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Back First Comes Love Save as PDF
Chapters (92)
  1. First
  2. Love Connection
  3. Zero
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. One Month Later
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Six Months Later
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-one
  27. Twenty-two
  28. Twenty-three
  29. Twenty-four
  30. Six Months Later
  31. Twenty-five
  32. Twenty-six
  33. Twenty-seven
  34. Twenty-eight
  35. Twenty-nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-one
  38. Thirty-two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. I Have Never
  41. One
  42. Two
  43. Three
  44. Four
  45. Five
  46. Six
  47. Seven
  48. Eight
  49. Nine
  50. Ten
  51. Eleven
  52. Twelve
  53. Thirteen
  54. Fourteen
  55. Fifteen
  56. Sixteen
  57. Seventeen
  58. Eighteen
  59. Nineteen
  60. Twenty
  61. Twenty-one
  62. Twenty-two
  63. A Christmas Date
  64. One
  65. Two
  66. Three
  67. Four
  68. Five
  69. Six
  70. Seven
  71. Eight
  72. Nine
  73. Ten
  74. Eleven
  75. Twelve
  76. Thirteen
  77. Fourteen
  78. Fifteen
  79. Sixteen
  80. Seventeen
  81. Eighteen
  82. Nineteen
  83. Twenty
  84. Twenty-one
  85. Twenty-two
  86. Note from the Author
  87. Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
  88. Two
  89. Three
  90. Four
  91. Also by Camilla Isley
  92. About the Author

“I thought I was. I wouldn’t have proposed to her otherwise. But I always knew she was second best.” He gives me a long stare, and my stomach does weird things in response. “I care for Sharon, and I’m sorry I just broke her heart in a horrible way. She probably hates me right now. But it was the only thing to do. It’s probably better it happened today than getting a divorce later.”

“So you don’t—”

“I thought it was my turn now.”

“Yeah, it is. Go ahead.”

“Are you moving to California?”

“Oh, wow.” I should’ve remembered that about Jake. He likes direct questions. “I haven’t planned anything yet. This morning I didn’t even know if I was flying here or going to Amelia’s wedding instead. But as I said, I don’t care where I live. I could pass the bar here. It’d take me a while—I hear it’s tough in California, but why not? Would you want me to move here?”

“So you don’t care about your job anymore?”

“It’s not that I don’t care about my job. But I’ve had time to put things into perspective. I’m not an idealist kid fresh out of college who thinks she’ll conquer the world. I love what I do, I’m great at it, and winning a case is still better than sex sometimes.”

Jake raises a skeptical eyebrow at this.

“But in the end, a job is just that: a job. A job doesn’t hug you when you come home at night, a job doesn’t kiss you goodnight, and a job doesn’t tell you about the Fumé Blancs of the world…”

“Oh, I see, so you want me only for my wine expertise,” Jake teases.

Our orders arrive, and we eat in silence for a while. When I can’t stand it anymore, I look up at him.

“My turn again.” I take a deep breath and fire the question I’ve been burning to ask for three years. “Why did you care more about your job than you did about me—about us?”

“I never cared about my career more than I did about you. I just…” He pauses and stares at the sky for a long time before focusing his gray eyes back on me. “I took you for granted. I never thought you’d leave. And when you did… I knew it was wrong to expect you’d always put my needs and my job first. I knew it was my turn to give up something. I would’ve left. For you, of course I would have. You never gave me that chance. You just disappeared…”

“You knew where I was.”

“Yes, I knew. But you completely cutting me out of your life wasn’t exactly encouraging! And… I was mad at you for leaving and never looking back.”