Crossroad to Love (Fab Five Series) - By Anna Kristell Page 0,63

with each kiss, each caress, the past slipped further and further away and the two became as one, the future belonging to them once again.

With one last, tender kiss goodnight, Angie quietly went back to her suite to finish her vacation, truly happy for the first time in fifteen years.

Meanwhile, in another suite down the hall, Jon and Marianne were glaring at each other. They had been in the suite for over half an hour and had gotten nowhere.

Finally, Jon spoke again, “I guess I need to start at the beginning. We have got to get it all out in the open. I won’t let you throw us away over something like a colossal misunderstanding such as this.”

“It seems to me that you are the one who did that,” Marianne answered coldly.

“I deserve that. Call it stupidity. A few months ago, this cute, young lab tech started flirting around with me. I ignored her from the start. I’m a busy man and I don’t have time for that sort of thing. You know that. One thing led to another. She was always finding excuses to come by the office or to call me. One night, in the lab, she cornered me and kissed me. I don’t know what I was thinking or why I let it happen, but I did. It happened so quickly, but I immediately drew away from her. I felt guilty, but was flattered at the same time. Let’s face it, I’m no dashing young doctor anymore. She could have had any number of young guys falling all over her, but she wanted me. It made me feel young again. But it never went any further than the one kiss and it never would have. I love my wife.”

“Don’t try to defend yourself. You failed to tell me any of this.”

“I’m not defending myself. I am just trying to tell you what happened. I’m trying to come clean here, to be honest. I guess I should have done that a long time ago.”

“It might have been easier to swallow if I hadn’t heard it from Julie, of all people.”

“We all know Julie is bitter after her failed marriage. She made it sound worse than it was, I’m sure.”

“Go on with your little tale of woe. I want to hear the rest of it, Casanova.”

Jon sighed. “Anyway, that is pretty much all there is to it. She wouldn’t leave me alone. I was annoyed and reported her actions, resulting in a transfer for her. That didn’t stop her and she must have somehow found out I was coming here tonight so that she could show up and cause a scene. That’s when you must have walked into the lobby. If you had stuck around a few minutes longer, you would have seen me escorting her out the door so that security could deal with her.

Marianne winced at his words. I’ve been a damn fool.

Jon went on, “The night Julie saw us at the lab was the night of the kiss. It had to be, since that’s all there ever was. Of all people to walk into the lab at that particular moment, it had to be her. There again, if she had stuck around a few minutes longer, she would have seen me pull away and would have heard me giving Jennifer an earful.”

“I have agonized for months over this. If you had told me what was going on, it would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights, and glasses of wine. I guess I’m at fault too, though. I could have confronted you about it months ago, instead of keeping it all bottled up inside, hoping it would go away.”

“So that’s why I came home so many nights to find you passed out on the sofa with a half-drunk bottle of wine on the table, you wino,” he teased as he pulled her close for a kiss.

Marianne was back where she belonged. In the arms of the husband who loved her. She returned the kiss, relieved to finally know the truth.

When they came up for air, Jon continued, “I suggested to Jennifer tonight that it might be a good idea for her to find a job in another town if she couldn’t stay away from me. Hopefully, she has finally gotten the message. Rest assured, I’ll call the hospital first thing tomorrow morning and report what happened tonight. I have sufficient grounds to do that and she’ll probably lose her job this time. And if that