Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell #1)(66)

I pulled in a soft breath then shared, “I’m beginning to get that.”

She studied my face a moment then deduced, “He is breaking through.”

“It would be hard not to, considering he’s using a sledgehammer.”

She threw her head back and laughed and I did it with her (without the throwing my head back part).

Then, with a smile on her face, she righted her head but her eyes went to the lake and she murmured, “Our boys, they are not subtle.”

My heart skipped.

Our boys.

Before I could say word one, she did.

“I was at a party when I met Travis. I was very confident, which was what I liked to think. My father said I was vain. Back then, I think I was. Young, I had so much attention, I liked it. I saw Travis across the room and I chose him. In that day, back then, that was all I had to do. I chose them and they came to me and I made them dance. I caught his eyes and he came to me. I tried to make him dance,” her eyes slid to me and her smile was small and melancholy when she whispered, “Travis Gordon was not a man who danced.”

I didn’t know what to do, whether to touch her, take her hand but before I could do anything, she looked back toward the darkened lake and kept talking.

“He walked away. Five minutes he spoke with me then he tipped his chin up at me, said, ‘Enjoy your evening,’ and walked away. I thought it was a game. It wasn’t. Three hours we were at the same party and he didn’t look at me again. I thought he was trying to make me come to him while I was trying to make him come to me. Then I saw him leaving and he didn’t even glance my way. I knew then he was not going to come to me and worse, he was not playing any games. And it occurred to me that if he left, I would never see him again. And, I don’t know, I found I simply could not let him go.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “So I followed him.”

She fell silent.

I waited.

She spoke again.

“I caught him outside, walking down the sidewalk. I had on very high heels and I was nearly running. If I had… if we didn’t have…” she pulled in an unsteady breath, “it would have been quite humiliating if things did not turn out the way they did. But he heard my heels, he stopped and I made it to him. Immediately, he asked, ‘Done with that shit?’” I watched her profile smile another small, wistful smile. “What could I say?” She turned her head to me. “I said, ‘Yes’.”

I smiled at her and mine was small too and probably melancholy.

She looked back to the sea.

“Right then, he said, ‘Tomorrow night, I’m taking you to dinner. If you make an excuse, I’ll know it’s a game and offer rescinded. With that bullshit in there, you bought that. Now, are we going to dinner?’” She paused then whispered, “‘Offer rescinded’. So Travis.”

“I take it you said yes,” I prompted softly when she didn’t go on for awhile.

She nodded and looked at me. “Oh yes, cara mia, I said yes and that was the most important word I said in my life until a year later when I said the words, ‘I do’.”

I felt tears sting my nose and was about to reach for her hand when she suddenly twisted to me and reached for mine, grasping it tight, moving into my space and her other hand came up to cup my cheek.

“Three hours, I played my game, three hours,” she said quietly, quickly, vehemently. “You must know what I would do to get back those three hours with my Travis.”

My hand grew tight in hers and I whispered, “Luci –”

Her face got closer. “Do not be foolish as me, Kia, do not waste even three minutes with a good man. Do not.”

“Honey, maybe we should talk about you,” I suggested carefully and this was not a fishing expedition for Sam, this was Luci and me and Lake Como and Travis Gordon having a lock on her heart from the grave, so tight, it was never letting go.

“No, you are off to Parma tomorrow then Crete and I am not going home to North Carolina for two months. I have little time with you and I need you to learn from my mistake, Kia, I need it.”

“Luci, that’s what I think we should talk about.”

She shook her head, determined to stay on her subject. “Sam is a good man.”

“I know.”

“And anything can happen tomorrow.”

“Luci, please,” I lifted my other hand and took hers from my face then holding both of hers in mine between us, I shook them, “nothing is going to happen tomorrow and –”

“The future is always very bright, Kia, until suddenly, one day, it becomes nothing but black.”

Oh God.

“Luci –”

“Do not be angry at him but he has shared with me about you. Not much and not much more than what I have assumed from hearing you talk to Celeste on the phone. And I care for Sam, very deeply, he was Travis’s friend and he was mine and after I lost Travis, I… I don’t… well, I don’t know what I would have done without him. We have grown even closer since and I want him to be happy. But I would not steer you or any woman wrong to make that happen. But he is a good man, through and through, Kia. He will take care of you. I know this to be true. Let him take care of you, cara, let him make you happy and while he’s doing it, you make him happy too.”

“Luci, honey, we just met a few days ago.”