“That’s different, because you started on a foundation, a solid one, and built from there. These past few months I’ve been working to earn a place here. I have earned it. But it’s different.”

“Okay, maybe it is. But you and I started on the same ground, Nell, when it comes to what we were making together.”

Were making, she thought. Not are making. If this was his line she could stand where she was, keep on her side of it, or take the first step over.

It wasn’t any harder, she decided, than driving off a cliff.

“I was with a man, for three years, I was with a man who hurt me. Not just the slaps and the shoves. Those kinds of bruises don’t last. But others do.”

She had to let out a little breath to ease the pressure in her chest. “He systematically chipped away at my confidence, my self-esteem, my courage and my choices, and he did it so skillfully they were gone before I realized what was happening. It’s not easy to rebuild those things, and I’m still working on it. Coming here, just walking over here tonight took everything I’ve managed to store up. I shouldn’t have gotten involved with you, and I didn’t intend to. But something about being here, and about being with you, made me feel normal again.”

“That’s the start of a fine speech. Why don’t you sit down and just talk to me.”

“I did what I had to do to get away from him. I’m not going to apologize for it.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“I’m not going into the details.” She turned away, leaned on the rail and stared out at the night-dark sea. “I’ll tell you it was like living in a pit that got deeper and deeper and colder and colder. Whenever I tried to crawl out, he was right there.”

“But you found a way.”

“I won’t go back. Whatever I have to do, wherever I have to run, I won’t go back. So I’ve lied, and deceived. I’ve broken the law. And I’ve hurt you.” She turned back. “The only thing I’m sorry for is the last.”

She said it defiantly, almost furiously as she stood with her back to the rail and her hands in white-knuckled fists.

Terror and courage, he thought, dragging at each other inside her. “Did you think I wouldn’t understand?”