Page 51 of Depths of Destruction

I laugh and my flutters intensify.

"Have you been here before?" he asks.

"Yes. Quite a bit. My best friend from college lives here."

"How well do you know the area? Can you get to her house?"

"It's not a her."

Andre raises his eyebrows. "Okay. Can you navigate us to his house?"

"Yes."

"And you trust him?"

Darien and I were hot and heavy in college. He wanted to move back home and marry me. I wanted a career. We stayed good friends and had a friends-with-benefits relationship for years. In all reality, he's the only man I've been close to or ever considered marrying.

The last time I saw Darien was two years ago. He told me we needed to stop our casual status.

"Every time we're together, you give me hope of our life together, but it's never going to be, is it?" he asked.

"Move to Belize City and we can be together," I told him.

"You know I can't leave Punta Gorda, Naomi. My business and family are all here."

"I'm working on my drug cartel story. You know how important this is to me."

"I told you to drop that. You'll get yourself killed."

I ignored his warning. "My career is in Belize City. Emilia is there, too."

"She can move here."

"What about my career?"

"You don't have to work. I can provide enough for us. Emilia, too. Move to Punta Gorda. We can start a family."

"I want to work. And I don't think kids are in the cards for me."

"Why not?"

"Darien, we've been over this. I'm not mother material."

"You're just scared. You would make a great mom."

"I don't want to be one."

"What kind of woman doesn't want to be a mother?"

"The same woman who has been telling you this for the last twenty years."

With disappointment and hurt in his eyes, he shook his head. "God, I'm such an idiot."

"No, you aren't."

"That's my problem, Naomi. I've wasted twenty years."

"Darien, please don't say that."