She didn't want to ask, but had to. "When will you be leaving?"


Lance didn't answer for a while. He was inordinately busy twisting a tie around the top of the garbage bag and placing it near the back door to be taken out in the morning. "We're shaking down all our stuff tonight. I have a few loose ends to tie up. If not tomorrow, probably the next day. You? "


Erin looked away. She took off the apron she had put around her waist and hung it on a peg in the pantry. "I don't know. I was planning to stay a few days with Melanie, but now ..." Her voice trailed off to nothing.


When she turned around, he was standing close to her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently massaged the tense cords of her neck. "You're exhausted," he whispered solicitously. "I've got to gather up some papers in the living room. I'll lock up when i leave. You go on upstairs."


It was a dismissal. She hadn't really known what to expect from him, but she thought it would have been more than a good night one would have given a kid sister.


Just as she reached the door going into the hallway, he said, "Erin?" Her heart thudded with joy and she whirled around to face him. He wasn't even looking at her. Instead, he was staring out the window. "Yes?" Lance, turn around! her heart screamed.


"If you need anything during the night, pick up the red telephone. We won't disconnect it until the morning."


That was it? That was all he had to say?


"Okay," she responded despondently and trudged up the stairs.


She got ready for bed mechanically, taking no interest in what she was doing. When she climbed interest in what she was doing. When she climbed between the sheets, the bed, the room, the house felt as cold and empty as her heart.


It all makes sense, Erin, she chided herself. After all, what had she expected? He was on a job. Tomorrow that job would be completed. He would go back to Washington and await his next assignment. Erin O'Shea would probably be mentioned in the dossier he would turn in, and sometimes in the future he might fondly recall her, but he would soon forget their shared passion. His memory of his face would wane.


***


simply heartwrenching . ):


copyrighted Sandra Brown, of course .
11:58 AM
♥クラリス～☆˚