“Why so bummed out? It looks like you found a thing or two,” he said, reaching toward her.
She quickly backed away. “Don’t touch me, Ashton,” she grated out. “Please.” She hated that she was so very close to breaking down.
“Savvy … I … I’ve missed you,” he finally said, and she nearly collapsed at his feet.
But she didn’t. “You don’t have the right to miss me, Ashton. You’re going to be a father. Our entire relationship has been wrong — right from the beginning. You were engaged to be married, and still I let you pursue me. But now you’re going to have a baby with her. I can’t be with you,” she told him, hating the choked feeling in her throat.
“I just miss you, Savvy.”
“It doesn’t matter, Ashton. None of it does.”
Lance and Austin were now climbing onto the boat, and she was glad.
“I found something down there,” Ashton told her.
“I’m happy for you,” Savannah said.
“I want you to have it.”
He held something out, but she couldn’t see what it was. She didn’t want to even look, though, because she couldn’t and wouldn’t accept it.
“Thank you, but no. Give it to Kalli, whatever it is.”
“Kalli wouldn’t appreciate it. This was made for you,” he said and he put it into her hand.
Though time and circumstances hadn’t been good to this little piece of jewelry, it could easily be cleaned up, and it would be back to its former beauty. It was a necklace, an unusual piece that she was guessing was silver, but it could be gold as well. They wouldn’t know until it was cleaned. It was a heart with a curious pattern swirling up to circle a light blue stone. It was simple — and beautiful. And she desperately wanted to keep it.
“No. You take it,” she said. “Please go back to your boat and let me go home.” Savvy thrust the necklace back into his hand.
Ashton walked away from her, just as she’d asked him to do. He chatted with his brother and cousin for a few minutes and then returned to his boat. He rode off before they did.
Savvy knew that this would be the last time she would see him. She sat in the back of Austin’s boat and was thankful that he and Lance left her alone as she slumped over the side and let her tears fall into the sea. And she’d thought that she was cried out.
It was fitting to have said her final goodbye this way — at sea — to the man she loved so much. When she returned to the shore, she would leave it all behind. She had no other choice.
Later that night, as Savvy was stretched out on the couch with a thriller book in her hand about a woman seeking revenge on the man who had done her wrong, she heard a knock on the apartment door. Alexa was gone, leaving her no choice but to see who it was.#p#分页标题#e#
“Delivery for Savanna Mills,” the man announced through the door in a loud voice.
She looked through the peephole and he seemed to be legit. So she opened the door and he handed over a package after having her sign her name.
It took her a while but she looked over the simple box and actually opened it. And she wished she hadn’t.
Inside, on a bed of velvet, was the necklace Ashton had found. It was silver, a beautiful, simple silver locket, most likely belonging to a fisherman’s wife. Next to it was a note:
The aquamarine in the center of this locket symbolizes courage, loyalty, honesty, and beauty. Aquamarines are also considered sacred to Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. Wear this and you will always have a safe voyage. When I found this, I knew that it could belong only to you.
Chapter Thirty-One
Ashton had thrown away the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he had done it for nothing. Honor meant zip to some people. What a freaking fool he was.
“I told you two months ago to get the hell out of my life! I meant it then and I still mean it now.”
“But, baby … we can work this out,” Kalli cried.
“I love that you can say the word baby, Kallista. How can any human being be so despicable as to fake a pregnancy?”
Kalli looked at him with wide eyes. “I just knew we needed more time.”
“Don’t try to sway me with the equally fake tears — you’d probably use the word faux anyway. I wasn’t kidding, Kalli. Get out of here now or I swear you won’t like what happens next.”
Her back straightened and her tears dried up. “What are you going to do, Ashton? Hit me?”
“Oh, no, dear, Kalli. Even if I don’t consider you a real woman, I would never hit a … female.” He wouldn’t call her a lady. “I’ll hit you where it counts — in the media.”