Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
But of course she was lying. He hadn't been mistaken about her smile. But what he was never to know was that those smiles were just another way to hide the truth, a way to hurt him so he wouldn't see that she was hurting, too...
Like now.
The sound of Ethan's voice had made Guilia realize all of a sudden that tonight might be the very last time she would be able to hurt him.
No more Ethan calling her just to say 'ciao' or 'buon giorno'.
And the thought devastated her, the pain so crippling it was a wonder she had yet to crash down and sob her heart out. Instead, she somehow found the strength to walk past him and get to the minibar she had installed in one corner of her apartment.
She sat down on one of the bar stools and reached for a pair of shot glasses. Her movement was deliberately slow, Guilia needing more time to regain her composure. An insidious thought crept into her mind just as she reached for the bottle of whisky—-
What if it was someone else? What if it was another woman that had made Ethan realize he no longer loved her?
The thought had her hands shaking in an instant, and she quickly placed the bottle back on the table. It doesn't matter if Ethan has another woman or not, Guilia reminded herself forcefully. Either way, it wouldn't change the truth, and that was that Ethan had stopped loving her for a long time now.
He had only remained by her side the past few years because he had mistaken duty and honor for love, and she had been too selfish and weak to tell him the truth. But now that it finally happened...
I'll let him go. I won't make it hard for him. He deserves that much.
Guilia slowly ran her hands down the the silky length of her dress.
It's better this way. If I love him, and I really do love him, I need to set him free.
When she reached for the bottle again, her fingers were free of any telltale tremors, and she was able to pour herself a shot. "Do you want some whisky, too, or something else?"
"Something else."
Guilia nearly jumped, realizing only at that moment that Ethan was already standing right behind her.
A moment later, she felt Ethan spinning the stool around to have her face him, and that was then she saw the ring he was holding up for her.
"Marry me, Guilia."
Chapter Eleven
ANAH MET UP WITH SARAH and a just-arrived Ember the morning after the engagement party. Since Slade's cafe was currently closed for a weekend-long renovation, the three girls hung out at the library's dining hall, chatting and laughing from late lunch to dinner.
Since much of their conversation revolved around Anah's feelings for Ethan, Sarah decided to give Anah a confidence boost by sharing a little-known story about the beginning of her and Damian's romance.
Ember's jaw dropped as she listened to the older girl relay how things went on the night she first met the man who would eventually become her husband. "And that was really the first time you met him?"
"Uh huh."
"And that happened?" Although Ember prided herself for being outrageous, what Sarah had done definitely took the cake, and when she saw the older girl smile impishly in response...
Ember raised her arms and bowed in a gesture of worshipful devotion, saying with the utmost sincerity, "You. Are. A. Goddess." A moment later, and all three of them were bursting into peals of laughter.
It was already half past ten in the evening when the group finally broke up, and only because Damian had arrived to pick his wife up. Ember asked Anah if she wanted to stay over since she had a twin bedroom reserved at the local B&B, but Anah found herself making up an excuse about a research report she needed to work on.
She would just make it up tomorrow with Ember, Anah promised herself. But for now, she simply wanted to be alone with her thoughts. Sarah was right in pointing out that this was the longest time that Ethan and Guilia had been apart, and that such a fact had to mean something.
But that something, Anah thought worriedly, could also be good or bad. She had always avoided discussing her feelings with Ethan because she had seen how guilty it made him feel, not being able to love her back. But...what if tiptoeing around the issue was also the reason why things had never progressed between them?
Maybe it was time she pushed Ethan to really give them a chance, even just once.
ETHAN'S CHARTERED PLANE landed in Laramie with no one in Hartland realizing he had been in and out of Wyoming in the past twenty-four hours. If the Fates were on his side, it would stay that way, too.