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Either way, I felt human enough to work on her Lee puzzle. I’d printed out a lot of things from the library microfiche machine.Puzzlewas definitely the right word for this. I looked over the pages spread out on the table and still had no clue what he had been looking for.
It was like unraveling a ball of yarn. I had to find the end of the string, the single clue that would put me on the trail of this mystery.
The knock at the door startled me. It was followed by the last voice I expected.
“Angela?” Boone knocked a second time.
“Go away.” In a town this small, there wasn’t any point in pretending I wasn’t here. And I hadn’t bothered hiding my car. It was out front.
“We… I mean, I’d like to talk.” He had been just about to pull thatwe-need-tobullshit on me again. “Please,” he added.
I was normally a sucker forplease, but not today and not from him. “No thanks. You already said enough.” Calling me a liar to my face had been as clear as an insult could be.
“I was wrong. And I’d like to apologize, please.”
There was the P-word again. The one I’d been programmed to respond to. “I got it. You apologize. Now you can go.”
“Face to face, I was thinking.”
“I heard you well enough through the door. You said you apologize. Did I get it right?” Ten seconds or so of silence followed, but I didn’t hear any footsteps on Pris’s creaky porch.
“Please, I need to… Sorry, I’d like the chance to explain myself.”
“And what then? Do you promise to leave?”
He sighed. “Yes.” That had to be hard for him to say. Boone was one of the most determined men I’d ever met. Giving up was not in his nature.
I got up and dragged myself over for a task I most definitely wouldn’t enjoy, but couldn’t avoid, if I wanted to get rid of him. I pulled open the door.
“I’m sorry—”
I cut him off with a raised hand. “Great. You’re sorry. Thanks for the apology. Bye now.” I got the words out without looking up. Then I did, and that was a mistake.
He was a mess. Boone’s shoulders were slumped and his eyes red. Desperation was written all over him.
I went to close the door. He put a hand on it before I could.
Seeing him like this tore dangerously at my heart. Vulnerable Boone threatened to break my resolve, like closing the door on a lost puppy.
“You have to listen,” he choked out.
We were back at the same impasse. “I don’t have to do shit,” I spat. “You promised me once you’d never lie to me, and I heard you loud and clear at the house. I don’t care if you were lying then or now. I don’t give a fuck.” I pushed the door closed.
He didn’t let me. “But Angel, I love you.”
My mouth dropped open at those words. The ones I would have welcomed a day ago. “You do not get to manipulate me like that,” I yelled. “You can’t come here and say that like it’s your get-out-of-jail-free card.”
With that, he dropped his hand away.
“The first time you tell someone you love them is when things are good, when you’re dancing or something like that, not when you’re in trouble.” I pushed the door closed and slumped against it, as drained physically as I was emotionally. “Please leave.”
“Angel, I’ve never told a girl I love her before, so excuse me if I don’t get it right. You have to believe me. I love you.”
Giving in would be betraying my promise to myself to change who I was. So I said the only words I could. “Please leave.”
As his footsteps made their way down off the porch, I knew I’d sealed our fate. I’d remained in control. I had the upper hand and had made the decision for both of us.
I didn’t let the tears start until after I got up off the floor. I’d just pushed away the man who’d made me the happiest I’d ever been. Sniffles added themselves to the salty taste of my tears. I grabbed for the box of tissues.
