It was a little unnerving, the way Spencer studied her, tipped herhead to one side, those eyes not allowing her to look away. With a glancebehind her, Spencer grabbed a chair, pulled it toward her, and sat. “Are you okay?”she asked finally.
“Me? Sure. Of course. Why do you ask?” Rebecca knew her eyesdarted a bit, tried to prevent that, but was unsuccessful.
Again with the head tilt. “I know how close you are with Nick. Youmust have been terrified for him.”
“I was.” Rebecca nodded, cleared her throat. She looked down ather hands, scraped at her thumbnail. “But he’s doing pretty well.”
There was a beat. Another. Finally, Spencer gave a nod, though herexpression showed skepticism. “Okay. Good.” Then it was her turn to clear herthroat as she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small blackpouch. “Listen, um, I was just goofing around with my stuff the other night andI made this for you.” She held it toward Rebecca.
It was like Rebecca’s arm moved in slow motion and she couldn’tspeed it up. Very, very slowly, she reached out and finally felt her fingersbrush Spencer’s. A huge lump of…something…had developed in her throat and sheworked to swallow it, to clear her airway. “For me?”
Spencer nodded, waved a dismissive hand. “It’s nothing much.Just…an idea that came to me.” She shrugged.
Rebecca tugged the drawstrings open, turned the pouch over, anddumped the contents into her hand. She blinked at it.
It was made of a black leather strap, not thin, but not wide.Small, so a bracelet rather than a necklace. Spaced out evenly were three smallsilver squares, each with a simple line drawing. One was a person on a bike,one was a person in the yoga pose of downward dog, the third was a personbalancing a barbell above their head. It was simple, classy, and absolutelyperfect. If Rebecca had seen it in a store, she’d have purchased it forherself. The lump got bigger and she stared for several beats more beforeraising her eyes to Spencer.
“This…” Rebecca cleared her throat for the tenth time in fiveminutes. “This is amazing.”
“Well.” Again, Spencer shrugged it off as less than significant,looked away.
“Seriously. Spencer.” Rebecca waited until those blue eyes turnedback to her. “Would you put it on me?” she asked quietly.
Spencer’s nod was almost imperceptible as she reached for thebracelet.
Rebecca watched her hands—God, her hands were beautiful—as sheopened the clasp and fastened it around Rebecca’s wrist. The fit could not havebeen more perfect. Not too tight, not too loose. She stared at it, noticedSpencer’s warm hands touching her skin longer than they needed to. Longer thanthey should have. And suddenly, Nick’s voice was echoing through her headagain.
Life is too.Fucking. Short.
“Don’t marry her.” The words were barely a whisper and were outand floating in the air between them before Rebecca even realized she’d spokenthem out loud. But they gave her strength and she pulled her gaze from thebracelet that she already loved and looked at Spencer. Her blue eyes were wide,and Rebecca grasped her hands before she could pull them away. She kept hervoice soft as she said, “Please, Spencer. Don’t marry her. Not for me. For you.You are an amazing, vibrant, stunningly beautiful woman and you deserve so muchbetter.”
Spencer blinked at her. Blinked again. Too many emotions zippedacross her face for Rebecca to identify them all. “How?” she whispered, and italmost seemed like she wasn’t even asking Rebecca, just the world in general.“How could you say that to me now? How?”
In that moment, Rebecca would have happily explained it, wouldhave been glad to have a discussion about why she thought this, why shebelieved Spencer deserved so much more. But she never got the chance. Spencerstood quickly, as if ejected from her chair, and her eyes darted around the gymas if she’d suddenly forgotten the way out. Then she moved her gaze to Rebecca,directly to Rebecca, held hers, cradled it for a moment as her eyes welled.Rebecca reached for her hand, but Spencer turned and fled before any contactwas made.
I had totell her.
That thought played over and over. She’d had to. Right? It was theright thing to do. It wasn’t Rebecca being selfish, was it? She’d simply neededSpencer to know, needed her to understand what others thought of her. No, thatwasn’t it. She’d needed Spencer to know what she thought of her.
Right?
Her gaze stayed glued to the front door, and while a part of herwished for Spencer to come back through, to sit back down and talk to her, sheknew that wasn’t happening. With a long sigh, she scanned the front desk areaand stopped at Sherry. Standing behind the desk, looking right at her,disappointment clearly etched across her face.
“Shit,” Rebecca muttered.
Chapter Twenty
Spencer was pretty sure she was being punished for herindiscretions. It was the only explanation for why this was all so hard. She’dmade a decision. It was the one she was supposed to make. She was certain ofit. She had to set her feelings for Rebecca aside…
Wait. Feelings?
She gave her head a hard shake. No. Nope. Not going there. She didnothavefeelings for Rebecca. She refused to. She was engaged to marry Marti. She’dmade a commitment and she needed to honor that. She was a good person.
She was a good person.
She was a good person.
She was a good person.