She ran her finger around the rim. “I learned a hard lesson,” she said after a minute. “Reporting isn’t just about presenting the majority point of view.”

He lifted his eyes to hers. “Life teaches very hard lessons.”

“Yes, it does.” She drew in a breath. “I guess you’re selling the house.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Excuse me?”

“I saw a truck go out there yesterday. And I read that you’re working with some international police force now. So since Sara’s living in Wyoming, I assumed you’d probably be moving up there near her. For when you’re home in the States, I mean.”

“I’d considered it,” he said after a minute. He sipped more coffee.

She wondered if her heart could fall any deeper into her chest. She wondered how in the world he’d gotten into the house so silently. She wondered why he was there in the first place. Was he saying goodbye?

“Did you find the keys to the Jag?” she asked.

“Yes. You didn’t want to keep it?”

She swallowed hard. “Too many bad memories, of what I did to you and Sara,” she confessed heavily.

He shook his head. After a minute, he stared at her bent head. “I don’t think you’ve really looked at me once,” he said finally.

She managed a tight smile. “It’s very hard to do that, after all the trouble I caused you,” she said. “I rehearsed it, you know. Saying I was sorry. Working up all sorts of ways to apologize. But there really isn’t a good way to say it.”

“People make mistakes.”

“The kind I made could have buried you.” She said it tautly, fighting tears. It was harder than she’d imagined. She forced down the rest of the coffee. “Look, I’ve got things to do,” she began, standing, averting her face so he couldn’t see her eyes.

“Ma belle,” he whispered, in a voice so tender that her control broke the instant she heard it. She burst into tears.

He scooped her up in his arms and kissed her so hungrily that she just went limp, arching up to him, so completely his that she wouldn’t have protested anything he wanted to do to her.

“So it’s like that, is it?” he whispered against her soft, trembling mouth. “Anything I want? Anything at all?”

“Anything,” she wept.

“Out of guilt?” he asked, and there was an edge to his tone now.

She opened her wet eyes and looked into his. “Out of...love,” she choked.

“Love.”

“Go ahead. Laugh...”