Page 22 of Renewal After Dark

“It needed to be done.”

“Tiff, honey, come on. Let me help you up.”

“I want to finish this.”

“Let me do it if it needs to be done right now.”

“I need to do it. It helps me to stay busy.”

“Why don’t we sit together for a few minutes and see if that helps?” He could tell she didn’t want to take the hand he offered but did it for his sake.

He helped her up and waited for her to get her bearings before leading her to the living room. After they’d sat next to each other, he tugged the gloves off her hands and put them on the coffee table. Then he reached for a throw blanket and arranged it over her to keep her warm.

“I’m sorry if I disturbed you when you needed sleep so badly.”

Blaine put his arm around her, encouraging her to rest her head on his chest. “You didn’t disturb me. When I woke up and you were gone, I had to come find you.” He wished he could take away her pain and sorrow.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I figured I should get something done while I could.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to say? My ex-husband, who I despised, is missing and presumed dead, and all I can think about is how will I ever explain this to Ashleigh.”

“We’ll tell her together. We’ll tell her how her daddy loved her more than anything, that she was the brightest light in his life and how he never would’ve wanted to leave her. We’ll make sure she knows she’s loved by us and everyone else in her life and always will be.”

A sob shook Tiffany’s body.

He held her close as he ran a soothing hand over her back. “Let it out, honey.”

“I can’t cry about my ex-husband all over my new husband.”

“Sure, you can. The new guy isn’t at all threatened by the ex.”

She laughed even as she continued to sob. “It’s so bizarre for me to be sad about him.”

“I know, honey, but I’d be surprised if you weren’t. You have the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. Of course you’re sad over this.”

“That biggest heart has contained a whole lot of ill will toward him in recent years.”

“For very good reason. You’re only human for feeling the way you did about him. He put you and Ashleigh through hell. But the Tiffany I know and love will grieve for the man she loved once upon a time, for the man who gave her our precious Ashleigh, for all the things that could’ve been.”

“Yeah, that’s it exactly. I’ve been thinking a lot about when we were first together. I never expected us to end up the way we did.”

“Why would you? You were a devoted, loyal, loving wife to him.”

“How do you know I wasn’t a hag?”

“You wouldn’t know how to be. You gave him everything you had, which, in my experience, is a hell of a lot, and he was too stupid to know how good he had it. That, and everything else he did before and after your split, is on him. And he knew it. More than once, I caught him looking at you with yearning. He understood what he’d let get away.”

“He did not look at me that way. He couldn’t stand me.”

“That’s not true, Tiff. He frequently looked at you with longing and regret. I saw that as recently as two weeks ago when he brought Ash home from dinner and you went out to meet them. I was watching from the kitchen window. I saw how he looked at you and the house where he used to live with you. He knew what he’d lost. I’d bet my life on that.”

Tiffany had gotten the house in their divorce agreement, and they had decided to stay put after they got married since Ashleigh had already been through enough upheaval.

“You really think so?” she asked.

“I’m one hundred percent positive that any man who was lucky enough to be loved by you would regret losing you for the rest of his life. I sure as hell would.”

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