Been There Done That (Leffersbee #1) - Hope Ellis Page 0,52

my breath as he continued toward me, towering over me when he finally came to a stop. I fought the urge to step back from the heat of his body and all the danger he represented. “But I want you to know, I would give it all up if I could turn back the hands of time. If I could find a way to go back so that we were never separated.”

I averted my face, teeth tightly clenched, fighting to stem rising frustration.

He was the one who left. What kind of cop-out was that? It had been in his power to keep his mouth off that redhead. What had stopped him from picking up a phone? Writing a letter? Sending a carrier pigeon?

This supposed regret? I couldn’t buy it. And from the look on his face, he believed what he was saying, which ratcheted up my anger by several hundred degrees.

You have to help him, accommodate him as the hospital’s new partner. For your own good. Keep it together.

Maybe he really did think some cosmic force kept us apart. That it wasn’t just him, wanting to pursue a new love while his old one sat waiting to hear from him.

“I’m proud of you, too, Zora. More than you know. Things didn’t quite turn out the way we thought they would. But you? What you’ve accomplished, your research, the way you help people? It’s nothing short of amazing. I’m blown away by all that you’ve built, and how much your work obviously means to the hospital.”

Maybe this was the moment Leigh thought I needed. Maybe this was what “closure” looked like. Maybe it wasn’t about excavating through all the misdeeds and misremembering until you hit the truth, but more so about telling each other what you needed to hear to keep limping along in life.

And maybe, just maybe, things between us had ended exactly as they should.

Had we stayed together, would he have made these strides? Become what he is today? Would I be the same person or have pursued the same path? Maybe it just hadn’t been meant to be. Maybe we just hadn’t been meant to be.

Perhaps it was just time to accept that.

“I’m beginning to think our paths followed the course fate determined for us, Nick. It’s likely that, in the end, that was for the best.”

Chapter Thirteen

Zora

“Cinderella! You’re finally ditching your commercial pumpkin to fly in a private coach? Thank God you came to your senses.”

Adesola grinned from her seat aboard Nick’s private plane, wine glass in hand, as I boarded the small plane.

I was not at my best and fighting to climb out of an abysmal mood. My interaction with Nick had kicked off an endless cycle of rumination that poisoned any chance at a decent night of sleep. I’d finally caught the thinnest current of sleep but woke up after several hours of tossing and turning to discover I’d overslept.

“I missed my flight,” I groused. “I didn’t have much of choice. I was going to take the next flight out, but Nick’s coordinator happened to call and she said he hadn’t left yet, so . . .”

“So, you’re slumming it back with us.” Adesola made a show of leaning back into the cushion of the seat and let out a throaty purr of pleasure. “Good for you! You know, that’s the benefit of flying private. Travel is arranged around your schedule and not the other way around.”

“Listen to you. You sound like you’ve been doing this all your life.” Carry-on in hand, I surveyed the opulence of the plane’s off-white interior: the sleek lines, the rows of paired white leather seats, the rounded windows easily three times larger than the commercial variety.

Good Lord. This was how Nick lived, how he traveled.

“This is crazy,” I said, casting another bewildered look around.

Adesola grinned again and made a show of tossing the dark fall of her hair over one shoulder. “It is crazy, but I’ve decided I’m worth it. I’ve just got to figure out how I’m going to travel like this from now on.” She took a sip of her wine. “You missed out not flying with us here. We had a ball and I really enjoyed getting to know Nick. He’s a great guy. Funny how you never mentioned him after all this time.”

I shrugged off the weight of gathering irritation. Sure he is. He’s a real prince. “What, I should tell you about all my childhood friends?” I settled my purse and carry-on bag across