Gunn(Bayou Springs Alien Mail Order Brides #2)(9)

 

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice wobbly, though her eyes were dry. "I just …  I didn't feel like I had a choice."

 

No choice? What was she talking about? I crossed the room and sat in the chair across from her. Leaning forward, I propped my elbows on my knees and watched her carefully. "What do you mean, you didn't have a choice?"

 

She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the chair.

 

Guilt, combined with regret and uncertainty, consumed me. Only the feelings weren't mine. They were hers. The air left my lungs, and I froze with shock. The image I'd had of her in the chair when I'd been outside, and now, sensing her inner turmoil meant one thing: we were connected.

 

 

 

        

          

        

         

 

She was my other half. The one I was destined to be with. It was the only explanation. The reason I'd been craving chocolate dipped toffee and why I could sense her emotions now. When Quartzians found their human partner, something magical happened. They became connected, tapped into each other's feelings and emotions, and together, became stronger.

 

But why now? We'd been together years ago. Deeply in love …  or so I'd thought. I'd certainly been in love with her, would've laid my life down for her, but then she left and took a piece of me with her.

 

"Do you remember my mother?" Kennedy finally asked.

 

"Sure." I frowned, wondering where she was going with that. How could I not remember? Besides Audrey, she'd been the only mother figure my brothers and I'd ever had. Kennedy knew that.

 

"I mean, do you remember when she hooked up with Vin? How she changed?" She lifted her head, the hesitation gone from her demeanor.

 

I nodded. Bette had been the cool, hippy mom who'd owned a gift shop. She sold handmade soap, hand-dyed yarn, bayou photographs, and rented space to other artisans. She was always ready with a smile and a hug, and when we were older, a shot of whiskey when life kicked any one of us in the shins. But then she'd met Vin. Six months later, the shop was closed and she spent all her time working at Vin's shitty liquor store, disengaged from everyone until the cancer hit. "I remember."

 

She pressed her hand to her throat and glanced away, unable to keep looking me in the eye. "I couldn't let that happen to me."

 

Fear radiated off her in waves, causing an ache in my gut. "You thought by marrying me, you'd have no choice but to work in the brewery?"

 

"No. Yes." She shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant. Not exactly. Though we both know I would've ended up working there."

 

"Only if you wanted to." I peered at her. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

 

She stood and paced back and forth, her bare feet soundless on the wood floors.

 

I studied every inch of her, finally zeroing in on her hands as she worried the hem of her black T-shirt. Her nails were a soft pink and her elegant fingers bare of jewelry. I wanted nothing more than to see my ring back on her left hand where it belonged.

 

She stopped abruptly and blurted, "I didn't want to lose myself in you …  in anyone. I was barely twenty years old. If I'd stayed here, I'd never have been my own person. I'd have only become an extension of you. Can't you see that?"

 

A sharp pain materialized in my chest, mirroring the suffering in hers. She was hurting just as much as I was, if not more. Whatever her real reason for leaving, it had nearly ripped her in two and she'd never fully healed. Troubled, I searched her stormy gaze. "No. I don't. What makes you think that?"  

 

She winced and turned her head away, remorse and guilt eating her up inside.

 

"Kennedy?" I asked as I moved to kneel in front of her.

 

She turned and took a deep breath, forcing herself to look at me. "Yeah?"

 

"Do you feel this?" I took her hand and gently pressed it against my chest.

 

"Your heart beat?"

 

"No. Not exactly." I placed my hand over her heart. "Can you feel what's going on inside me? Clear as day as if my emotions were your own?"

 

Tears glistened in her big blue eyes, but they didn't fall as she shook her head.

 

"Liar," I said, not unkindly as I gave her a faint smile. "You're guilty as hell right now."

 

She sucked in a sharp breath, then closed her eyes and shook her head again. "You don't know that."

 

"No?" I pulled her hand away from my chest and cradled it in both of mine. "Then why is there an ache eating you up inside?"