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began in the hands pressed against his chest, then moved to her whole body. She pushed against him, wanting him to release her, so he did.
    “Sandy?”
    “I-I—”
    He watched in disbelief as she turned, bunched the skirt of her dress in her hands, and ran.
    SANDY SLAMMED the door shut as she stumbled into her small apartment, dropped to her knees, and clasped her hands in front of her face. “Dear, Lord. Please give me the strength to see past this man’s beautiful countenance to his heart, and not walk the same path as my mother.”
    She scrambled off her knees and, frantic to get some perspective on what had happened between her and Cameron, pushed her hair off her face and paced. Grabbing a handful of tissues as she passed the tissue box, she blew her nose, past caring how unladylike it sounded.
    Forget turning up to work on Monday. She could never show her face at TDA again after her dramatic Victorian maiden re-enactment. What had possessed her to hike up her dress and run from the ball like that? Good grief, even Cinderella had the good grace to let the Prince know she had to leave.
    What had she done? Humiliated herself because Cameron was the first man ever to say those words to her? Like a spectre his words came back to haunt her. I love you, Sandy. I think I fell in love with you the first time you called me ‘trust-fund baby’ .
    She flopped down on the couch, an anguished groan echoed through the sparsely furnished room as she covered her heated face. “Why didn’t I say something? What kind of crazy person came out with something like that, anyway?”
    She knew couples who’d been dating for months, and they couldn’t even bring themselves to say I love you. She and Cameron had barely spent any time together. And the very first time he kissed her, he dropped a bombshell like that.
    Who could blame her for running? She swiped away more tears with fresh tissues. She wished she had the courage to say the words back to him. If she had, they wouldn’t have been a lie. She’d been in love with Cam since the first day he’d strutted into TDA, flashed his sexy smile, and said, “Hi, I’m Cameron Berkeley-Scott. I have an appointment to see Jamie-Leigh Stephenson.” Then she’d found out he was a rich-kid and armed herself against his charm. Hidden her attraction, and used insults to keep him at a distance.
    Now she could no longer hide from the truth. She loved Cameron Berkeley-Scott. It seemed all her efforts to avoid her mother’s mistakes had failed. No matter how she tried to pray it away, her path was not much different from the woman who had promised to be there to watch her grow up. The woman who had danced with her around the kitchen table, holding wooden spoons dripping dough on the floor while they sang Just the Two of Us .
    The beautiful mother who had taken Sandy to Prague for her twelfth birthday—then leapt to her death from the hotel’s highest balcony.
    Sandy allowed the tears she’d never let herself cry for her beloved mum to wrack her body. She owed Cameron an explanation. At the very least, an apology. But she’d deal with that problem soon. Right now, she’d stay curled on her couch, and let go of the grief she’d carried around since that awful day in July when her mother killed herself.

8

    C ameron had to admit he was pathetic.
    Not only was he listening to his old Grease CDs, he was belting out the lyrics at a decibel that wasn’t fair to nature. He was on the last why- yi - yi - yi when a loud throat clearing drew his attention to the glass balcony in his duplex. He looked over the balcony of his open plan den to find his butler looking up at him.
    The old man stood ramrod straight, his weathered face set in its usual can’t-crack-a-smile mode. “Would you be wanting to spend some time at the country house, sir?”
    “Is my singing that bad, Sedrick?” He didn’t think he could ever go back to his country residence without reliving the moment when the woman he’d