Martha leaned forward in her chair, and a muscle twitched in her left eyelid. "Nick," she said quietly, "this isn't like us. I have the feeling that you're not leveling with me. You're not talking to me, Nick, and I feel left out and lonely. I feel abandoned. And I'm furious because we had plans and then you disappeared into thin air. I got what sounded very much like a brush-off from your assistant, and I've been miserable for days. If you'd tell me where you've been and what you've been doing—"
"I can't tell you," he said, more curtly than he'd intended.
"You can't tell me," she repeated slowly in disbelief.
"No."
"Then what am I supposed to think?" Martha shot back. Her face paled and her eyes filled with tears.
He put his hand over her fist, which was clenched on top of the table. "Dear Cheechako, think that I love you and that I'm telling the truth."
His use of the endearment he had coined for her almost melted her cold detachment. She paused for a few seconds to blink the tears from her eyes. "I'll only believe you if you tell me where you were and what you were doing," she said.
"There are parts of my life that I can't talk about," he said, giving her a look that would have drawn blood from a stone.
"That's not good enough," she said. A hard, cold knot was growing where her heart had been.
"I'm afraid it will have to be." Nick hated what he was doing to her, and he hated what he was doing to them as a couple.
"Nick, under the circumstances it's hard for me to believe that you care about me at all," she said.
"I care," he said slowly. "I love you."
"What does that mean to you?" Her eyes were like chips of flint, sharp and cold.
"That I—that I—" He found it difficult to put his feelings for her into words when confronted by her anger.
"I'll tell you what love means to me," Martha said. "It means that we trust one another. It means sharing, Nick—sharing our joys and our sorrows. Our feelings."
"I've shared my feelings," he said evenly.
"Something happened to make you leave town suddenly, and it was important enough so that you'd leave me and our supposed relationship behind. You came back and tell me we can't talk about where you went or what you were doing. This is not communication, Nick."
She stood up. Her eyes were the gray of thunderclouds.
"Martha!"
"I can't eat anything," she said, tossing her napkin down. "I'm sorry." And she walked out.
Kisses in the Rain
Circles of Love Series
Book Two
by
Pamela Browning
~
To purchase
Kisses in the Rain
from your favorite eBook Retailer,
visit Pamela Browning's eBook Discovery Author Page
www.ebookdiscovery.com/PamelaBrowning
~
Discover more with
Pamela is a former newspaper reporter, columnist and feature writer who has written 50 books for adults and children. She's worked as a college public relations guru, an editor, and a cruise lecturer.
Pamela invites you to visit her at:
www.facebook.com/pamelabrowning.author
www.pamelabrowning.com
www.twitter.com/PamelaJBrowning
Table of Contents
Cover
Dedication
Author Note
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Excerpt from KISSES IN THE RAIN (Circles of Love Series, Book 2)
Meet the Author