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He grinned. His gaze swept over her. “Yes you did, and yes you are.” His eyes grew too serious. “But then you told me how sorry you are. Why are you sorry, Bee? I’d rather have you angry at me.”
“You would?”
He nodded.
“Ah, Jag …” Emotion rose in her throat. “Of course you would.” Anybody else would tell her to control her emotions, but Jagger liked everything about her.
“She stings like a bee, but her honey is so sweet,” he said softly.
Belinda was moments away from crying. “I wish I could only give you honey and never sting you again.”
“Do you?” He chuckled. “I don’t know. I think you like to sting me so you can kiss me and make it all better.”
“Well, at least you’re tough enough to handle it.” Physically he was, but emotionally? Did she simply wound him over and over again? She hated that.
“Only you would have to find an elite Navy SEAL to be able to ‘handle’ you.” He pumped his eyebrows and eased a few inches closer.
Belinda’s heart rate spiked. She put a hand to her chest. “Oh, you.” She took a deep breath. “You might be the only person in the world who truly gets me.”
He tilted his head slightly to the side, his eyes suddenly serious. “Does that mean … you’ll give us a chance again?”
She wanted to scream yes and throw herself against that beautiful spectacle of a chest he had. But she couldn’t. Not until she talked to her parents.
“I don’t know how, Jag,” she flung out there, her voice pitching up with desperation. “You’re all I want. All I ever wanted. I only married Mike because he never gave up on me. My parents thought he was the right one, and I was so lonely for you. Our marriage was boring and sad, and I feel awful that I wasted eight years of his life.”
Jagger nodded that he understood.
“But I can’t believe my parents would lie to me. I adore them and they’ve been there for me every moment of my life. How could I believe they’d do something so horrible to me? They saw how miserable I was without you. They knew I didn’t love Mike as anything but a brother. Do you really think those angelic people would do that to me?”
A muscle worked in his jaw. He was frustrated, and she didn’t blame him. She felt the same.
“So we’re back to me being the liar?” he asked in a carefully controlled voice.
“I can’t wrap my mind around you lying to me any better than I can wrap my mind around my parents hurting us like this.” She was miserable.
He studied her. “It feels impossible right now.”
“It does.” She didn’t know if he meant their future or her determining who was telling the truth—or him ever forgiving her parents if he was telling the truth. It was all a mess.
The waves softly rolled onto the beach. Seagulls squawked and postured, and a warm breeze stirred her hair.
She felt frozen in time with no way to fix the past and no way to make the future work.
“I’m sorry.” She backed up a few steps.
“I told you I’d rather have you angry.” He cracked his knuckles.
Belinda managed to smile at that. She wished she could grab his hand. She wanted to beg him to forget all of it for tonight and just hold her and kiss her. Come tomorrow, they’d go their separate ways and she’d long for him like she had for years. At least tomorrow she’d have answers and know the truth.
They stood there, neither of them saying a word. She didn’t know what to say, and she could understand if he felt the same.
“I should go swim some more.”
“Does it help?”
He shrugged. “It helps work my frustration out but gives my mind too much time to wander.”
“At least it’s more productive than sitting in my room trying to sleep and wishing I didn’t have to think anymore.”
