Tea and Primroses Read Online Free PDF Page B

sorrow. A shiver went through her.
    His eyes moved to her as he came closer. She met him halfway. His arms wrapped around her. She was only a couple of inches shorter than he in her heeled sandals. Her face was against his neck and he smelled of spicy cologne and shaving cream. She began to cry, right there in his arms, with Patrick Waters behind them and all the guests talking in hushed voices in huddled corners and servers in crisp white aprons passing around the bacon-wrapped dates on trays.
     
     
     

C HAPTER T HREE
    SUTTON FELT DECLAN TIGHTEN HIS GRIP as he spoke quietly into her ear. “Let’s talk somewhere privately. Okay?”
    “Yes,” she whispered into his neck.
    He led her into her mother’s office, his arm around her shoulders. “Sit here. Do you need water?”
    She shook her head as he sat with her on the padded bench with the pink flowers near the west facing window, the same one they’d sat on as children when they came home from school.
    How was your day, my munchkins? Constance would ask them.
    “I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. The flights and layovers were a nightmare.” Declan rubbed under his eyes. “God, it’s strange to be here. Everything’s the same, though. Isn’t it?” He looked around the office. It was decorated in shades of sea grass, with white furniture and soft throw carpets over the hardwood floors. Constance had spent her days writing at the large white desk, neatly organized, her dark blue notebook where she scribbled notes sitting cockeyed near her keyboard.
    “She kept things mostly the same, redecorating once in a while. But you know how she was. Never wanted her writing routine interrupted.” She rested her head on his shoulder for a moment. “Thank you for coming.”
    He turned to look at her, his cheek in his hand. His eyes, the color of an evening sky just before stars appear, were bloodshot. “It doesn’t seem possible she’s gone.” His face crumpled, and the tears, like a leaking faucet, ran down his cheeks. He swiped at them with the back of his hand. “God, I’ve cried so much my eyes are stinging.”
    “Me too.” She touched the side of his face. I’ve missed you , she thought. So very much.
    He covered her hand with his. “I wouldn’t have ever considered not being here. I hope you know that, in spite of everything.”
    Like something warm on a cold day, she felt the rush of goodness, of necessity, of wanting. Him. Only Declan would do. “Do you want to stay here? Or, you could stay with me at my place. It’s kind of small but you could sleep on the couch.”
    “I’ll stay here.” He paused. “In the guest room.”
    “Well, if you change your mind the invitation is open.”
    He reached for a lock of her hair. “You’re beautiful. I didn’t think it was possible for you to get prettier.”
    She touched her fingertips to the soft skin under her eyes. “I’m a mess. Keep crying my makeup off.”
    “You don’t need it. Never did.”
    “Do you have to go back to Italy?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “You know why.”
    She went to window. “She asked us to spread her ashes in the waves—or the sea foam, as she put it. Just you and me.” Sutton smiled, feeling the tears coming again. “Only Mother would call it sea foam instead of just plain old waves.”
    He joined her at the window. Looking out, he pointed toward the water. “I guess she can join my mom there. Reunited, right?”
    Sutton started to cry again, trying to control the ache in her chest but the tears kept coming. He pulled her into his arms. They were strong and she let herself rest in them. After the tears stopped, she looked up at him. “I guess this means we’re orphans now.”
    “I guess it does.” He picked up her hand. Sutton’s diamond engagement ring caught the light. His eyes went wide and he dropped her hand and moved away from her, perching on the side of her mother’s desk.
    “Didn’t Mom tell you?”
    “Yeah, she wrote me.