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house, the fourth in the row. New, they’d been built to resemble older, turn-of-the-century construction. Each unit was painted a different beachy color—peach, blue, green and yellow.
    She marched toward the yellow home, calling back over her shoulder. “Thank you for seeing me safely to my front stoop, but you’re free to leave now.”
    “Not so fast, my dear wife.” He stopped alongside Eloisa at her lime-green door. Keys dangled from between her fingers but he didn’t take them from her. He wanted her to ask him inside of her own free will, no coercion. But that didn’t exclude persuasion.
    She faced him with a sigh. “You managed a whole year without speaking to me. I’m sure you’ll do just fine without me for another night.”
    “Eloisa, just because I didn’t contact you doesn’t mean I stopped thinking about you.” That was sure as hell the truth. “We left a lot unsaid. Is it so wrong for me to want these next couple of weeks to clear the air before we say goodbye?”
    Eloisa studied her clunky key chain, a conglomeration of whistles, a lanyard from some children’s festival and a metal touristy-looking token. “Why a couple of weeks?”
    Damn. It wouldn’t be that persuasive to say that was all the time he had available to pencil her into his work schedule. His brother Sebastian’s marriage had fallen apart because of his insane hours at his law practice.
    “That’s how long my attorney says it will take to get the ball rolling.” He’d asked for Sebastian’s help this time, as he should have done a year ago. “You can’t blame me for wondering if you will disappear again.”
    Sure the morning after their spur of the moment wedding, they’d both agreed it was a mistake. Okay, they’d both agreed after she’d slapped him. Then she’d gasped in horror and yanked on her clothes as she’d stumbled toward the door. He’d expected once she cooled down, they would at least talk about things, maybe take a step back—a few steps back.
    Except once she’d left his place in Spain, she’d ignored any further communication other than mailing the paperwork his way. So actually, the crummy paperwork was her fault.
    And his. He couldn’t deny it. He shouldn’t have been so damn proud he didn’t show his lawyer brother Sebastian.
    Jonah tugged the dangling keys from her loose grip, sifting the bulk in his hands. The touristy token caught his attention. He looked closer and found…an ironwork reproduction of the house he’d worked on restoring the previous summer. Interesting. Encouraging. “Nice key chain.”
    “I keep it as a reminder of the risks of impulsiveness.” She tugged her keys back, gripping them so tightly her fingers turned bloodlessly white.
    “Risks?” Anger kicked around in his gut. She was the one who’d walked out, after all. Not him. “Seemslike you walked away mighty damn easily. If it wasn’t for this inconvenient legal snafu—” not to mention her lies “—you would have gotten away scot-free.”
    “Scot-free?” Her face went pale in the moonlight. “You can’t possibly think this didn’t affect me. You have no idea how deeply I’ve wrestled with what we did, the mistake we made.”
    Confusion dulled the edge of his anger. She’d left. She’d never called. Why the hell had she been hiding out if their time together stayed with her this heavily?
    “Well, Eloisa? What do you say we make every effort possible to put this to rest once and for all? For the next couple of weeks, you can just call me roomie.”
    She gasped. “You can’t really expect to bunk at my place?”
    “Of course not.” Jonah focused on the little piece of memorabilia on her key chain, a sign that she’d remembered and even cared. He let her relax for a second before retorting, “I could phone the chauffeur and we could be taken to my beachside suite.”
    Shaking her head, she slid the key into the lock. “You’re outrageous.”
    He clapped a hand over his chest with a half