Free As If You Never Left Me (Crimson Romance) by Katriena Knights

ability to shrug off a deeply emotional situation and just move on.
    Or was it? If he could really shrug things off so easily, what had been the point of his reading the letters? If he could shrug off the pain, he never would have written them in the first place.
    Unable to concentrate anymore on the sketches, she found herself looking at the empty shoebox. Finally, she picked it up, took off the lid. There was nothing left inside. She wasn’t sure what she’d thought she might find.
    “I don’t think it was the greatest idea.”
    She jumped at the sound of Rey’s voice and looked up. He was watching her, frowning. He looked sad.
    “You think we should have left well enough alone?” she asked.
    “Quite likely.”
    She put the lid back on the box. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. Isn’t that the kind of thing a therapist might tell you to do?”
    “How the hell should I know? I’m a lawyer.” His eyes narrowed as he studied her. The perusal, detached and non-sexual as it was, made her warm. “Let’s try something else.”
    “I’m game.”
    “Good. The letters have been burned and obliterated — let’s say right now that everything associated with them has been, too. All that baggage, all that ugly past. We’re starting all fresh. Like — ” He paused, then pointed out the window. “Like out there. All the imperfections of the world made right by a layer of snow. Everything smooth and pure and even.”
    The image appealed to her. “Square one?”
    “Square one.”
    “Which means?”
    “That I intend to romance you like you’ve never been romanced before. You were worth pursuing the first time — I’m sure you’re equally worth pursuing again.”
    She smiled. It actually didn’t sound like a bad idea. “Then I look forward to being pursued.”
    • • •
    Well. Now he was going to have to follow through. Like most ideas, it had seemed like a good one at the time. But how was he supposed to romance her in this tiny house, where they couldn’t get more than a few yards from each other? Plus, he was at a disadvantage since it was unfamiliar territory.
    He considered waiting until tomorrow. Joely had assured him they’d be able to get out of the house in the morning. If he waited, he’d have more resources available to him. But he also would have missed out on his first opportunity to date his wife.
    His wife. He hadn’t thought about her that way in a long time. His ex-wife, yes, until he’d found out he wasn’t really divorced or even close to it. Then he’d come up with several rather uncharitable epithets, until he’d finally just started thinking of her as Joely again. Right now, he felt much as he had during their early courtship. She was a beautiful woman. He sensed a connection that made his body hard and wanting. But he wasn’t sure he knew her yet, certainly not as well as he wanted to.
    She had disappeared into her bedroom about fifteen minutes ago. Stymied in his romantic pursuits, he decided to check on her.
    Peeking around her door, he found her sitting at a small desk looking at spreadsheets on her computer. From what he saw, the data looked good. He watched for a moment while she frowned at the screen, adjusted a few numbers, changed them back, muttered to herself, then combed her fingers through her hair in what looked like frustration. He didn’t think it was, though. Just absorption, more likely, a thought-gathering gesture. He took a step forward, not quite into the bedroom, then paused, hearing the rumbling of a vehicle outside.
    Joely turned at the sound. Seeing Rey, she lifted her eyebrows questioningly.
    “Is that your snowplow?” he asked.
    “Sounds like it.”
    “I’ll go check things out.”
    “I don’t think that’s really necessary.”
    Rey shrugged. “Never know. He might need some help.”
    She grinned, obviously unable to imagine what he could possibly do to help Joe or Roy or Rob or whatever his name was plow the driveway. She was