RECLAIM MY HEART(43)

Once again, she looked up at him. This time she blinked, her lashes brushing against pale cheeks as she whispered, “Could I?”
Lucas wasn’t really sure what she was asking, or exactly how she expected him to respond. She’d said her tears were because she was relieved. He had some of that running through him, as well. But she seemed confused and filled with such doubt that he knew in his heart his conscience would never be completely clear if he failed to point out the obvious.
“Tyne, maybe he left too soon. Maybe you should be discussing all this with him.”
The shake of her head was emphatic. So was her frown. “No. No.” She raked her teeth over her bottom lip. “I’m sure I did the right thing.” Pain flashed in her eyes and her voice sounded squeezed off as she whispered, “He didn’t like Zach.”
Lucas straightened. So she had noticed.
“Not that he disliked him,” she clarified. “But he didn’t seem…?interested. One way or the other. At first, I thought it was Zach. I thought it might be because he was at an awkward age, that he could be prickly, standoffish. I thought maybe he was jealous of Rob. I thought the problem would resolve itself. I thought he’d come around once they got to know each other. But, little by little, I realized that Rob was just as indifferent to Zach as Zach was to Rob. I didn’t know what to think. Or do. Was it some kind of game they were playing? Was the testosterone level so high they were seeing who would break first? Should I confront them? Ignore them?” She sighed. “It was just easier to let it ride. But when Zach was picked up by th sckefire police, Rob’s apathy became absolutely unmistakable. This was no game. He just didn’t care. But I was too focused on solving Zach’s problem to deal with it.”
Her shoulder muscles eased. “Breaking it off was the right thing to do. I never should have accepted the ring in the first place.”
She reached over and plucked another tissue from the box. Lucas sensed that she’d done so simply because she needed something to do with her hands.
“Rob wanted to know if it was because of you.” She blurted the words so swiftly that they came out sounding husky. “If I broke our engagement because of you. I told him no, but…?I’ve been feeling so strange since we got here.” She twisted the tissue between her fingers. “You said you believed that true love was some kind of fantasy. I guess I’d come to the same conclusion. Why else would I get so involved with Rob? And David? When both were men I didn’t love? It’s got to be a myth, right?”
Tiny pieces of the ragged tissue scattered across her lap, some on her shorts, some on her bare thighs. White fluff against creamy skin. Lucas swallowed, his mouth going dry.
“But I think we’re both wrong about that, you and I. Because we had it.”
The words exploded from her like an accusation; a charge she couldn’t prove.
He realized suddenly she was no longer sitting next to him, and when he looked up at her, her face bloomed with a rosy blush.
“I’m sorry,” she said, brushing at the bits of fiber that clung to her shorts. “I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean it. I’m upset. I’ve been delving into the past. I thought I had things straight in my head, but Rob’s visit…?I broke off the engagement. Gave him his ring. It’s got me all discombobulated.” Her laugh was too loud, and she continued swiping even though every speck of tissue was gone. “You shouldn’t be listening to me babble on and on.”
She narrowed her gaze on him. “What are you doing here, anyway? You’re supposed to be with Zach. Where is Zach?” The short questions were fired off with precision.
“We were thirsty,” he told her. “I came home for water.”
“Zach is waiting for you?”
She latched onto that excuse to end their conversation as if it were some sort of life-saving device, shooing him off the bed and out of the bedroom with fluttering hands. And he let her, because he was just as eager to end this discussion that had clearly bowled them both over.
“He’s probably dying,” she said. “There’s filtered water in the fridge.” She stayed at the bedroom door while he went into the hall toward the kitchen. “I’ve got a thousand things to do. That potato salad won’t make itself. And I need to run to the store. We’re out of milk.”
She talked as if he was keeping her from her vital tasks. Lucas smiled, despite the whirlwind of thoughts and questions rolling through his mind. She’d have made a good lawyer.
He ducked into the refrigerator and grabbed the steel fitness bottles filled with cold water, and when he glanced down the hall toward her room, she’d already disappeared from the doorway.
Lucas pushed his way out into the bright sunshine, those thoughts and questions still churning like mad in his head. He’d learned a lot about Tyne over the course of the last ten minutes. Hell, he’d learned loads. However, there was one thing he’d discovered, one thing she’d said, that intrigued him more than anything else. She’d said Henderson had asked her if she had broken their engagement because of Lucas.
I told him no, but…?
But. It was a small word. Infinitesimal, really. Most people thought it to be quite insignificant. On the contrary, Lucas knew that thinking was flawed.
But. It could be major. Hell, it could be momentous. Any attorney would agree. Lawyers in every courtroom kept their ears perked for such a juicy plum presenting itself for plucking. The whole of the legal world knew that precedent-setting cases had been won and lost—all on account of that one tiny word.