Sanctuary

shopping.”
    “By myself?”
    “Take your sister, take a friend.”
    “I can’t think of anyone I less want to spend the day with than Jo. And I don’t have any friends. Ginny’s gone.”
    He didn’t need to see the tears flood her eyes to know that was the root of the problem and the greatest source of her newest discontent. There was nothing he could do about it, just as there was nothing he could do about the raw spot in his own heart since Ginny’s disappearance.
    “If you want me to go, you have to wait till Saturday. I’ll get the weekend clear. We can book a hotel room, and I’ll take you out for a fancy dinner.”
    “You don’t understand anything!” She thumped a fist on his shoulder as she sprang to her feet. “Saturday’s not today, and I’ll go crazy if I don’t get away from here. Why won’t you make time for me? Why won’t you just make time?”
    “I’m doing my best.” Even his patience could wear thin. Giff picked up the nail gun and shot a bolt home.
    “You can’t even stop work and pay attention for five minutes. You just shuffle me in between jobs. And now a stupid porch is more important than being with me.”
    “I gave my word on the porch.” He rose and, hefting a new board, laid it across the sawhorse to measure. “I keep my word, Lexy. You still want to go to Savannah on the weekend, I’ll take you. That’s the best I can do.”
    “It’s not good enough.” She jerked her chin up. “And I’m sure I won’t have any trouble finding someone who’d be happy to take me today.”
    He scraped his pencil over the board to make his mark, then looked up at her with cool, narrowed eyes. He recognized the threat, and the very real possibility that she’d make good on it. “No, you won’t,” he said in calm, measured tones. “And that will be up to you.”
    It was like a slap. She’d expected him to rage, to have a jealous fit and tell her exactly what he’d do if she looked at another man. Then they could have had a loud, satisfying fight before she’d let him drag her into the empty house for make-up sex.
    Then she would have convinced him to take her to Savannah.
    The scene she’d already staged in her head dissolved. Because she wanted to cry, she tossed her head and turned away. “Fine then, you go right on and build your porch and I’ll do what I have to do.”
    Giff said nothing as she stalked down the temporary steps. He had to wait until his vision cleared of blind rage before he picked up the skill saw. Temper could cost dearly, he knew, and he didn’t want it to cost him a finger. He was going to need all of them, he thought, if she followed through.
    It would take four fingers to make the fist he was going to plow into some guy’s face.
    Lexy heard the saw buzz and gritted her teeth. Selfish bastard, that’s all he was. He certainly didn’t care about her. She walked fast across the sand, her eyes stinging, her breath short. No one cared about her. No one understood her. Even Ginny ...
    She had to stop a moment as the muscles in her stomach seized. Ginny had left. Just gone away. Everyone she let herself care about left her, one way or another. She never mattered enough to make them stay.
    At first she’d been sure something terrible had happened to Ginny. She’d gotten herself kidnapped, or she’d stumbled half drunk into a pond and been eaten by a gator.
    That was ridiculous, of course. It had taken her days, but Lexy had resigned herself to the fact that she’d been left behind again. Because no one stayed, no matter how much you needed them to.
    But this time ... She shot a defiant look over her shoulder at the cottage where Giff was working. This time she’d do the leaving first.
    She headed for the line of trees. The sun was too hot on her skin, the sand too gritty in her sandals. At that moment she hated Desire and everything on it with a wild and vicious passion. She hated the people who came and expected her to serve them and clean up after them. She hated her family for thinking of her as an irresponsible dreamer. She hated the beach with its blinding white sun and endless lapping waves. And the forest with its pockets of dim shadows and screaming silence.
    And most of all she hated Giff because she’d been thinking about falling in love with him.
    She wouldn’t now. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Instead, she thought, as she left sun for shade, she would set her sights on someone else and make Giff suffer.
    When