No Stranger to Scandal - By Rachel Bailey Page 0,49
the rest of my life. Only until Josh is older. And I wouldn’t always be alone. Just never married again.”
She looked out at the view of the town below. “That’s still sad.”
With a finger, he turned her face back to him. “You only think it’s sad because you have such a good heart.”
“You have a good heart, too,” she said, but there seemed to be more behind her words. Was she having second thoughts about ending their arrangement? Perhaps this sympathy was Lucy’s way of telling him he didn’t have to be alone, that she wanted things to continue. His chest constricted painfully. He couldn’t let her start thinking that way, let her be set up for disappointment.
“Maybe once I had a good heart,” he said carefully, needing her to understand this. “But it’s jaded now. Yours is fresh and pure—” he laid a hand over her chest and could feel her heartbeat “—far too pure to be polluted by someone like me. I hate to admit it, but the sooner I’m out of your life, the better for you. Though I can’t deny I’ll miss you like crazy once I’m gone.”
“I’ll miss you, too.” She drew in a long breath. “Maybe if I’m up in New York—”
“No.” Though he flinched as he said it. “The cleaner the cut, the better. Remember our rules? No emotional entanglement, just physical. If we let it linger, it’ll turn into something neither of us wanted. Something that might become bitter, and I don’t want anything to tarnish the memories I’m taking of you.”
“I’ll cherish these memories forever,” she said, and he could see her eyes glistening in the moonlight.
Unable to help himself, he kissed her again, pulling her flush along his body in the moonlight, wanting to create as many memories as he could before the inevitable moment their time expired.
* * *
Lucy and Judith carried the dessert plates into the kitchen an hour later. “Thank you for inviting us. It’s been lovely to see you.”
Judith pulled her into a hug. “I wish we saw you more.” After long moments, she released her and began piling the plates up. “Shame that man of yours is so dead set against marriage.”
“He’s not my man,” Lucy said and turned the tap on to rinse out the wineglasses.
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He’s yours, even if it’s just for now. Besides, you had no lipstick left when you came in from the garden.”
Without thinking, Lucy touched two fingertips to her lips, then dropped them when she saw Judith’s knowing smile. Lucy shut the tap off and leaned back on the bench to face her aunt. “It’s temporary. Even if he was interested in anything longer term, with the way people treat me, the expectations they have of me because of Daddy and Graham, the last thing I need is an older man who’s already well connected and wealthy. They’ll think I’ve taken the easy route again, found someone to look after me.”
“Maybe,” Judith said and scraped some scraps into the bin. “But I like him.”
“I like him, too.” Lucy bit down on her bottom lip. It was the first time she’d admitted to herself or anyone that she really did like Hayden. Maybe she was even coming to love him. But defining her feelings was a pointless exercise—no matter how she felt, their fling would end soon.
Judith smiled at her. “The one thing I’ve learned over the years about relationships is that liking each other enough is all that matters.” She tucked some of Lucy’s hair behind her ear then rubbed her arm. “It’s all that matters.”
Lucy smiled back, but didn’t reply. From where Judith stood—thirty-two years into a happy marriage with her college sweetheart—things might seem that simple. But for the rest of the world, relationships were complicated, messy things that sometimes had luck on their side and sometimes didn’t.
Maybe if she’d met Hayden in ten years’ time, things would have worked out better for them—she’d have already established herself, would know who she was without being surrounded by strong men, and Hayden would have an eleven-year-old son and be more relaxed about having a woman in his life. Their age difference might not matter so much if they were thirty-two and forty-two instead of twenty-two and thirty-two. But things were what they were, and wishing for them to be different wasn’t going to help her when it was time for Hayden and Josh to leave D.C.
* * *
Four days later, with