Free Somewhere Only We Know by Barbara Freethy Page A

way through the country." She paused. "Am I boring you yet?"
    "Not at all. Keep going."
    "After Italy, I went to Boston and got a job in a restaurant there for a couple of years. Then it was on to New York where I worked as a sous chef. I was doing that when I ran into you in Times Square four years ago. It was a good job, but the restaurant changed hands and the new owner brought in his own staff, so I was sent packing. I left New York and headed for India."
    "Why India? Wait—it was on the bucket list."
    "Yes, it was. Dani and I had always talked about India. It seemed like a romantic and exotic place. So I went to New Delhi and learned how to do yoga and make every kind of curry imaginable."
    Burke shook his head, amazement in his eyes. "You're a gypsy."
    "I was a gypsy. I liked traveling, meeting new people, trying new things. Every day was an adventure. But after I passed thirty and then thirty-one, I started to feel like it was time to do something else." She took another bite of her sandwich, remembering how indecisive she'd felt. "After leaving India, I wanted to try somewhere else that was new, so I went to Las Vegas. You know the rest."
    He nodded, tilting his head to the right as he gave her a thoughtful look.
    "What?" she asked.
    "Las Vegas wasn't a random choice. It was the last place on the list, wasn't it?"
    She shifted a little uncomfortably under his piercing gaze. "Maybe."
    "No maybe about it. You ran out of Dani's dreams."
    "Not just Dani's dreams; mine, too," she reminded him. "I wasn't living her life. I was living the things we'd talked about together. It's important for you to get that."
    "I get that, but like you said before, you wouldn’t have done some of those things if you hadn't done them for her."
    "That's true, but it was good I did them, because every experience was life-changing in some way—even the bad ones."
    "Was getting a husband on the list? Having children? Buying a house with a white picket fence?"
    She frowned, seeing where he was going with his questions and not wanting to go there with him, but she also didn't see any point in lying about it. "Dani and I did put those on the list."
    "That's why you got engaged after two months," he said with a satisfied nod, as if he'd just figured everything out. "You wanted to check the final items off the list. It was time to settle down, get married, have kids."
    "That is not why I got engaged, Burke. I fell in love."
    "Did you, Maddie?"
    "Yes. Why would you doubt that?"
    "There was something in your eyes when you said you hit thirty and thirty-one and felt like it was time to settle down somewhere."
    "Everyone feels that way when they hit their thirties. Didn't you get engaged around thirty-one?"
    "We're talking about you."
    "Aren't we done talking about me?" she asked, a little exasperated with his intense questions.
    "Not yet."
    "What do you want from me, Burke?"
    "I want you to admit that Paul was another checkmark on the bucket list."
    "I'm not going to admit that. I wouldn't have gone that far," she said, frowning at the thought. Had Paul been part of her drive to complete the bucket list?
    "You don't sound that convinced, Maddie."
    She sighed. "The truth is—I don't really know anymore. I thought I loved Paul. He was one of those relationships that started out fast and hot and you don't stop to think, at least I didn't. I should have been more careful, but I wasn't. It all feels like a bad dream now."
    "I'll bet. You know what I think?"
    "I'm pretty sure you're going to tell me," she said dryly.
    "I think you were starting to panic. The bucket list was running out. The dreams of a fourteen-year-old girl ended at falling in love, getting married. No one thinks beyond that point as a teenager. You didn't know what to do with the rest of your life; you'd reached the end of the book that had been driving your decisions for more than a decade. Maybe you were in love with Paul. Maybe he just wasn't the right one. But putting all that aside,