Page 34 of One Wild Night
Margo gave her a little hug before she left, and Abi made her way through the boutique to get outside that way. There was a lake in the garden on this side. She wanted to go and sit byit.
She opened the door and proceeded to go but stopped on hearing her name beingcalled.
It wasScott.
A bright smile lifted his handsome face. Wow, he looked reallygood.
The kind of good that should come with a warning label. He’d dressed casually the last few days, but now he was in a suit and looked even more like he’d stepped off the cover of GQ orVogue.
“Babydoll...” He looked so happy to see her that she almost rethought this whole realization. He kissed her and didn’t seem to care who sawthem.
“Hi.”
“I’m sorry I overslept. I wanted to spend time with you before we got busy with weddingstuff.”
“That’sokay.”
“Baby, you look beautiful -- reallybeautiful.”
“Thanks. You too. I mean, you look great, too.” She couldn’t think straight, and her head was ringing with the truth trying to flag itself to her, warning her away from the man she wanted to bewith.
“What’s the matter?” he lookedconcerned.
“Nothing.I…”
She couldn’t. She couldn’t talk about this now. She didn’t want to talk about how shefelt.
“Abi, if you’re worried about us, don’t. How would you feel about me going back to New York with you? When we leave here, I could go back to New York. We can have a road trip. I have a few weeks before camp, and I want to spend it with you. And not just those weeks. I’d try to be with you whenever I can. I want to be withyou.”
She would have been thrilled to hear those words if not for the fear that overwhelmed her. The fear that took her back to years ago when she lefthim.
The fear made her shake her head, much to his surprise. “No,” she heard herself say. “Youcan’t.”
“What?” the crestfallen look on his face and in his eyes pained her heart, but she couldn’t go back on herwords.
“Scott, you can’t come to New York withme.”
“Why? Baby, why? I thought that you… Look, I know we said ‘fun.’ We definitely said that, and it was fun. But then it changed, and it wasn’t just about fun. I didn’t want this thing between us to be just for the wedding. If that’s what it was for you, then Iunderstand.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I wish, though, that it could have been. I wish to God that it could have been and that I had no feelings foryou.”
“What’s the problem, then? I don’tunderstand.”
“We did this before, and it didn’t work. I’m me, and you’re you. Scott, I don’t know how we lasted as long as we did before, but I knew you didn’t want to be with me. I know that maybe it was because I was Margo’s friend why you just kept me there like I was part of thefurniture.”
“No, Abi, no. I’m sorry if I made you feel like that. I was a completejerk.
Things will be different now. I’m different. I am. Abi, surely you can see that I’m different. We’re different.” He lookeddesperate.
But she shook her head. “Scott, you hurt me. You hurt me so badly.” That was it; the tears came again. “Every time you looked at me, you looked at me like I was nothing to you. And, worse, I’ll always remember how relieved you looked when I told you I was leaving you, and then you never came afterme.”
“I’m sorry,Abi.”
“I believe you, but I can’t risk putting myself through that again. It will be worse for me if Ido.”
“Abi, I swear it will be different. If you want me to beg, Iwill.”
“No,Scott.”
