Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON 225
Suddenly furious, he got out of bed. “You don’t get
it, do you?”
“No, I don’t. And I won’t if you don’t tell me.”
John was still stunned. He’d been thinking about this
all day, feeling something he hadn’t in a long time:
hope. And it had blown up in his face.
“So we’re down to show-and-tell or bye-bye?”
Fiona still looked sad, but also resolute and composed.
She wasn’t wavering. She wasn’t torn. “John, it’s not that
simple. I have a commitment to be in that classroom
Wednesday. I can’t walk out on Willamette Prep with no
notice even if I want to. It’s unrealistic for you to ask me.
And you know I’m working on my master’s degree at
Portland U. Am I just supposed to forget that, too?”
“You could finish the year out…”
“Do you intend to stay here forever?” Her eyes were
clear and entirely too perceptive. “Never work again in
robotics?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go back…”
“How can you, if you can hardly bear to go into
Danson?”
“Time heals. Isn’t that what they all say?”
“Is that what the veterans’ hospital counselor said?”
He didn’t answer.
“I didn’t think so.” There it was again, something
very like grief in her voice. In just above a whisper, she
said, “I was falling in love with you, too. If only…”
John didn’t let her finish, interjecting harshly, “I
could be the man I used to be?”
“No. If only you’d take your courage in your hands
and work toward being the man you can be.”