“Was I wrong about now?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted. “There isn’t anyone in my life I’d call special at the moment.” She’d walked away from her last relationship after he became too clingy, demanding to move a few of his bathroom items into her cabin to make it easier for him. Len had no idea that she didn’t allow sleepovers. He assumed that would be the next step in their relationship, but he’d assumed wrong.
There was no sense in getting used to having someone sleeping in the bed next to her unless it was...
She stopped herself right there.
There might not have been anyone since Duke that she could see herself with long-term, but that didn’t mean there would never be. In fact, maybe she should ramp up the search for someone to fill the shoes he’d left empty without ever knowing years ago.
“You got quiet on me,” he said.
She didn’t respond.
“That used to mean I touched on a sensitive topic,” he said. “If there’s someone in your life, you know you can tell me. Right?”
“Sure,” she said, wishing it was true. All of it. The part where she had someone special in her life. The part where she could say the words out loud to him. And the part where she didn’t go home to an empty house every day because she couldn’t find anyone who came close to the person she’d been in a relationship with at sixteen.
Hearing herself say those words in her head, they sounded ridiculous. No one found the love of their life at sixteen.
Okay, maybe she should change that to most people didn’t. The Remingtons were the exception, not the rule. If she looked it up, she was certain the statistic for couples who met in high school and went the distance would be grim.
“There hasn’t been anyone in my life for a while,” she admitted. “I’ve come to prefer it that way, and I just keep thinking something might be wrong with me because of it. Isn’t everyone supposed to long for that special someone? Isn’t that what we’re trained to believe we’re supposed to need?” She paused for a beat. “What if people go through their whole lives searching for ‘the one’ and never find it? Not every couple is in love.”
Case in point, her parents. Codependent, addicts would be better words.
“When I look at my mom and stepfather,” she went on, “it’s easy to see some people are codependent rather than in a loving relationship. Mine couldn’t live with each other, and they couldn’t live without each other, which makes no sense to me. I have no intention of dragging another human being down by forcing them into a legal binding contract saying we have to work out our problems long after anything we felt toward each other is dead. Is that horrible of me? Does that make me a bad person?”
Chapter Twelve
“No,” Duke said to Audrey after listening to her confession. “In fact, I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“Which explains why we’re both still single,” she quipped, but there was a subtle note to her voice that rang hollow. Almost like she was trying to convince herself everything she’d said was true.
Or maybe he was reading way too much into it.
It had been a long day, and they both needed rest. “Are you sure you want to stop by the hospital before I drop you off?”
“I won’t sleep without seeing them together in the same room,” she admitted.
Again, he couldn’t agree more. Except that he’d adjusted his plans and wanted to sleep at the hospital tonight instead of going back to the ranch. He figured he could hand over his keys to Audrey so she could drive herself home.
Not five minutes later, Duke located a spot in the hospital parking lot and cut off the engine. He rushed around the front of the vehicle, fully expecting to lose the race. Audrey had developed a habit of beating him to the punch when it came to opening her door.
He was pleasantly surprised when she didn’t.
On the way over, there’d been no sign of the vehicle that had stressed her out at Bea’s place while he was inside. She was keyed up. Was she afraid of her own shadow at this point?
They walked into the hospital side by side, and then to the familiar elevators. She pushed the buttons, and before he knew it, they were standing in front of his grandmother’s room.
The beeping noises inside had doubled, which brought a smile to his face. Knowing the two of them would be together no matter what else happened gave him comfort. Would it make them stronger, too? The orderly had gone so far as to push their beds close enough together that Duke would have to turn sideways to walk in between them. The room was dimly lit. His grandparents finally looked like they were resting instead of fighting for their lives.
As Audrey walked to the foot of the bed, she froze. “Hey. Come here.”
Duke joined her.
“Look.” She motioned toward the space in between the beds.
The sight brought tears to Duke’s eyes. Somehow, they’d managed to find their way to each other. His grandparents were holding hands.
“They’re good,” he whispered to Audrey, taking her by the hand before walking her out of the room. He kept going to the end of the hall and into the waiting room. “I figure I’ll stick around here for the night.” He reached into his pocket and produced the key fob to his truck. “Feel free to head home.”
Audrey stared at the key in his hand for a long moment. “Is it strange that I feel like I’m exactly where I want to be? I only left before because I didn’t want to intrude on your time with your grandparents.”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t want you here?” he asked as he fixed a cup of coffee. He handed the first one to her, which she took before thanking him, and made a second one for himself.
Audrey was silent as she took a seat. The mental debate as to whether or not she should tell him what was going through her mind was visible in her expression.
Duke kept one seat in between them, sensing this wasn’t the time to invade her personal space. “You don’t owe me any explanations, Audrey. We’re adults who’ve gone their separate ways. Whatever it is, I won’t judge you for it.”
“It’s not related to me.” Her eyes widened like the admission caught her off guard. She issued a sharp sigh before blowing on the top of her foam coffee cup. She took a sip and then cleared her throat. “Well, it is but there are others involved.”
“Then who? Because you managed to avoid running into me the entire time you’ve been back in Mesa Point despite me returning several times over the last few years, which clearly took some effort on your part,” he stated, trying to mask the hurt at the snubs.
“I never wanted that,” she admitted. “But I was told that it would be for the best if I didn’t come around when you visited.”
“How would you know when—”
It dawned on him. She took food to his grandparents every first Monday of the month. She was the one who’d found them after their wreck.
