Page 118 of An Unexpected Love

When he saw her car parked haphazardly along the side of the road, he nearly collapsed in relief. A calmness took hold of him and his pulse slowed to an even, steady pace.

He parked behind her and rushed out of his car. The sound of the door closing must have been carried away with the wind, because she didn’t turn around or give any indication that she realized he was there.

He paused for a few seconds, looking at her, his heart swelling with gratitude at finding her safe.

Charlotte sat on a log, facing the water. The same log he’d knelt in front of to ask her to marry him. He felt a stab of pain as he remembered that night and how ecstatic he’d been when she accepted his proposal. He didn’t expect to feel that good again until they shared in the birth of a child.

Charlotte’s shoulders were slumped forward and she seemed mesmerized by the gentle lapping of the water. The wind whipped her hair, which flew wildly about, but she didn’t appear to notice. She wasn’t wearing a sweater. She must be half freezing, Jason thought, peeling off his jacket.

He watched her for another moment, wondering exactly what he’d say. He’d had hours to prepare for this, hours to come up with the words to tell her how much he loved her and how sorry he was for the way everything had gone. Now he found himself speechless.

She didn’t see him until he was almost upon her. When she happened to look up, he saw that her face, ravaged by tears, was as pale as moonlight. She blinked, then frowned as though she couldn’t quite believe he was really there.

“Jason?”

“Funny meeting you here,” he said, placing his jacket around her shoulders.

“I… How did you find me?”

“It took some effort. If you had any doubts, Charlotte, I wish you’d talked them over with me.”

She frowned again. “There wasn’t any time… I tried, honestly I did, but you were always so busy and the time went so fast, and now…” The rest of her words faded into nothingness, her gaze avoiding his.

“There’s time now,” he said, sitting down on the log beside her.

Her eyes widened. “I…can’t go through with it.”

“Why not?” he asked calmly.

She answered him with a wrenching sob. “Please… I can’t. I don’t love you…”

Jason tensed. “I don’t believe that, Charlotte. There’s something else.”

“There is… I realize now that it’s your family I love. I never had one of my own and it came to me that I was marrying you for all the wrong reasons. I…can’t go through with the wedding… I just can’t.”

Jason felt as if someone had punched him. Hard. “My…family?”

“Yes,” she cried. “They’re all so wonderful and I…got carried away, thinking that if I married you… Carrie and I would be part of a large, loving family. Then I saw how unfair I was being toyou…marrying you when I didn’t love you.”

A cold anger took hold of Jason. An anger rooted in pain and disillusionment.

“It’s too bad you didn’t think of that sooner, because all this soul-searching is a little too late.” He grasped her arm and pulled her to her feet. She sagged against him, but he tugged at her and she straightened.

“Jason, please…”

“Shut up, Charlotte. Just shut up before I say something I’ll regret.” It was no comfort realizing she was the only woman who’d ever brought him willingly to his knees. He’d gone to her in love, a love so strong it had swept away his loneliness. Charlotte was throwing it all back at him now, rejecting his love, betraying him with her last-minute revelations.

Walking out on him at the eleventh hour like this couldn’t be considered anything less. Nothing she could’ve done would have humiliated him more than to leave him standing at the altar.

“I can’t be your wife… Don’t you understand?”

Her voice was so weak he wasn’t sure he’d heard hercorrectly. Not that it mattered; nothing she could have said would’ve had any effect on him after her confession. It didn’t matter if he could hear her or not. She was mumbling, pleading with him, but he closed off his heart the same way he had his ears.

When they reached his car, he opened the passenger door and deposited her inside. He ran around to the driver’s side, not knowing if he could trust her to stay put. He was mildly surprised that she didn’t try to escape.

He started the engine and turned on the heater. A blast of warm air filled the car. She didn’t seem to notice.

Neither spoke until they were close to the freeway entrance.

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