Page 63 of Old Flame

She laughed, but it was a sad sound, then nodded her head. “He was that,” she agreed. “I don’t know why he put up with me and tried so hard.”

I did.

“He was smart,” I said.

She lifted her eyes to meet mine, and the tenderness there was because of another man. Not me. Fuck, this was going to bebrutal.

“He was good to me.”

He was also an international drug trafficker.

“I’m glad,” I replied.

Her eyes darted away. She wouldn’t make eye contact with me, as if she were afraid I’d see something there that she wanted to keep hidden.

Please, God, don’t have been involved with the criminal shit, Angel Face. I don’t know how I will protect you if you were—or are.

“I left you an address. You had my number. But you never even sent me a letter, text, nothing.” Her words were just above a whisper.

“Where did you leave me an address? When?” I asked. “I didn’t call or text because you had just left. Hadn’t told me about it, and I thought that was you leaving me. Telling me that you couldn’t forgive me.”

Her blue eyes swung back to me, and she frowned. “At your work. I came by to tell you that I’d been accepted and your mother’s letter of recommendation had helped. But you weren’t there. I left a note with my new address and even my flight date and time.”

I worked hard to tamp down the anger trying to boil over. Who had gotten the fucking note, and why hadn’t they given it to me? If they had, I would have chased after her. I would have moved if she’d asked me to. I had done what my mother wanted, but the sheer agony that had come with it became too much. Every day I went without her had become another sentence in hell.

“I never got a note,” I said, attempting to unclench my teeth. I was getting fucking pissed about something that had happened eighteen years ago. It was ridiculous.

She shook her head and let out a forced laugh. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t know why I asked. Years ago and water under thebridge.”

It mattered.

Asking more about her husband wasn’t something I could do right now.

“You hungry? There’s a great little seafood place about two miles from here.”

A real smile, mixed with relief, curled her full lips, and she nodded. “I’m starving.”

27

Salem

The curiosity had oozed from Pepper when Rome and I finally returned last night. She didn’t ask, though the look in her eyes told me she wanted me to tell her. I couldn’t because I wasn’t sure how to process it all just yet. It had been friendly. We’d laughed over our meal and talked about Vanna. It had felt so good to remember her.

Not one time had Rome brought up thinking of me when he was with other women. Other than the small outburst from me about the note that had gone unanswered, we kept the conversation from going to the us that had once been. I enjoyed myself. Riding on his bike again after all these years. Although this one was a newer, more expensive than the bike he’d had when he was twenty-one. The day had been one plucked from my imagination and perfected.

When I glanced over at Rome’s closed bedroom door, there was a lightness in my chest—until I thought about Eamon, and then it faded almost immediately. Eamon had loved me. He’d healed what Rome had broken. Yesterday had been the start to a friendship. Nothing more.

There was probably a woman—Nixie or whoever—in there with him. Naked, curled up against his side.

Doing my best to shove that thought away and convince myself that it did not matter to me, I made my way to the kitchen. Iheard a voice about the same time I smelled the bacon.

“You were gone a long time yesterday.”

I spun around to see Lick standing down the long hallway that led to the backyard.

“Hey,” I replied. “I didn’t see you back there in the dark.”

He stepped forward until the light from the stairs illuminated him. “You doing okay after talking to the cops?”

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