Page 83 of The House on Blueberry Lane

“No, we don’t.” She shook her head, frowning. “You’ve never lied to me about anything, Jaye, and I’m asking that you please don’t lie to me now. Especially when you don’t have to.”

He sat up in bed. “Why do you think I’m lying?”

She crossed her arms. “Why wouldn’t I think that? If you’re not lying, then you’re delusional and getting love mixed up with lust.”

Now that made him mad. He stepped out of bed and pulled on his jeans. “We need to talk, Velvet. Outside. In our rockers.”

“Outside?” She glanced at the clock. “Jaye, it’s close to three in the morning.”

“It doesn’t matter. You get the wineglasses and I’ll grab the wine.”

She stared at him for a long moment and then said, “Fine.”

“WHAT IS HE upset about?” Velvet muttered as she went into the kitchen and grabbed two wineglasses from the cabinet. She of all people knew Jaye was incapable of loving a woman, so why was he pretending otherwise? Like she’d told him, he was getting lust confused with love.

By the time she opened her back door and stepped out, he had placed a bottle of wine near the rocking chairs and was firing up the pit. It was a gorgeous night, and the sky overhead was beautiful as usual.

She knew his eyes were on her as she sat in the rocking chair next to his. She handed him both glasses and watched as he filled them. “Easy on mine,” she said. “I have to go to work tomorrow.”

Without a word, he handed her a wineglass. She took a sip and then asked, “So, what do we need to talk about, Jaye?”

“Why don’t you believe I love you?”

“Maybe it would be easier to state why I know you don’t love me.”

“Well, then, tell me what you think you know.”

She frowned. “First of all, I was gone for two years. If you loved me, you would not have let me go at all.”

“I didn’t let you go, Velvet. You left on your own, without my knowing.”

She held up a finger. “Then let me restate that. Had you loved me, I would not have had a reason to go. And you certainly wouldn’t have let two years pass without coming after me.” She took a sip of her wine, then continued, “Second, you’re a man who enjoys sex from women. No emotional entanglements. Stupid me, I thought I could be different, but you proved me wrong. And, number three is the fact that all you feel toward me is lust. I can tell the difference. Nothing has changed. You want me as much as you did before, and I’m nothing more than your lover until you leave Catalina Cove. Need I go on?”

He tilted his head. “There’s more?”

“Of course.”

OF COURSE? HONESTLY, JAYE had heard enough. Everything she’d said was all wrong and there were a few things she didn’t fully understand. A dark scowl covered his face. “First of all, the reason I didn’t come after you was because I had no idea where you’d gone. I admit, for a while I was mad that you left me, especially when you knew how I felt about love and marriage. But then, after my anger dissipated, I understood why you did it.

“Second, nobody, and I mean nobody, would tell me where you’d gone. Not Ruthie or the teachers you knew at school, and not your corporate executives. It was as if you’d vanished off the face of the earth.”

“So, it wasn’t easy to find me, and you gave up,” she snapped. “I bet it was shocking when you discovered, after you’d gotten on with your life, that I was living here in Catalina Cove. The last place you thought I’d be.”

He turned in his rocker to face her. “No, it wasn’t. I knew you were here.”

She glared at him. “There’s no way you knew.”

“There is a way because I hired a private investigator to find you.”

It was a good thing she’d finished her wine because when she jumped from her chair, she nearly dropped the glass. After placing it on the table, she said, “You didn’t do anything of the sort.”

He stood as well. “An invoice from Douglas Investigations says otherwise. And once I discovered where you were, I devised a plan to get you back.”

“Devised a plan? What are you talking about? What plan?”

“I bought Barrows Bank for starters. Then I made sure your neighbor leased me this house so I could be your neighbor.”

“You did what? How dare you manipulate things just to get me back in your bed, knowing I meant nothing to you,” she snapped. “Did you do it for revenge?”

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