose. “And you know I was just kidding about the kids, right?” When Remi and Briana gave her the blandest of bland looks, she sighed. “Fine.Sue me. Doug so owes me for...for sticking his penis in me.”
“Wow.” Briana slipped the champagne away from their sister with a snicker. “We’re going to lay off these until the toast, ’kay?”
“What? No, I—” The doorbell rang, and she clapped her hands, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet. “That should be the babysitter. She was running late so she offered to pick the twins up from here. Sooo...” She snatched her glass back and took a healthy sip.
“You’d think she didn’t get out much,” Remi drawled, laughing, but as her mother led the newest guest into the living room, the humor died on her lips.“Oh God.”
Declan.
Her breath stalled in her lungs, increasing the deafening thud of her heart in her ears, her head. Adrenaline rushed through her, temporarily making her dizzy, and she pressed her palm against the wall, steadying herself.
