Page 24 of Second Chance Christmas

“Seriously, though. Have you been training?”

“I’ve been running ten miles each morning, working out in the gym a couple of hours, doing drills at the school. I can skip formal training sometimes. It’s mostly muscle memory now.”

Her lips pulled to the side. “I had no idea you were doing all that even now.”

“How did you think I’d been spending my days?”

“I don’t know. I just presumed you’d been…reading books or something.”

He laughed. “Was I ever much of a reader?”

“People change.”

“I haven’t.”

It was the wrong thing to say. It reminded Cassidy of too much. The pain, the hurt, the fact he was still the same guy who’d cheated on her. And here she was, sitting across a table from him, naked beneath her robe, enjoying a meal, sipping champagne, chatting, acting to all the world as if he hadn’t broken her heart.

“What happened to your dreams, Cass?”

She didn’t correct him on the shortened version of her name. She stiffened a little at the question.

“What dreams?”

“You were going to become a teacher. It was important to you.”

“Yeah, well, Ididchange,” she reminded him. “I grew up and got other dreams.”

He furrowed his brow.

“I gotpregnant,” she pointed out. “And then married. Being a politician’s wife and a mother were pretty full time jobs.” She neatly omitted how unreceptive Grant had been to the possibility of her studying.

“Were you happy?”

Her eyes widened. The question wasn’t unreasonable, and yet she hadn’t expected it, and she didn’t have her usual armour in place, which might have made it easier to lie. “I…made the best of the situation.”

Something shifted in his eyes. “What does that mean?”

“I—,”

“Don’t bullshit me, Cass.”

Her features tightened.

“It’s not what I had planned.”

“I know that. I remember your plans: vividly.”

Her eyes were angry when they flashed to his.

“So why couldn’t you make it happen?”

“Are you disappointed in me?” Her voice showed more hurt than she would have wished. She found it hard to meet his eyes.

“No, I’m not disappointed in you.” Leonardo looked to be choosing his words carefully. “I’m just asking, what happened? Because the Cassidy I knew wouldn’t have let anything come between her and what she wanted.”

Cassidy rolled her eyes. “That’s true. But the Cassidy you knew was a naïve idealist. Of course she expected everything to work out in her favour.”

“You married a powerful guy with money,” Leonardo reminded her slowly, something like bitterness tinging his words. “So why couldn’t you go study?”

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