“Of course.” His brow was furrowed again.

“Then why,” she asked, scraping up what little patience she had left, “aren’t you doing it inside, where it’s warm?”

Adam blinked. “Because...you don’t want me in your house. Your father’s house.”

He said it as if he were saying the sky was blue. A given. Accepted. It flooded back to her now, that thing that had been all-important to her until the moment when that man had grabbed her.

And Adam came racing to your rescue. Even after you treated him so unfairly.

Now. She had to say her piece now. She shouldn’t have taken this long, nearly a week, but it had been so hard to process, to change the mind-set of the last five years. It was the last thing she felt like doing right now, but she couldn’t let this go on another moment, no matter how tired she was.

She gestured at the space beside her on the couch. “Will you sit down?”

He looked beyond startled. Then wary.

And Amanda hated that she had caused those feelings in him. It was past time to fix that.

Chapter 20

Adam had no idea what was going on, but sitting next to Amanda on the couch where she’d been lying, no doubt still warm from her body, was the last thing he wanted to do just now.

“Please?” she said, and it was so clearly heartfelt he couldn’t say no. But that didn’t mean he had to sit next to her. He didn’t think he could take that. So he went to the chair that sat at right angles to the end of the couch and slowly, reluctantly sat.

“What?” he said, without looking at her.

“I’m so sorry.”

The moment she spoke he wanted to get up again. Wanted to leave, get out of here before she said what he now knew was coming.

“I’ve been so angry at you for so long, and it was all wrong. I was wrong. I made a horrible mistake, and I truly am sorry. I—”

“Amanda—”

She kept going. “But I must say this. Even though I don’t have words for how awful I feel for misjudging you so.” She grimaced. “As if I had any right to judge you at all.”

“If anyone does, it’s you,” he muttered.

“All I can say in my defense is I didn’t know. When they said you were shot in the arm, my brain—no, my emotions—put an ‘only’ in front of it. You would think I’d know better, but... I wasn’t thinking straight at the time.”