Night's Promise(47)
“Do you want me to go?”
“I don’t know.” She fiddled with the hem of her sweater. “It doesn’t change the way I feel about you, but . . . well . . .” She spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s a lot to take in, I’ll grant you that.”
“You must be . . . I don’t know . . . worried. Upset.” Her gaze searched his. “Scared.”
He nodded. Scared didn’t begin to cover it.
“What do you want to do?” she asked.
“That’s up to you.”
Sheree bit down on her lower lip, then drew a deep breath. “I think I’m going to go home and visit my parents for a week or two and sort out my feelings.”
She was leaving. Hadn’t he known that, sooner or later, she would go? And though he knew it was for the best, he was tempted to use his preternatural powers to make her stay because, heaven help him, he was afraid of what he’d do—what he might become—without her.
“Derek?”
“I think that’s a good idea.” It was, he thought, the biggest lie he’d ever told.
Mara listened quietly as Derek told her about Sheree’s decision to go back to Philadelphia. Though he spoke with no inflection, she knew the girl’s decision had hurt. Her first instinct was to compel the girl to stay, to love her son the way he deserved. The only thing that stopped her was knowing Derek would hate her for it.
The words I’m sorry seemed inadequate, but, in the end, that was all she could think to say.
Later, alone in her bedroom, Mara paced the floor, her heart breaking for her son’s pain. For the first time in his life, he had fallen in love. She told herself that Sheree’s leaving was probably a good thing, at least for now.
Logan materialized in the room a few minutes later. He didn’t have to ask if there was something wrong. The air was thick with the tension radiating off his wife.
Wordless, he drew her into his arms. “Want to tell me what’s wrong?”
“Sheree has decided to go home to her parents and Derek is devastated. I don’t know what to do.”
“Stay out of it. This is between the two of them.”
“My son is hurting, and it’s all her fault!”
“Yeah, well, there’s nothing you can do about it. He’s a big boy now. He doesn’t need you to lick his wounds.”
She sagged in his arms, her cheek resting on his chest. “I always thought when he grew up I’d stop worrying. He doesn’t need this on top of everything else. The full moon will be here before we know it.”
He snorted softly. “I’m not looking forward to that, either.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sheree cried while packing her suitcases, cried when she went to bed that night, sobbed quietly in the taxi on the way to the airport and during the flight to Philadelphia, and sniffled on the taxi ride home.
When her father opened the door, he took one look at her tear-ravaged face and folded her in his arms.
“Whatever it is, ducky, it can’t be as bad as all that.”
“Oh, Daddy, you have no idea!” And the worst of it was, she couldn’t tell him everything.
“It’s got to be man trouble,” Brian Westerbrooke murmured, draping his arm around her shoulders as he guided her into the living room.
Sheree nodded. “Where’s Mother?”
“The hospital was having an auction. Naturally, she’s in charge. She took Trudy with her. They should be home in an hour or so.”
Trudy Simmons lived in the little cottage behind the house. She had worked for Sheree’s parents for as long as Sheree could remember. She was a sort of jill-of-all-trades, taking up whatever slack was left by the maid, the cook, and the gardeners.
“Sit down while I pour you a drink,” her father said. “You look like you could use one.”
Sheree glanced around the room, trying to imagine Derek in her mother’s immaculate parlor, with its pristine white carpets, taupe walls, and Louis XV furniture. There wasn’t a spot of dust to be found. Fresh flowers graced the tables. A trio of magazines was set, just so, on the ornate coffee table in front of the high-backed sofa. The drapes were tightly closed against the afternoon sun.
“Here you go, ducky.” Handing her a glass of chardonnay, her father joined her on the sofa. “Now, tell me all about it.”
Sheree told him what she could, how she had met Derek in a nightclub and quickly fallen in love with him, how he had secrets he couldn’t share, and that his life might be in danger.
Brian Westerbrooke listened attentively, nodding now and then.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Sheree said, “so I came home.”