Chapter 31
Monday night - Luke
Iwatched out of Ellie’s guest room window at the front of the house as the Range Rover pulled away from the garage. She was on her way back to the airport, back to Milwaukee. As it should be.
The minute the car left the front gates and disappeared from sight, I realized I’d been holding my breath. I let it out and turned back around to the big, empty room. I walked over to the bed where she’d slept and picked up one of the pillows and buried my face in it, closing my eyes. It smelled like her. I never wanted to forget that scent.
I sighed. It would be weird if I asked the house cleaners to leave this room alone, wouldn’t it? Yeah. It would give Miss Havisham vibes.
I left the big, empty bedroom and walked out into the big, empty hallway, down the big, empty staircase, and into the big, empty kitchen.
Linda had left dinner in the refrigerator just as I’d asked her to, but this time when I looked in and saw only one covered plate, it made the pit in my stomach expand.
I had this house. A condo in Miami. A lake house in Wisconsin. But what did any of it mean? Did it make me happy? Was I happy? No. I was alone. And this house might be big and expensive, but it was empty. It was especially empty now that Ellie was gone. It felt even emptier than before she’d come here. How was that even possible?
Dolly wasn’t even here. The turncoat was in the mudroom, whimpering at the door that Ellie had disappeared through. I hung my head and blew out a breath.
Five minutes later, after I’d warmed my dinner in the microwave, I sat pushing the creamed spinach and tilapia around my plate. Damn. I’d made a lot of mistakes in my life and here was another one. I hurt a really, really good woman.
Hurt her, then sent her away.
Oh, I’d pushed other good women away. But this was the first time I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life.