Suddenly Love by Carly Phillips Page A

differently, he couldn’t change the past. And it drove him crazy knowing that though Trevor thought Banks had done the right thing, in reality he’d merely given the Banks family the best public face while privately making Lissa as miserable as possible.
    “I’m sorry,” she said in a broken voice.
    “I know you are.” He turned her around, forcing her to look at him. “And so am I, sweetheart. So am I.”
    She sniffed. “Really?”
    He nodded. “We share the blame for what happened. Hell, I realize now I bear most of it. If I hadn’t agreed to split up, you’d never have been with him.” Trevor knew that now as well as he knew his own name.
    Her eyes shone with surprise and gratitude. “Thank you for that,” she said, yet she moved out of his embrace.
    In front of his eyes, she mentally and emotionally pulled herself together, internalizing the emotions she’d allowed to surface. “I’m glad we finally talked about this. I’m glad we had… closure.”
    Trevor blinked in shock at her stark words and suddenly cool tone. He’d thought he needed closure, too. No longer. Yet somehow she’d decided they’d wrapped things up between them in a nice bow.
    But as far as he was concerned, things were even messier now than they’d been before. Because Trevor knew what meaningless sex was like—and what he and Lissa shared was a hell of a lot more. No way was he willing to let her just walk out of his life as if last night meant nothing.
    “I don’t know where you got the idea that last night was about closure,” he said, folding his arms across his chest as he faced her down. “News flash, sweetheart. We’re not close to over.”
    Lissa blew out a long breath and stared at him as if he’d gone mad. “So… what? We’re going to be together for another twenty-four hours, torture ourselves with what could have been… and then what? I’ll go back to Serendipity, to my daughter—to Brad’s daughter,” she said bluntly. “And you’ll stay here. Why prolong the agony?”
    He couldn’t deny she had a point. When it came to obstacles, they had plenty. Nor could he say he was ready to deal with everything her real life had to offer, including her daughter, her ex, and Serendipity.
    “I don’t have all the answers,” he told her honestly. “The only thing I do know is that if it’s going to hurt that much to walk away, it means there’s something meaningful there to begin with.” He held out his hands and waited, holding his breath.
    “Damn it, Trevor,” she muttered, and walked into his waiting arms.
    He held her close and suddenly her stomach growled. He heard as well as felt the vibration and laughed.
    “I’m hungry,” she said.
    “Let’s go out and get breakfast.”
    She stepped back and gestured to his see-through shirt and her bare legs. “I have this and a formal gown,” she reminded him.
    “Personally, I like this.”
    She wrinkled her nose at him and he laughed. “Fine. Go shower. I’ll give you a heavier shirt and a pair of sweats and socks to go back to the hotel in. You can change and then we’ll go for breakfast. Better?”
    She nodded. “Thanks.”
    A few minutes later, she’d shut herself in his bathroom and turned on the shower, while he lowered himself onto his bed and groaned, running a hand through his already messed-up hair.
    He meant what he’d said a few minutes earlier. He didn’t have any real answers for the future, but he’d just bought himself twenty-four hours with Lissa.
    For now, that was enough.

FIVE
    S till stunned by their heart-to-heart and the fact that Trevor wasn’t letting her just leave, Lissa found herself sitting across from him at a small crepe place he said he enjoyed. She ordered an apple cinnamon crepe and they ate in a silence that was oddly companionable, considering the safe world she lived in had crumbled around her. She was facing interminable heartache and yet here she was, sitting across from him anyway.
    “So what are your