Page 55 of The Couple Behind the Headlines

‘And I bet you sabotaged things with Imogen, too,’ Luke added.

Jack stopped and stared at Luke, momentarily rendered speechless, because that was true too. By making that hideously unfair remark about her father fixing her application that was exactly what he’d done. He’d deliberately made sure she left. She was the best thing to happen to him and he’d sent her away without even considering how they could make it work. And why? Because he’d been too weighed down by his own emotional baggage.

Luke was right. And not just about that. He had been a jerk. In fact, he’d been worse than that. Caught up in his hang-ups, he’d been a self-centred jerk, and that wasn’t him.

Jack’s heart began to hammer as the realisation of just how stupidly blind he’d been slammed into his head. Which was swiftly followed by the clamouring need to put things right. That the situation might not be fixable wasn’t something he was willing to contemplate. It had to be.

‘Since when did you become such an expert?’ he said, his voice cracking a little beneath the onslaught of everything he felt.

‘Since I married Emily. She likes to discuss you.’ Luke grinned for a second, then sobered. ‘She cares. We both do. Look, Jack, if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that your past needn’t screw up your future. It nearly happened to me. Don’t let it happen to you.’

Jack set his jaw, his mind teeming with ideas about how to undo the massive mistake he’d made. ‘I don’t intend to.’

Scumbag, thought Imogen, pummelling the punchbag and imagining it was Jack. He was a lousy—punch—selfish—punch—thoughtless—punch—scumbag. She gave the punchbag a kick for good measure and then stumbled back, breathing hard. Sweat trickled down her back and her muscles ached. As well they might. She’d been a member of the gym for years but had gone so rarely that each visit worked out costing her a fortune.

Well, she was making up for that now. And how. Since the afternoon she’d marched out of Jack’s office, she’d spent every spare minute taking out her anger, frustration and hurt on the pleasingly resilient gym equipment.

Not that her efforts were making a difference to anything other than her muscle tone, she thought as the adrenalin drained from her veins and misery returned. It had been a week since that horrible scene in Jack’s office, but every word of it was still so fresh in her memory it might as well have been five minutes ago.

How could he have said that? she asked herself as his parting shot and the cold harsh tone of his voice with which he’d flung it at her slammed into her head yet again. Did he really think that about her? After everything they’d shared? After all the conversations they’d had about reputations and gossip and misconceptions and the nasty people who knew nothing about anything yet felt qualified to judge them?

Sighing deeply, Imogen pulled off her gloves, then picked up her sweatshirt and headed for the showers. It had hurt. God, it had hurt.

And it still did, even though there was no point. Jack hadn’t been in touch, which was just the way she wanted it, she reminded herself, stepping into the shower and switching on the water, because she had a bright new future to look forward to and she didn’t need someone who thought that about her in her life.

No. It was a good thing that their relationship was dead in the water. An excellent thing, in fact. And besides, she’d never wanted anything long-term anyway. So why was she unable to stop thinking about him? And why was what he’d said still affecting her so badly?

Massaging shampoo into her hair, Imogen let the question roll around her brain as she tried to work it out. It didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t the first time someone had suggested that nothing she’d achieved had been on her own merit, and it certainly wasn’t the worst accusation she’d ever received.

So why did what he thought matter so much? Why did he have such power over her thoughts? Why was he so important?

Imogen suddenly froze beneath the needles of hot water as the clouds parted in her head and clarity hit her brain like a flash of lightning.

Oh, dear God.

Her pulse slowed right down and all the blood rushed to her feet. Of course. It was obvious. So blindingly obvious she’d completely missed it.

She’d fallen in love with him.

Clutching a hand to her chest, Imogen locked her knees and made herself take a deep breath, because the last thing she needed was the mortification of passing out in the gym shower.

That was it. She was in love with him. Of course she was. As her heart rate steadied and her vision cleared, her mind picked up a gear and raced through all the evidence. Look at everything that had happened since the moment she’d met him. And look at the way he’d made her feel … as if she were on top of the world and at the bottom of a pit of despair and everything in between.

A series of images flashed through her head, of the way he’d sometimes glanced at her, the smiles he’d given her, the things he’d done for her, and her heart turned over. She was in love with hi

m, all right. Deeply and helplessly. And how could she be anything else? Despite the recent blip, she loved everything about him, from the roots of his hair to the tips of his toes. She loved his constant strength and his occasional vulnerability, his sense of humour and his fierce intelligence.

When she’d found out that her application had been successful Jack had been the first person she’d thought of telling. The first person she’d wanted to tell, above even her family. And it wasn’t just that news she wanted to share with him. She wanted to share everything with him and have him share everything with her in return, and had done for weeks.

So where did this leave her? she wondered dizzily, switching off the water with suddenly trembling hands. And what might it mean for her plans to go to the States?

Thoughts thundered around her head as for the first time her dogged determination to follow the path she’d chosen wavered. The notion of giving it all up flitted through her mind and Imogen felt her knees wobble.

It didn’t upset her nearly as much as she’d have thought. Did that mean she would really give up everything she’d worked for, everything she wanted, for love? She let out a long shuddery breath as the idea took root in her head and spread. It seemed she would.

For a moment she felt her heart soar. And then, as reality snapped her back, it plummeted right down to the floor. What did it matter? Any question of giving anything up was utterly and heartbreakingly irrelevant because she wouldn’t be doing anything of the kind, would she?

Feeling strangely cold, and not just because she’d turned the water off, Imogen plucked her towel off the hook and roughly dried herself.

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