“Please stay,” he said.
She raised her head. “Only if you’ll look at me.”
He knew what she meant. Sometimes looking at someone was the hardest thing he’d ever done. The bright afternoon light didn’t offer any shadows in which to hide. There was no point, anyway. Her intent was clear. She wanted to stare at him until he wasn’t unfamiliar anymore.
He moved toward his desk, then settled into his chair. At the same time, he motioned for her to take the seat opposite his.
She did as he requested, and they stared at each other. Cathy smiled first. “I’m really nervous. What if you don’t like my haircut?”
Her comment, so unexpected, broke the tension between them. He relaxed back in his chair and grinned. “Guess you’ll be in trouble.”
Then he actually looked at her hair. It was different than it had been in the hospital. He recalled medium brown strands that were straight. When he’d observed her during her physical-therapy sessions, he’d noticed that she wore her hair parted in the center. The simple style allowed her hair to fall forward and shield her face.
The new cut left her face exposed. Fringed bangs hung down her forehead, but the sides curled away. Her layered hair was a rich brown with lots of red highlights.
He’d only ever seen her eyes in the shadows, but he never would have guessed they were green, or so large and pretty. Her skin glowed. There was something else different, too. Something…
He frowned. “Your face is thinner. In fact, all of you is thinner. Have you been losing weight?”
Her mouth stretched into a smile, and she looked as if he’d just handed her a salary’s worth of stock options. “Yes,” she said, and grinned some more.
He recalled Evelyn’s complaints about wanting to lose ten pounds. She’d looked fine to him. From what he’d heard, Evelyn hadn’t been alone in her quest. “Are you eating enough? Women obsess about their weight. I’ve never understood it.”
Cathy made anXover her heart. “I swear, I’m eating plenty.”
“Hmm.” He didn’t know what to say. Cathy had been more rounded than some women but less rounded than others. He’d thought she was fine. But he knew better than to say that. Instead, he focused on her new haircut.
“I like it,” he told her. “The color is nice. It brings out your eyes. You look very pretty.”
This time he didn’t have to guess at her blush. She ducked her head again, but it wasn’t from fear. His compliment brought her pleasure.
Something unfamiliar flickered through Stone. A need he couldn’t define. He wanted…what? To say the right thing? To offer her a—
To touch her.
The thought came from nowhere, and once he’d acknowledged it, he couldn’t let it go. He wanted to touch her hair and see if it felt as soft as it looked. He wanted to touch her smooth cheeks, her neck. He wanted to pull her close and taste her mouth while his hands stroked the generous curve of her hips. She was so incredibly female and alive and whole and he wanted her.
The fire stunned him with its intensity. One minute he’d been admiring a new hairstyle; the next every part of him was alive. He was hard and ready to take her. He cursed silently. It had been so long since he’d had that kind of a reaction that he’d begun to assume that part of him had ceased to function. But everything was working now. The ache was nearly unbearable.
He forced himself to remain calm. He didn’t want to give away his thoughts or his condition. Cathy would be appalled. In her mind, he must be a brute. A flawed shell of a man. His desire would horrify her.
She raised her head and looked at him. “I want to ask about the accident but I don’t want to pry,” she said.
He’d nearly forgotten. About the scars, about the fact that she was seeing them for the first time. “What has Ula told you?” he asked.
He didn’t think his housekeeper would betray anything personal, but Cathy and Ula seemed to get along. It was natural that they would have talked.
“Not much,” she admitted. “I know you were in a car accident.” She hesitated, as if not sure how much to mention. “I know that your wife died when you were injured.”
His wife. He still had trouble thinking of Evelyn that way. As his wife. To him, she would always be his best friend, the shining part of him that was his conscience and his sounding board. When he’d listened to her, he’d done well. When he’d ignored her advice, he’d often paid the price through failure. Right up until the end, he thought.
The pain was an old, familiar companion. He knew it would always be there. The regrets he could never forget. The sins for which he could never atone. Not that the latter kept him from trying. If only, he thought sadly. If only he had it to do all over again.
“We’d been at a party,” he said flatly. “I’d had too much to drink, so she was driving us home. There was a crash.”
He remembered all of it. The harsh words and accusations, the way she’d kept asking him “Why?”
“She ran off the road,” he continued, but the story had no meaning to him. He was simply repeating what the police had told him. “They were never sure if there was another car involved and the driver left the scene, or if Evelyn just lost control.”
