Chapter Fourteen
Audrey stepped out of the inn and came to a stop on the front porch, wincing at the brightness of the midday sun. So much had happened today, it seemed as though it should be later. It was hard to believe it was only a little after noon.
There were plenty of hours left in the day, yet it felt like she’d run out of time.
She gazed down toward the car. Jason was waiting for her in it, having decided to let her have her last conversation with Marybeth in private. Now that that was done, all Audrey had to do was walk down there and join him. Within minutes they would be on their way out of town. By the end of the day she would be home, a place it had seemed like she would never see again. She could go back to her life, her job, her friends.
She should be happy. Glad. Relieved. The ordeal was over. And she was glad for that.
But she wasn’t ready for everything to be over, especially something that had barely just begun.
She wasn’t the only one who would be returning to a life, even if Jason’s wasn’t much of one. She pictured him as she’d first discovered him, in that dingy bar, the thought making her heart squeeze. She supposed he would want to get back to that, to a life of nothing, unbothered by the rest of the world. The notion was painful to consider. But she couldn’t make him want to live. He had to make that choice for himself. She’d spent too much of her life hoping for a relationship with someone who couldn’t bring himself to reciprocate. She couldn’t do it again.
Drawing a breath, she forced her feet into motion and moved down the front steps.
He was sitting in the driver’s seat, staring straight ahead, his expression as stoic as ever. Her heart stuttered at the sight of his profile. She kept her eyes on his face as she approached, wanting to take it in as long as she could, especially while he didn’t know.
All too soon, she reached the car. As she pulled the door open, the sounds of voices reached her. Jason glanced over, then leaned forward and turned off the radio.
“Anything new?” she asked, sliding into the passenger seat. By the time they’d left the Bridgeses’ estate and made it back to the car, the airwaves had been full of reports of an ambulance being summoned to the house, and speculation about what it might mean. Just as they made it back to the inn, word had come that “Rich” would be addressing reporters shortly, long before the event scheduled to take place that afternoon.
“Bridges finally made his statement,” Jason confirmed. “It’s like he told us. He announced that he’s decided not to run for president after all, and that he’s retiring from the senate as well. He said it was a personal decision for the sake of his family. He also said that Dick had died suddenly this morning, but didn’t mention how. He didn’t take any questions.”
“I’m sure that has led to plenty of speculation.”
“It’s all anyone’s talking about on every station. So far, everyone just seems baffled, as you’d expect. I imagine it’ll only get worse when they find out how Dick died.”
“Do you really think they’ll admit that Dick killed himself, or will they try to cover it up?”
“Raymer didn’t seem like he felt like covering up anything for Dick anymore,” he pointed out.
“Just for himself and his family.”
He glanced at her. “You sure you’re okay with the full truth not coming out?”
“I am,” she said without hesitation. “I know how much the book meant to Hal, but it looks like he didn’t even uncover the whole story. The people responsible for his death and those of the others have been punished. Having the truth come out now would just hurt people who don’t deserve it.”
In the end, she’d decided there was only one person who really needed to know the truth. Marybeth Kent had wept when Audrey told her what happened to the real Rich Bridges. There had been a great deal of sadness in her tears, but Audrey sensed a bit of relief, as well, at the knowledge that Rich hadn’t abandoned her and their child. She hadn’t read him wrong. He
had
loved her.
“Are you going to tell Will?” Audrey had asked her.
Marybeth had appeared to consider the question for a long moment before slowly shaking her head. “I don’t know,” she said. Audrey had believed that the woman honestly didn’t know in that instant, but she also suspected Marybeth would ultimately decide not to. Will Kent had his own burgeoning political career to consider. The last thing he needed was to be connected with the ugliness surrounding Dick Bridges.
Thinking of Marybeth, Audrey gave one last glance at the inn. Regardless of the reasons that had brought her here, she knew she would have fond memories of the place, if only because of one particular night she’d spent within its walls.
A lump rose in her throat, and she quickly swallowed it, not about to linger on the emotion. She turned back to find Jason studying her, his eyes unreadable. She resisted the urge to squirm self-consciously in her seat. “Ready to go?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I’m just trying to figure out where to go.”
“You don’t have to take me to Baltimore, if that’s what you’re worried about. I should probably go back to D.C. and see if I can track down my car. I’m not holding my breath that it hasn’t been stolen, but maybe there’s a chance it’s only been towed. If I can’t find it, I can take the train back.”
“And if I do want to take you back to Baltimore?”
Everything inside her went still. “Why would you want to do that?”
A hint of uncertainty entered his eyes just before he glanced away, facing forward again. “I’ve been sitting here thinking about my shabby apartment, and that neighborhood, and the bar. All the places that pretty much became my world over the past few years. I never really thought about them before, never bothered because I didn’t care. And now that I do, I keep thinking how sad those places are. It’s really no way to live, is it?”
“No, it’s not.”
“I guess I’m in no hurry to get back there. I don’t really want to go back to that—to any of that.” He finally looked at her again, his eyes intent and burning with so much naked emotion her heart leaped. “But most of all, I don’t want to say goodbye to you.”
“Then don’t,” she said automatically, the words coming out on their own.
“And you’d be okay with that?”
“Yes,” she said, the voice that emerged from her throat hoarse with feeling. “I don’t want to say goodbye to you, either.”
He looked at her steadily, unwaveringly, and she watched the rush of emotions washing over his face, hope and tenderness and relief and joy and so much more than she could begin to absorb, all igniting the same within her. The shadows in his eyes weren’t gone, not completely, but they’d begun to fade, and his gaze was filled with so much more.
Then slowly, finally, he smiled.
At the sight of that smile, her heart pounded faster. The reaction was more than just a response to how devastatingly handsome he looked with that smile on his lips. It was a response to what that smile meant. It said far more than his words ever could, and a sudden lightness filled her chest.
He looked alive, more so than she’d ever seen him.
He really was finally ready to live.
She matched his smile, happiness soaring through her. This wasn’t the ending she’d expected after all.
It was a beginning.
“All right then,” he said. “Let’s go.”
She didn’t bother asking where they were going as he started the engine and shifted the car into gear. It didn’t matter. They’d figure it out. All that mattered was that they were going together, off into a future that was theirs to find.
And as he pulled out of the driveway and they hit the road, Audrey leaned back in her seat, her smile deepening.
Hal had thought the book would be his legacy. It wouldn’t, but he’d left one just the same.
Because of him, she and Jason had found each other. He’d brought them together. Their future had come about because of him.
And that was a pretty good legacy for anyone to leave.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8837-3
CIRCUMSTANTIAL MARRIAGE
Copyright © 2011 by Kerry Connor
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