Page 40 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity
A key slid into the lock before the handle turned, andin walked the man she couldn’t stop thinking about—or crying about, for that matter. She swiped at her face with her shoulder just in case there were any stray tears. Not that she could conceal the splotchy red face from the tears she hadn’t tried to hide when she was alone. Reece walked to the bed and sat as she fiddled with her pencil to avoid eye contact.
“I’m sorry,” he said, swiping a piece of hair off her forehead before he let his finger trail down across her tearstained face. “Hang on.”
Surprised, she waited while he ran the water in the bathroom before returning with a warm washcloth that he held to her face. He gently blotted her salty skin before handing it to her. She held it to her cheek, allowing the warmth to soak into her skin and soothe her.
“If I could take back the last thirty minutes, I would,” he said, taking her other hand. “You’re dealing with enough right now. You don’t need to worry about the past.”
“I shouldn’t have overreacted,” she said, staring at their hands linked together.
“And I should have considered your side of the situation before I got angry.”
Her shrug was jerky as she tried to push back the tears. “We were both navigating adult situations without the benefit of adult maturity.”
“You were in pain, scared, angry and—”
“Jealous.” She’d rather say it than hear it from his lips.
“Jealous of me?”
Her nod made her lip tremble. The time had come to admit the truth to the man she had pushed away as a boy.
“You were jealous that I wasn’t hurt in the accident that changed your life.”
“That’s not true!” Her vehement denial set him back a step. “You were hurt, and I don’t just mean your arm. It was easy to see that the effects of the accident would always be with you. The jealousy was more about your dreams still being alive while mine were dead and buried. If that accident hadn’t happened and you’d asked me to go on a date after graduation, the answer would have been a resounding yes. Instead, right or wrong, I chose—”
“Me,” he said with a nod. “You set your wants and needs aside to give me a chance at the kind of life we’d always talked about having, even if you could no longer be part of it.”
“And you did, so it was worth it.” Her words were filled with sadness, but the idea that he was happy reminded her that she wanted nothing but good things for him.
Slowly, he lifted her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “Maybe I had the professional success we’d always talked about, but personally, I’m still that boy asking his best friend out on a date. After I graduated, I stayed in Duluth, hoping to catch a glimpse of you somewhere. Sometimes, I’d see you sketching on the Lakewalk, and I’d sit in my truck and watch you, thinking about what could have been. I set up Google Alerts for your name so I would get alerts when you were having a show somewhere. I’d go to as many as I could in disguise to see your work and maybe, just maybe, the beautiful blue eyes of the girl I couldn’t stop thinking about no matter how many years passed.”
“Seriously?”
In answer, he just brushed another kiss across her knuckles.
“I wanted you to go out, meet someone, marry, have babies. You deserve that, Reece.”
“So do you, Sky. This,” he said, motioning at the wheelchair, “doesn’t mean you have to give up on all of your dreams.”
“You were my dream, Land. The only dream that ever mattered to me.” Before she could finish her thought, his lips were on hers, pressing her head back into the pillows.
With her eyes closed, she let the kiss happen, responding to his touch in a way that left no doubt in her mind that she would love this man forever, even if they would always be star-crossed lovers. When he slid his hand up her ribs to cup her breast, it took her by surprise. She moaned, only to immediately break the kiss and push his hand away.
“Land, stop,” she said with a panted breath. “You can’t touch me like that.”
He moved his hand immediately. “Did I hurt you?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head to keep the tears at bay. “You didn’t hurt me. Having you touch me like that is all I’ve ever dreamed about, but it can’t happen.”
“Why not?” he asked, his forehead balanced on hers as he gazed into her eyes. It was hard to lie to his face, so she didn’t.
“Because I’m a weak woman, and if it happens, I won’t be able to give you up when this is over. The first time nearly killed me. I can’t do it again.”
“Who says you have to?”
“This,” she said, motioning at the chair and around the room. “There’s so much about my life that you don’t see, Land.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t allow me to learn about you, either.”
