Read Online Coming Home by Marie Force - Free Book Online

might protest, but he promises you’ll enjoy his plans for the evening. Oh, and he said to bring a jacket. Just in case.”
    Jill eyed the driver warily, wanting to ask in case of what. “Anything else?”
    “No, that was about it.”
    She thought about Kate alone in St. Kitts. She thought of the endless months on the road, day after day without so much as an hour to call her own. Kate had told her to relax, to take some time off, and as much as she might’ve hated herself, she was extremely curious to know what Ashton had planned.
    “Ms. Harrington? Are you coming?”
    “Yes.” Jill grabbed a denim jacket and her purse on the way out the door. “I’m coming.”
     
    Reid’s dinner with Mari was unusually quiet and awkward. He did his best to make conversation, but all he could think about was how surreal it had been to see Kate again. Over and over, he relived their brief encounter on the beach until he’d analyzed every word and every expression, trying to find the deeper meaning.
    Did she say she wanted him back? And why did his heart skip a beat at the thought that maybe she did? What did it mean?
    “Reid.”
    He snapped out of his ponderings to find Mari looking at him across the table, clearly annoyed by his inattention. “I’m sorry. What were you saying?”
    “It doesn’t matter.” She signaled the waiter for their check.
    “Don’t you want dessert?” She always wanted dessert.
    “Not tonight.” Rather, it appeared she wanted out of there—and quickly. He always insisted on paying whenever they went out, but tonight she beat him to it, signing the credit card receipt before he was even aware that their check had arrived.  
    She put down the pen, took her card and was heading for the exit before he had the napkin off his lap.
    Reid chased after her. “Mari, where’re you going in such a rush?”
    “Home.”
    If he wasn’t mistaken, he heard tears in her voice, but he was afraid to look over at her as he drove the short distance to the house she’d recently moved into with him. Once there, she bolted from the car and went into the bedroom. He found her tossing clothes into a bag, her movements jerky and erratic—and reminiscent of the day Kate had left him. He didn’t like to think about that day. It was still painful all these years later.
    “What’re you doing?”
    “I’m going.”
    “Wait. Going where?”
    “Anywhere but here.”
    “I don’t understand. Something happened today that caught me by surprise. I don’t even get one night to process it?”
    She turned to him, and her tear-ravaged face tore at him. “If I gave you a month or a year to ‘process’ what happened today, would it change that fact that you’re still in love with her?”
    “ What? ” He stared at her, incredulous. “Where’s that coming from? I haven’t seen her in ten years!”
    “And those ten years disappeared the minute she showed up here, didn’t they?”
    When she went into the bathroom that adjoined their bedroom, he went after her. “Mari, listen to me. Please.”
    She turned to him, seeming to summon an almost ethereal calm that was in sharp contrast to the emotional firestorm. “We always promised each other we’d stay together for as long as it worked for both of us, right?”
    “Yes.”
    “I can’t compete with the woman you never stopped loving, and I’m not about to try.”
    “How do you know I never stopped loving her? Even I don’t know that.”
    “In all these months together, you’ve never once said you love me. I always suspected there was someone else, someone who had your heart. I was watching you today when you saw her for the first time, and I finally got some answers. I saw everything I’ve never seen directed my way.”
    “You’re not being fair! I was surprised. I had no idea she was coming here. How would you have me react when someone I loved a decade ago appears out of the blue?”
    “Look me in the eye, right here, right now, and tell me you don’t