Page 202 of Boss of the Year

“The hell there isn’t.”

The footsteps behind me quickened, and I walked faster, heading toward the trail that would be deserted right now. It was a favorite of local fishermen, deer that roamed these valleys, and me.

“You can’t just run away every time you see me,” Lucas called as he followed me through a grove of young maples. “Goddamn it, Marie, I just flew six thousand miles to be here. The least you could do is let me tell you why I came.”

I spun around, anger flaring hot in my chest. “TheleastI could do? The least I could do…foryou?” I stomped to where he stood in front of a massive old oak and poked him in the chest.

He stepped back, jaw clenched, like he was holding something back. So very Lucas. Always holding back.

He took a deep breath. Then another, raking his hands through his hair before he finally spoke in a newly calm, utterlyinfuriating tone. “I don’t know what will make this better, but I’m determined to fix this. I can’t stand feeling like I ruined everything for you, knowing that the best person I’ve ever known is unhappy because of something I did.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “So, you’re here to, what, assuage your guilt?”

He said nothing. Admitted nothing.

His silence was answer enough.

I started pacing up and down the path. “Well, feel guilty no more, all right? Look around you. I’m fine. More than fine. With the very generous severance pay I received from your stepmother, I bought myself this dream. An inn, a little restaurant in a beautiful place. I have friends, family, even my own?—”

I stopped there, my hand instinctively brushing over my stomach. No, I wasn’t ready to go there. Not yet.

I would.

But not yet.

“And a what?” Lucas demanded, his eyes following the movement of my hand with confusion. “A man? A French lover? Is that what you meant to say?”

I scowled. “No. One was quite enough for me this year, thanks.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I would hate it, and if I’m being completely honest, I’d kind of want to murder any other man who put his hands on you, but I wouldn’t blameyou.”

He smirked, the cocky bastard.

I wanted to slap him for the third time.

“How nice,” I snapped. “How magnanimous of you. Now, listen here, I don’t need you to do anything for me, Lucas Lyons. This is my life. I have a business to run, guests to feed, and a future to build. I am just fine on my own. You aretoo fucking late.”

The veneer of self-confidence finally dropped, revealing the storm clouds that were always brewing. And maybe just a bit of fear. “I couldn’t have come any sooner.”

“Oh, really? And why’s that?”

He opened and closed his mouth several times, as if words kept rising to the surface and dipping back down into his throat like fish jumping from the river. Exhausted with the give and take, I turned on my heel and continued down the path, which dipped over a log and then widened down by the water, where it was sheltered by pines, cypresses, and the occasional willow.

A few minutes later, Lucas spoke again. “You left too, Marie.”

I stopped and turned. “I’m sorry, what?”

He stepped forward. “You left too, or do I have to remind you? You asked me to give you space,which I did, but when I got back to that hotel room, you were gone. No note. No message. No nothing. And, yes, at first, I tried to accept it. I took it as a sign that I didn’t deserve you.”

“You didn’t.”

“Probably still don’t,” he countered back. “But I don’t care. For almost three months, I stayed away, tried to leave you alone. And you know what I realized, baby? I can’t fucking do it.”

“Oh, really?” I spat. “And why, pray tell, is that?”

“Because I’d rather give up everything I have, everything I know, than take one more step without HALF MY FUCKING HEART!”

It was like a grenade had been set off between us, the force throwing us both back a few feet. Lucas Lyons, who never lost control, had exploded completely.