“Winter—Catherine…” He loosened his arms and eased back from her until there were inches of space between them. His hands slid down her bare arms as he put her away from him, and his fingers brushed over the gold bangle bracelet on her wrist. He glanced down. His eyes rose swiftly back up to her face, and something lit up in them. “You’re wearing it?”
Cathy refused to reply to his question. “Actually, it’s Catherine Winter.” She didn’t mind that he had stepped back. She badly needed the distance. She was shaking inside with nerves. “And before you say it, no, I don’t think it will be better for me if I just walked away.”
Michael looked stunned. He visibly pulled himself together. “What are you, a mind reader?”
“Well, you’re not all that difficult to read,” she said tartly. “I got to know you… intimately.”
He physically winced. “That was low, even if I deserved it.”
“Love hurts. Bite me.” She saw astonishment spring into his face. Cathy swung around to blindly watch the children at play. She was as stunned as Michael by what had come out of her mouth.
Love hurts. Yes, it does. She knew that perhaps better than most. Yet she had survived. She turned over the words in her mind, examining them with increasing wonder at what had been hidden amongst the debris and confusion in her heart. She had once, and very reluctantly, realized that she had fallen in love with Michael. Then she had thought she hated him. It was a revelation to discover that love had survived. The question was, what did she want now? She could sense Michael staring at her, but she didn’t turn back to him.
Finally, when he spoke, there was disbelief and something that sounded very close to hope coloring his voice. “Are you saying that you can forgive me? For everything that I—for what I did?”
Cathy looked down at the wide gold bangle gleaming round her wrist. “I already have. It’s why I’m wearing the bracelet.” She looked up at him then. There was an incredulous expression on his face. She tried to smile but failed miserably. Her stupid heart began to hammer in an annoying way.
His expression grew somber. “I found out a lot about Winter. But I don’t know much about Catherine,” he said quietly. “I’d like to get to know you, Catherine. Will you let me do that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can,” she said softly.
“I’m not asking for what we had before. I want you to understand that.” Michael tunneled one hand through his crisp dark hair. “I–I just want us to start over, like we just met today. Do you think we can do that?”
Cathy was so tense inside that she felt like she would crack in two. Mindful of what she had learned in therapy, she wanted to be careful not to fall into their old power structure. She wanted a partner, not just a lover, someone to grow old with, not just someone to see for a season of nights. “Maybe.”
He gestured politely down at the bench. Cathy hesitated, but then she went around and sat down. He seated himself at the other end. She appreciated that he was willing to give her some space. Michael shifted uncomfortably on the bench before he turned toward her. His eyes were searching. “I don’t want to rush things. I’d like to take our time.”
“It’s an idea.” She paused. “We could start with coffee. Maybe at an outside café on SoCo.”
Michael nodded and smiled. It was a gentler smile than she had ever seen from him, and it warmed her. There was nothing of the bad-ass, cold-bastard look about it.
He cleared his throat. “Catherine, I’ve been only half alive without you. I love you, you know.”
“This is your idea of taking our time?” she asked incredulously.
“I just wanted it out there. You don’t have to say anything. I’m not expecting you to.”
“That’s good.”
“I don’t know how things will end up, but if it happens for us—if later on—” Breaking off, he shook his head. “I might as well go for broke. If–if you’ll have me, Catherine, I swear to you that I will spend the rest of my life loving you. Chloe is a part of you, and I’ll love her, too.”