it hit her injured foot. Her face was already squinched in anticipation.
“Doesn’t hurt much, huh?”
She shrugged. “Not like it did yesterday. Honest. I think it’s kind of numb.”
He’d had football injuries like that. After the initial excruciating pain, things settled into a rhythmic throb, which led to a dull ache and eventually numbness. He pumped the flashlight and focused the beam on her foot. “The masking tape’s holding up well considering all the dust.” Though it had started to loosen in some areas and fray in others. “If it’ll last a few more hours, I’m sure we’ll be out of here.”
“I couldn’t stand sitting here in the dark any longer.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “I got so desperate, I crawled out and took some more shots of the spiders.”
“You what?” He never dreamed she’d take such a chance. “We don’t know if they’re poisonous, and we sure as hell don’t want to find out the hard way. I told you to stay out of there.”
“I didn’t get close to them. I used my longest lens. But if you go out again, I’m going to go, too—even if I have to hop alongside you.”
The image eased his irritation and made him chuckle. “Well, I don’t want you to do that, and I am pretty tired.” The muscles in his calves started to cramp. He took off his boots and stretched his legs by holding his toes and pulling back. The muscles loosened and relaxed. “Do you want to play cards?”
“No.”
“Dominoes?”
“No.” She sighed. “I just want to talk.”
The way she spoke so solemnly jarred him. “Okay, we’ll talk.” He watched her take a deep breath. What did she want to say that was so difficult?
“You were right about what you said yesterday.” She paused. “I was far beyond clingy. Insisting we have every class together our senior year. Planning every class at Harvard together. Wanting you with me to the point you never had time with your friends. I held you way too tight, and I’m sorry.”
She had understood what he said yesterday. He was glad they’d cleared the air. Now maybe they could remain on friendly terms. “It’s okay.” He shrugged, and his shoulders ached at the slight move. “We were young, and it was first love, which comes with a huge learning curve.”
“What really bothers me, though, is how much I thought I loved you, yet how self-absorbed I was. I was so wrapped up in my cocoon of self-pity, I never thought about the pressure you were under or how much you were hurting. Basically, I guess your dad was right. I wasn’t good for you.”
The conversation had taken a serious turn that Chance wasn’t up for. The mention of his dad reminded him of his failure today and how much work was piling up at the office. He rubbed his shoulders, trying to ease the tension. “Young love’s tough. My biggest regret is breaking up with you with no warning. It had to have been a shock.”
“Yeah, but if I’d been warned, I would have talked you out of it.” Her laugh held a bitterness that made him cringe. “It was the only way for you to break free of my hold.”
They were silent for a while, and then she cocked her head. “Do you regret that we had sex so young?”
“Not at all.” He shook his head and felt the movement deep in his shoulders.
“Neither do I.”
He smiled and gave her a wink. She winked back.
“Do you think about him a lot?”
Chance closed his eyes, running back through the conversation to locate the him. “My dad?”
“Hank,” she whispered.
Phantom pain shot through his heart, imagined, but somehow real. “Yeah.” His breath caught. “Every day.”
* * *
WHEN CHANCE’S VOICE BROKE, Kyndal felt it in her throat. All day long, she’d been softening toward him…playing yesterday’s confession over and over in her mind as she sat motionless in the dark. He had loved her, truly and deeply.
“You were my everything,” he’d said.
Like water had eroded the walls of the cave thousands of years ago, those words started eroding the protective covering around her heart. She felt it open toward this man she’d worked for nine years to keep out, felt it reaching out to him in sympathy.
His body was a study in anguish: furrowed brow, tightened jaw, hunched shoulders, fisted hands. God, he’d worked so hard today. He needed to relax.
And she needed a reason to touch him.
Kneeling, she eased around behind him, careful not