He wondered if she realized that the more simply she described it, the more poignant it sounded. “You said the dive shop was a gamble.”

“Everything’s a gamble. If I’d stayed at the hotel, I never would have been able to give Faith what I wanted to give her. And I suppose I’d have felt cheated myself. Would you like some more?”

“No.” He rose to take the bowls himself while he thought out how to approach her. If he said the wrong thing, she’d pull away again. The more she told him, the more he found he needed to know. “Where did you learn to dive?”

“Right here in Cozumel, when I was just a little older than Faith.” As a matter of habit she began to store the leftovers while Jonas ran water in the sink. “My parents brought me. I took to it right away. It was like, I don’t know, learning to fly I suppose.”

“Is that why you came back?”

“I came back because I’d always felt peaceful here. I needed to feel peaceful.”

“But you must have still been in school in the States.”

“I was in college.” Crouching, Liz shifted things in the refrigerator to make room. “My first year. I was going to be a marine biologist, a teacher who’d enlighten class after class on the mysteries of the sea. A scientist who’d find all the answers. It was such a big dream. It overwhelmed everything else to the point where I studied constantly and rarely went out. Then I—” She caught herself. Straightening slowly, she closed the refrigerator. “You’ll want the lights on to do those dishes.”

“Then what?” Jonas demanded, taking her shoulder as she hit the switch.

She stared at him. Light poured over them without the shifting shadows of candles. “Then I met Faith’s father, and that was the end of dreams.”

The need to know eclipsed judgment. He forgot to be careful. “Did you love him?”

“Yes. If I hadn’t, there’d have been no Faith.”

It wasn’t the answer he’d wanted. “Then why are you raising her alone?”

“That’s obvious, isn’t it?” Anger surged as she shoved his hand aside. “He didn’t want me.”

“Whether he did or didn’t, he was responsible to you and the child.”

“Don’t talk to me about responsibility. Faith’s my responsibility.”

“The law sees things otherwise.”

“Keep your law,” she snapped. “He could quote it chapter and verse, and it didn’t mean a thing. We weren’t wanted.”

“So you let pride cut you off from your rights?” Impatient with her, he stuck his hands in his pockets and strode back to the sink. “Why didn’t you fight for what you were entitled to?”