Page 33 of All The Wrong Notes
After a time—a few seconds? Minutes?—they pulled apart, and Will glanced around the living room. Elise seemed to be alone, but the two paper cups from the local coffee shop and a bag that bore the traces of flaky pastry on the low coffee table suggested she’d already had company this morning.
He sniffed. Cherry and cream cheese. Gwen, damn her.
“I’m so sorry!” He repeated the words. “I know what you must think… I can explain.”
She pulled him to the couch, where they collapsed together, not willing to break the physical contact. Elise broke the moment of silence.
“The bank called, just a few minutes ago. It’s all over. The money is back. I’m more shocked now than when they’d told me it was gone. I know how it looked. You do believe I didn’t take it?” Was that a question or a statement?
“Of course you didn’t. I never doubted you.”
“You weren’t there… When I tried to call, I didn’t know what to do. I thought you must hate me. Everything you told me about what happened ten years ago must have come back to you. You must have thought I did what Kevin did.”
He pulled her closer. “Never.”
“But it was just a banking error, a computer glitch. That’s what Ms Singh said.”
He was silent.
“But that’s not true, is it? It’s a handy excuse, but it doesn’t work that way. They would have found the problem before now. Will, what happened? What really happened?”
His fingers toyed with the ends of her tresses where they curled loosely over her shoulder.
“If Ms Singh said—”
“You said you trust me. Trust me on this. Please. I need to know the truth.”
Her brown eyes met his, and he was lost. If the last three weeks hadn’t been so traumatic for everyone, Will would almost think her to be overplaying things, but he knew she still hurt a great deal, even after the return of the funds. She’d been shaken to the core, and he had been part of it, as much as he wished otherwise. He couldn’t lie to her now.
“Do I need to yell at my sister about this? My nose tells me she’s been here, and she’s terrible at keeping out of other people’s business.” Honestly, how she even knew was beyond him, but that was Gwen.
Now Elise was quiet.
“I know it was her. You promised her you wouldn’t rat on her, right? She bribed you with pastry.”
A nod. “But I still need to know.”
And so, he told her.
CHAPTER 14
WILL’S TALE
Where should he begin?
He began with the most important thing.
“I missed you,” he stated. “Every single day we were apart, I wished I could just come and find you and take you somewhere away from this horrible mess. It was almost a physical pain. My arms hurt without you in them.”
“Why couldn’t you? I really thought you wanted nothing more to do with me.”
Elise curled her arms around herself and tucked her knees close to her chest, a defensive pose if ever he had seen one. The desire to pull her towards him and kiss away all her tears was overwhelming, but that would have to wait. She deserved to know, despite his earlier insistence to the contrary. Love meant respect, and that meant putting everything out in the open.
“I didn’t want to tell you this. You’ve never asked me to donate to the arts centre.”
She nodded. “You’re more than a bank account. I didn’t want you to think I was after your money.”
“I wanted to donate, regardless. It’s a fabulous cause, and Gwen has become passionate about it, too. But I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want you to think I was somehow buying your affection.”