“Not like this. And he left!”
“He’ll come back.”
Amity shook her head. “He left Artisan’s Loft. He drove away.”
“Where did he go?”
“I don’t know.” She tried to pull herself together. “I went to the woodshop, and the alien woman told me he’d left.”
“John is delivering furniture today. Maybe he went with him?”
Amity wiped her tears. “No. We’re both off today. Chartreuse went with John.”
“He just wants to cool off.” Faith squeezed her hand.
“That’s what I keep telling myself.”But it felt like more.“He thinks I was cheating on him.”
“What? No, he couldn’t think that. You would never do that. How would it even happen?”
“Not technically cheating, but I got a match from Cosmic Mates. He accused me of window-shopping for another husband.” She filled Faith in on how they’d gone to use the terminals in the library, she’d checked her messages, and he’d seen the screen. “I forgot I had an open profile,” she said.
“It can all be explained. He’ll understand.”
“I tried! He didn’t! He wouldn’t listen.”
“Because it had just happened. Give him time to mull things over.”
“What if I ruined things forever? What if he’s not coming back?” Insecurity wrought from a string of failed relationships and reaching her forties unmarried reared its dismal head.
“All couples fight. This isn’t a disaster—it’s a milestone. You had your very first fight—well, I guess this isn’t technically your first. You’ve been fighting since we left Terra Nova. But it doesn’t matter! Anybody who sees you two can see how much you love each other. You’re like two dopey lovebirds—”
“Dopey?” Despite her worry, she was amused. However, while she did love Marshall—this incident had confirmed that—she highly doubted he loved her. If he had, he would have stayed to fix things. If you loved someone, you didn’t walk away when you hit a bump; you stayed and duked it out, so to speak. True love was worth fighting for. “You said we snipe at each other.”
“You do. Well, you did. But you also make goo-goo eyes. The man is besotted. You two deserve each other. Everything was against you guys; you were almost left behind on Terra Nova, but I’ve never seen two people gel as fast as you have—”
“Left behind? What do you mean?”
Faith averted her gaze. “Nothing.”
“No, it’s obviously something. What did you mean?”
“Nothing.” She jumped up and began wrapping up the clay. “You had a fight. He’s cooling off. He’ll be back.” Faith continued to make busy work, moving stuff around.
“Faith…don’t lie to me. What are you talking about?”
“You’re together now. That’s what matters.”
Amity grabbed her arm. “Tell me what you meant. We’ve always been honest with each other.”
Faith held her silence for a moment then sighed. Her shoulders slumped. “He thought you were dead.”
“He thought I was dead?”
Her friend nodded. “Rogers and Glenn had taken me into custody. Bragg and Marshall rescued me and got me on the spaceship. They were about to launch. They knew Dark Ops would tie up loose ends by eliminating you. You had seen them and knew about Bragg and the cloning project. Marshall said you were dead, and going back would be too risky. I threw a fit and demanded proof you were dead and insisted he get Rusty.”
Oh my god.“Youinsisted? He had no intention of rescuing me? He went back for the cat, but not me?”I meant so little to him he wasn’t even going to check if I was still alive?All along, she’d felt like she owed him because he’d rescued her. But that hadn’t been his intention at all.
Faith winced. “He really did believe it was too late to save you. I’m sure he would have gone back for you on his own if he’d thought you were alive.”
