A sob caught in her throat.
What a fool she had become. She tried to control her outburst, but it was useless. When she finally ran out of tears, she felt the need to scream, to rage, to strike out and hurt Reece as badly as she had been hurt, but this wasn’t his fault.
Suddenly the clouds parted in her mind. Clarity opened up so quickly she felt dizzy.
Devon had been right about Reece and she had been wrong, so wrong.
If she was to survive, Tabby had to accept the truth. Reece would never come to her as she had dreamed. It was time to wake up.
Facing the facts hadn’t been easy on her, but necessary. After the festival she would close the book on her childhood, return to school, and move on with her life.
Now if only her heart would go along with her new plans.
Chapter Four
For the umpteenth time, Reece mentally chastised himself. He couldn’t believe what he allowed to happen. Making love to Tabby was the last thing he had on his mind when he arrived at the school. But the pain rimming her eyes when he had stumbled over his apology came back to haunt him.
He had hurt her.
As he maneuvered into a parking space, he could see the work on the cottage had come to a stop. Devon was chatting with Jack, both of them staring in Reece’s direction.
When he got out of his vehicle and approached, Devon eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” Reece answered, when he knew that everything was wrong. Tabby had led him down the streets of heaven only for him to have an attack of guilt—a mental tug-of-war between his conscience and desire for a woman who had turned his world upside down.
“You look like someone ran over your dog,” Devon said.
Reece forced a laugh. “Nah. I’m just tired. I’ll be glad when these booths are finished.” Yet what was really needling him, dug so far beneath his skin that it was beginning to feel part of him, was Tabby—her touch, the taste of her lips and the feel of her body moving against his.
Jack looked over Reece’s shoulder. “Where’s Tabby?”
“She mentioned a couple of things she had to do. I don’t know when she’ll be back.” One thing he knew for damn sure was that she wasn’t coming back to the building site. Not after she left like a bat out of hell, driving in the wrong direction.
“We’re finished here.” Jack wiped his hands with a rag, tossing it over a sawhorse. “If you see her, let her know I’m getting cleaned up and I’ll meet her at the Seaside Pub.”
As the man went to retrieve his friends, Devon breathed, “Over my dead body. Are you joining me to make sure these jocks stay in line tonight?” He quickly snapped his fingers. “Forgot about your date tonight with Lauren. Maybe the two of you can join us after dinner.”
Lauren?
Reece also forgot about his date with her, as well as the four men who would be sniffing at Tabby’s heels all night. He didn’t relish witnessing firsthand their attempts at seducing his woman, but he had no choice because tonight was the first night to pay up on the bet he’d lost to Hauk.
His woman? Now where the hell had that come from?
Could this day get any worse?
“Yeah. We’ll be there after dinner,” Reece groaned.
After begrudgingly thanking Tabby’s friends, he said goodbye to Devon and began to lock up the supplies inside the small cottage. Thursday they would paint the house and attach the shutters and other trim after it dried. Then they’d focus on the sultan’s tent. It was almost over.
He should be happy, but he wasn’t.
Less than an hour remained to get home, shower and get to the restaurant. Climbing into his truck, he realized the last thing he wanted was to go out to dinner with Lauren. The woman was attracted to him, and before this afternoon he could have said the same, but not now. Everything had changed. Now he couldn’t think past the knowledge that another man might hold Tabby tonight, and he had no right to stop it from happening.
The weariness inside him intensified as he drove home. During the drive, the feeling that he had let something precious slip through his hands niggled at him. The truth of the matter was, Tabby deserved more than he could provide. Most of the time he was traveling out of state and sometimes out of country. A man like him would suck as a husband. And he didn’t even want to think what kind of an absentee father he’d make.
Where that line of thinking came from he had no idea, but it didn’t make him feel any better about what he had to offer a woman.
Pulling into his garage, he remained in the vehicle, thinking how he had screwed up one of the most exquisite moments in his life. In a burst of self-reproach, he swung the door wide and got out and entered the house. Immediately, he noticed something he never had before.