Close Your Eyes (6 page)

Because it was insanity
.
H
er eyes mist
ed
over in recollection.

Her hands almost angry, s
he started opening the stacked
boxes
. She hoped
she could make herself
too busy to think
by
forcing herself to concentrate on her task.

This
is
the opportunity
you’ve
been waiting for,
isn’t
it?
Their florist shop could get a huge boost
by
catering for the
Harper
s,
and that was
only one of the benefits. But most importantly, Ry
an
wanted her to
meet his
whole
family
and take
their
relationship a huge leap forward. Certainly
,
it was important enough to let her forget
that
one crazy evening
on
the moor
.

Still, just thinking of it,
Megan
could almost smell the smoky, poignant fragrance that lingered over the mist covered plain. Her skin remembered it
,
too
,
every cold
raindrop
that soaked her clothes and plastered her dark hair against her head.
T
he dark blue fabric of her jeans
looked
black
, and her jacket felt heavy and scratchy
.
S
he plodded ahead
, her teeth chattering
incontrollably
. H
er shoes
were
ruined beyond repair
, b
ut she didn’t care,
n
ot
after her fight with Ry
an
. They
’d
had a major row
, bigger than anything she could ever recall in all the years of their friendship
. H
is voice
was
clear and crisp as he declared
that
he needed some time to think things over. She could still feel the icy stillness that took over her body
. H
er mechanical nod
was
nothing short of a
n instinctive response
when
her whole body
switch
ed
into
survival mode.

If he wan
ts
to think, so be it
!
she
thought feverishly
. Anything was
better than the possibility of him actually knowing
that he wanted to move on without her
. She didn’t dare think
what
he might say
. T
he finality of
the end of
their
relationship
was
not
something she could face.

He left in his little sport car afterwards. They had met at
a
restaurant at the outskirts of town,
close to the
summer stables and running fields
owned by the Harpers.
They had plans for the evening
. T
heir favorite comedy show
in
downtown London
was
a treat she had been looking forward to for a while.
The
sudden lunch with Ry
an
and his strangely guilty mannerisms had given her the impression that
something ominous
was
hanging
over their relationship.
Her intuition
grew
with each uneasy look he cast her.

I
didn’t have to wait though for too long,
she thought
bitterly. Getting
to the point without useless ado
was
one of Ry
an
’s better qualities.

He told her they could
n’t
go that night
. His blue eyes looked sad as he saw her disappointment
, his handsome face regretful
. His
words
came
in a
rush,
as if he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.
He
hurriedly explained that h
e had to keep their relationshi
p under wraps for a while
. His
words
made
her as mad as hell
, the explanation that followed doing little to make things better.
His family had friends over,
f
riends with a
daughter,
a girl
his
grandfather’s friends
hoped might become more than just a friend.
H
is eyes
were
as
earnest as they
had been
when
Megan had first met him
over
twenty years ago.
He was only going
to play
along to humor his grandfather
because h
e owed him that much
. Ryan’s
absence at the
dinner party or his complete dismissal of
the girl
would be equal humiliations that
the old man didn’t deserve.
He
promised her t
hey would leave after just a few
days
, and the charade would be over.
These were some old family friends from his grandfather’s childhood; he added hurriedly, his attempt to mollify her totally missing the mark.

His
grandfather wished for him to concentrate on joining the business and wasn’t very open-minded to the idea of a serious relationship that would take his time away from
a
job.
Things got only worse from there, Meg thought, her heart heavy with
misery.
Ryan
continued, saying that his grandfather stubbornly believed that no man should even think about settling down before turning thirty.
Megan
didn’t
care for
Ryan's
ex
planation
.
She suspected his story was
just an excuse for him to enjoy all the perks of their relationship without having to show any kind of responsibility
.

Ryan probably
expected
her usual accommodating and understanding attitude,
so
her
reaction must have
been an
utter shock
for him
. S
he finally exploded, the grievances bursting the dams of her
self-control
once and for all. She
’d
had enough
,
s
he yelled at him, tears welling up in her eyes and
quickly
spilling over. If he didn’t have the guts to stand up to his family and make it clear that they were
more than just
casual
acquaintances
, there was nothing more to be said.

She
had made
a scene
.
E
ven now, a year later, a hot wave of embarrassment
colored
her cheeks crimson
when she recalled their disagreement
.
Her reaction
must have scared the bloody hell out of him because
, pale and speechless,
he stared at her with
wide
eyes. After a second or so, she
felt
a change
come
over him, a different kind of calm taking over his shaken features
,
as if an invisible hand
had come
and closed the shutters
to
his soul
. H
is
face
was
suddenly
like a stranger’s
.
Polite and
distant
, he excused himself
calmly, not an ounce of emotion coloring his voice
. H
is good
-
bye
was
formal
,
as if
Megan
were nothing more
than an
acquaintances
he
had
bumped into by accident.

After he left, she remained seated for a while, sipping the wine they had ordered with their meal
s
. She didn’t even taste it
. H
er throat
was
tight with tears that made everything taste bitter.
Ry
an
said
that
he would call her as soon as he could
,
and
Megan
was
already appalled with her total lack of
self-control
.