Page 82 of Your Love is Enough

“Yeah. I’m still here.”

She pulled into a spot and put the car in park. “Say something, please.”

She heard him breathe on the other end of the line. “What do you want me to say, Stacey?” His voice sounded drained, finished.

A knife stuck in her heart. “I don’t know.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes. “I messed up. I talked to Carla. She told me you didn’t have sex.”

Tristan’s voice boomed through the phone. “No,Itold you we didn’t have sex.Shemade you think we did. Why would you believe her in the first place? You don’t even know her, and you believed her. You didn’t believe me, and I loved you.”

He sounded mad and hurt. She couldn’t blame him. She squeezed her eyes tight. She heard the past tense he used, and angry tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She caused this. How stupid could she be? “I know you did. I’m sorry. I should have believed you.”

“Yeah, you should have, and I know you’re sorry. But those are just words.”

“I know they’re just words.” She felt herself get a little angry. Her voice raised. “I can’t show you how sorry I am because you aren’t here.”

Again, all she heard was a loud breath, like a sigh come through the line.

You need to calm down, Stacey. Breathe.She sucked in a long breath and slowly blew it out. She felt her body relax. “Tristan, look, I don’t know when you’re coming home, but I want you to be my date for the wedding Friday. The reception starts at six. Maybe if you get in before then, we can talk. I’ll come to you.”

The clock on her dash showed her that she needed to get out and get in to work, but she waited. She had to know that he hasn’t totally given up.

“My plane gets in Thursday afternoon. I can have my driver drop me off at your house. We can talk then. I won’t promise anything, and I’m not sure about the wedding.”

She hopped out of her car and headed toward the hospital. A large sigh released from her lungs. “I understand. Thank you.” She still had a chance to make things right. “I’ll see you Thursday.”

“Yep.” He hung up.

She’ll take whatever she can get. Her steps were lighter as she walked into the hospital and rode the elevator up to Labor and Delivery. Her smile was wiped from her face as she entered onto a floor of chaos.

Triatan still loved her. He couldn’t deny it. He wiped his face with his hands.Thursday. I have to wait till Thursday.

He was so irritated and tired. He thought that hitting thirty would change things. All the crap of dating would go away, but it hasn’t. Relationships are just as hard—harder maybe. The older you are, the more time has passed for your heart to get hurt. He had a newfound respect for people who find their soulmates when they are young.

Thankfully, he knew that today and Tuesday were filled with training. Maybe he’d get lucky and be able to leave on Wednesday instead of staying and shadowing to observe the running of things. His uncle wanted a report, but maybe he could get out of it, and hopefully, when the training’s done for the day, he will be able to sneak out and keep Janet from hunting him down. After his dream about them last night. That needs to be a priority.

That dream.

God. It was…wow. In the dream, they didn’t separate after the kiss at the elevator. He brought her back to his room, and they had the hottest sex of his memory. In the shower, the bed, against the wall.

He woke up with the biggest hard-on of his life, and on the phone was Stacey. He felt like she caught him in the act. Because of that, he couldn’t talk to her much because he was scared she would hear his guilt through the phone, then all this mess would start over.

But it was just a dream.

He jumped into the shower and made sure it was as cold as he could stand. Once he was ready, he drove to the office and typed a text for Stacey before he got out of the car, but he hesitated and deleted it. “Only answer her texts. She needs to come to you. She has to prove herself.” He blew out his breath and thought about her as he crossed the parking lot. She was still on his mind when he pulled the door open and entered the lobby of the office and walked right into Janet.

“Good morning, Tristan.” Janet gave him her famous toothy smile, which lit up her face.

Tristan’s gaze stopped at her lips. He remembered what those lips did to him last night in that dream.Enough, Tristan! Focus and breathe.“Morning.” He passed by her quickly, not trusting his body to stand there looking at her. He heard her follow him like he knew she would. “So, what do you have planned today?” He asked.

She walked next to him. He could see her at the side of his eyes.

“It looks like I’ll be sitting in your training session, then escorting you to your appointments tomorrow.” She lifted her brows. “Looks like you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Great. Two days with Janet. He put a smile on his face. Hopefully, a believable one. “Awesome.”

“Yep, that’s what Don said. It’ll also be easier for us to get a hold of each other in case anything else happens and we need to get in touch with you.”

Tristan nodded slowly and deeply.Just what I need. To have Janet able to call me whenever it seemed necessary.

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