She paused as she reached her car door and looked back. Without hesitating, he bounded down the stairs after her.
“I just wanted to say…” Hell. He didn’t know. Maybe…don’t leave. Don’t walk away from me again. Please, let’s give us another try. See where this thing we have can take us. That together they can overcome anything. But those were words for the movies. Not real life. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. Sorry the way things ended like they did. And…I hope you’ll be happy.”
She bit her bottom lip, her eyes looking almost wild for a moment but then she turned away and opened her door, sliding in, her face still hidden.#p#分页标题#e#
He did want her to be happy. Even if it wasn’t with him. “Take care, Payton.”
“Thanks, Cruz. You too.” Then she slammed the door shut and started the car. He backed up, giving her room.
And he watched her drive down the road, away from him. Again.
Payton only made it to the beginning of the trees, Cruz’s figure still visible in her rear view mirror, before the tears came. Her heart felt like it was breaking all over again.
When he’d called out to her, her heart had risen to her throat, hope building that maybe he was going to stop her. Insist she stay with him. Tell her that he loved her.
But instead…he’d said good-bye.
It became impossible to blink the tears back, and instead she let them trail down her face all the way home. But they were quiet tears, not the soul-wrenching sobs that she’d shed the week before. Tears that accepted that things were over. What other choice did she have?
Chapter Nineteen
Cruz popped the top from his second beer and took a pull. He was sitting in the kitchen of Daisy’s new place—Kate’s old house—as the kids yelled in laughter from the other room where his Aunt Glenda had a game of Twister set up. Daisy and Benny were across from him, Benny wolfing down half the bowl of guacamole that Daisy had whipped up. Dominic, who’d just arrived, hunkered down in the chair next to him.
Now they were just waiting for his parents to arrive. He had something he wanted to show them all together. To make it all worthwhile.
“Where’s Kate? Are you telling me that five days after you get back from your honeymoon she’s already finding you too much to stomach?” Cruz asked his younger brother.
“You really want to go there?” Dominic smiled back, almost as if offering him a warning. “Kate and Payton are having a girl’s night out, so it’s just me.”
She was with Payton. He was going to have to get used to that. They were best friends; that wasn’t going to change. Cruz nodded and took another pull as, if the kids’ shouts were any indication, his parents arrived.
Game time. He stood, and after corralling his siblings into the front room—Benny with a death-grip on the guacamole—he pulled the folded up magazine from his pocket.
“I know you’ve all thought I was crazy all these years, keeping my nose to the grindstone, never taking time to enjoy the finer things in life—blah blah blah. But I think what you’re going to see will show you why it was all worthwhile.”
At least he hoped it did. Because after staring at the article for the past twenty-four hours, he was more than disappointed that he hadn’t felt the level of exhilaration, of pride and satisfaction that he always thought he would. Hadn’t felt even half the same exhilaration he’d felt when he thought for that wonderful day that Payton was his wife.
He held up the magazine cover, so everyone could bask in the glory. “Not only did Sorensen Construction make ENR’s list of top 400 contractors in the U.S., but it’s featured in this week’s regional section, thanks to this deal with Eastman Motors.” He presented the magazine to his dad first. “Dad, I know that the past few years you struggled health-wise and it was an honor that you trusted me to take the reins and see what I can do with the business. I hope that this assures you that our company and our family’s future is going to be secure for a long time.”
His dad took the magazine, and stared at for a minute, the slightest smile on that usually stony face. “I didn’t doubt you for a minute, Cruz.” He opened the magazine and found the article that Cruz was so proud of and read it silently.#p#分页标题#e#
His sisters and Dominic, Aunt Glenda, and the kids all gave him a hug and congratulated him. For the next couple of minutes he basked finally in the glow of their excitement, their pride. His mother came over and kissed him on the cheek and then came to stand next to her husband, still seated on the couch. “This is so exciting, Cruz. There’s a picture of you and everything.”