Free Tainted Love (Sweetest Taboo #2) by Eva Márquez Page B

friends willing to tell her that Mr. Stevens hadn’t been completely faithful to her while she had been away at college. With any luck, I could be the force that ends the relationship before it goes to far, if it hasn’t already.

Chapter Six - Here With Me
     
    I decided not to think any more about Tony or what he may or may not have seen. After all, talking to him on the phone hadn’t given me any real insight, and what was the point in worrying over something that might be nothing at all? If Tony had seen us, surely he would have said something by now. Or he would have called my mother, who would definitely have said something. I hadn’t heard anything from anyone, and I took that to mean I was in the clear.
    Besides, we were coming to the end of our honeymoon period. I only had a few more days before I was due back in DC for that internship, and the time was passing quickly. I didn’t want to darken our last moments together with despair and sadness. Tom and I awoke on our last day and headed down to the dining room for breakfast. It was the same thing we’d done for the last two weeks – same dining room, same decorations, even the same menu – but this morning it felt different. The sun was shining less brightly, I thought, and the waitress didn’t look quite as welcoming. Did she know that today was our last day? They must have wondered how long we would stay, and what we were doing there. Although Westlake was a pretty enough town, it certainly wasn’t a vacation destination. I wondered now if they thought we were suspicious at all. As I looked around the restaurant, trying to memorize everything about it, I felt as though people were staring at us. Certainly they had a reason to look – we’d just come in, after all. But were they noticing us for the first time, wondering what a twenty-year old was doing with a man in his late thirties?
    I ducked my head and rushed toward our usual table, reprimanding myself for letting my imagination get out of control. I was just being overly dramatic because of my emotions, that was all. Tony had made me nervous, and now I was letting it ruin my last morning, despite my best intentions. Tom followed me, with a questioning look on his face.
    “Are you okay, Isabel?” he asked quietly when we were seated. “You seem…” His voice faded off as he tried to think of an adjective for my mood, and I waited. “Unsettled,” he finally finished.
    I nodded. “I’m just sad that it’s our last day together, and it’s coloring my mood,” I answered. Although I tried to conceal my apprehension, I wasn’t sure Tom bought it at all. In fact I was sure that he hadn’t. He’d always known me better than anyone else, and had been very adept at reading my moods. He probably could have listed every emotion I was feeling this very moment, if I’d asked him to. The thought brought a rush of affection with it, and I almost started to tear up. I wasn’t ready to leave him.
    He nodded in response, and was quiet for a moment. “I know what you mean,” he finally said. “I know you have to go back to school, and get on with the rest of your life. I know it’s the best thing, and we have to deal with it, but I don’t know how I’ll stand it. Getting to spend these two weeks with you has been amazing, a dream come true actually, and now you’re going to go away again, and I don’t know what I’ll do. I feel…lost.”
    I looked at him closely. I was upset over leaving him, and I thought he was probably upset too, but a part of me didn’t believe it. I wondered how upset he really was. I’d caught him on the phone again two days earlier, having a hushed conversation with someone. He’d hung up as soon as he saw me, without saying goodbye. It certainly wasn’t the reaction of an innocent man, and it had made me suspect him even more. I don’t know why it bothered me so much though, knowing what I was about to return to when I got back to my other life in DC.
    Even worse,