shrugged by way of apology. “You can tell me it’s none of my business. I’m asking anyway.”
“Why? Why would you possibly want to know anything about my marriage to Duncan?”
Because you chose him over me . He’d never voiced that truth out loud, and thank God he managed to keep the words from spilling forth. They would have made him sound petulant and bitter. “Maybe I want to know what he had that I didn’t.”
Christ. That wasn’t much better.
Summer’s voice flattened out. “He wasn’t my sister’s boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend. I never made a move on you while I was dating your sister.”
“A semantic Jasmine didn’t take time to clarify before she smashed up your car with my father’s nine iron,” Summer returned. “Ex-boyfriend or not, you weren’t a choice I could make.”
“So you chose this Duncan character. Because he was a doctor?”
She stared at him. “How did you know that?”
“When I called your home number, your father took great pleasure in telling me you were about to marry a guy who was the great white hope of modern medicine.”
Ty wished he hadn’t revealed that little tidbit when the look on Summer’s face registered her shock. “You called looking for me?”
Damn, now he really wished he hadn’t been so free with the truth. Ty was surprised to find it still made his chest feel hot and tight. With effort, he managed to maintain his casual air. “About six months after I left. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Not the whole truth, but even those words gave away that he’d still cared about her then. Ty tried not to wince.
Summer said, “Dad never told me you called.”
“I didn’t ask him to.” No, he’d gone straight to getting drunk and being a loudmouth, moving on quickly to getting kicked out of the bar he was in and earning himself a citation for public nuisance in the good old US of A. At some point during his three-day bender, he’d ended up in a tattoo parlor. Ty’s hand moved reflexively to the spot on his left pec where he’d marked himself for the first time, courtesy of Summer Campbell.
“I figured you wouldn’t be interested in hearing from me,” Ty said at last. “You must have been madly in love to get hitched so young. Right?”
Chapter Four
In her shock at Ty’s assessment of the situation, Summer almost blurted the truth. She bit her lip, hard, keeping the words back. What was the point of him knowing now? There wasn’t any, other than to get it off her chest where it sat like an unwelcome pressure, constricting her breathing.
“I thought you’d forgotten about me,” she choked out, inadvertently revealing more about her motivations for marrying Duncan than she’d intended. Not the whole story, but part of it.
“What made you think that?”
Summer blurted, her tone accusatory, “I saw you kiss her.”
“Who?”
“Some girl on the television. You’d won your first event I think. She was all over you.”
Ty frowned. “I don’t remember anything about it. Not about her anyway.”
Summer snorted, offended for some reason by that hole in his memory. “ I remember it.”
“So what does that have to do with you getting married?”
“Nothing,” Summer said quickly. She’d tried so hard to forget Ty, for the sake of her relationship with her sister. She couldn’t be with him, not without hurting Jasmine, so she knew she had to move on. When her father introduced her to Duncan and he’d asked her out, Summer didn’t see any plausible reason to say no.
She’d let the relationship continue for months because it seemed to make everyone happy. But she’d never given up searching the Net in secret for news of Ty. She’d seen him and that woman. He’d looked so happy, a man on top of the world, and Summer had realized in that moment Ty had moved on with more success than her. He’d forgotten all about her.
That night, she’d been desperate to prove to herself she could move on too. She’d thought
“Why? Why would you possibly want to know anything about my marriage to Duncan?”
Because you chose him over me . He’d never voiced that truth out loud, and thank God he managed to keep the words from spilling forth. They would have made him sound petulant and bitter. “Maybe I want to know what he had that I didn’t.”
Christ. That wasn’t much better.
Summer’s voice flattened out. “He wasn’t my sister’s boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend. I never made a move on you while I was dating your sister.”
“A semantic Jasmine didn’t take time to clarify before she smashed up your car with my father’s nine iron,” Summer returned. “Ex-boyfriend or not, you weren’t a choice I could make.”
“So you chose this Duncan character. Because he was a doctor?”
She stared at him. “How did you know that?”
“When I called your home number, your father took great pleasure in telling me you were about to marry a guy who was the great white hope of modern medicine.”
Ty wished he hadn’t revealed that little tidbit when the look on Summer’s face registered her shock. “You called looking for me?”
Damn, now he really wished he hadn’t been so free with the truth. Ty was surprised to find it still made his chest feel hot and tight. With effort, he managed to maintain his casual air. “About six months after I left. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Not the whole truth, but even those words gave away that he’d still cared about her then. Ty tried not to wince.
Summer said, “Dad never told me you called.”
“I didn’t ask him to.” No, he’d gone straight to getting drunk and being a loudmouth, moving on quickly to getting kicked out of the bar he was in and earning himself a citation for public nuisance in the good old US of A. At some point during his three-day bender, he’d ended up in a tattoo parlor. Ty’s hand moved reflexively to the spot on his left pec where he’d marked himself for the first time, courtesy of Summer Campbell.
“I figured you wouldn’t be interested in hearing from me,” Ty said at last. “You must have been madly in love to get hitched so young. Right?”
Chapter Four
In her shock at Ty’s assessment of the situation, Summer almost blurted the truth. She bit her lip, hard, keeping the words back. What was the point of him knowing now? There wasn’t any, other than to get it off her chest where it sat like an unwelcome pressure, constricting her breathing.
“I thought you’d forgotten about me,” she choked out, inadvertently revealing more about her motivations for marrying Duncan than she’d intended. Not the whole story, but part of it.
“What made you think that?”
Summer blurted, her tone accusatory, “I saw you kiss her.”
“Who?”
“Some girl on the television. You’d won your first event I think. She was all over you.”
Ty frowned. “I don’t remember anything about it. Not about her anyway.”
Summer snorted, offended for some reason by that hole in his memory. “ I remember it.”
“So what does that have to do with you getting married?”
“Nothing,” Summer said quickly. She’d tried so hard to forget Ty, for the sake of her relationship with her sister. She couldn’t be with him, not without hurting Jasmine, so she knew she had to move on. When her father introduced her to Duncan and he’d asked her out, Summer didn’t see any plausible reason to say no.
She’d let the relationship continue for months because it seemed to make everyone happy. But she’d never given up searching the Net in secret for news of Ty. She’d seen him and that woman. He’d looked so happy, a man on top of the world, and Summer had realized in that moment Ty had moved on with more success than her. He’d forgotten all about her.
That night, she’d been desperate to prove to herself she could move on too. She’d thought
Similar Books
