Cape Cod Promises: Love on Rockwell Island by Bella Andre, Melissa Foster Page B

to believe him, but she’d given him unconditional love and trust before, and he’d been reckless with it. How could she trust him now?
    She watched a young couple walk through the market carrying a bouquet of fresh flowers and holding hands. Why did it look so easy for everyone else? Then again, it had felt so easy for them at first, too, before they’d gone to New York.
    Was it this island? Could their love survive only in this fairy-tale environment?
    But even as the questions went around and around inside her head, she knew better than to try to figure out the last ten years in the next ten minutes. She needed to get their outing back on track, but now that talking had evened the score with almost making out, she wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore. Talking about the past was heartrending. Whereas almost making out was incredibly drugging and delicious.
    “Maybe we shouldn’t make any promises today,” she said softly. “Maybe we could just browse and enjoy the day, okay?”
    For a moment, she thought he might push his case again, but then his lips curved up into a smile and he said, “I already am enjoying the day, Reese. More than I’ve enjoyed anything in a very long time.”
    There was nothing more beautiful than Trent Rockwell’s smile. And even though they’d been skirting the edge of some really difficult memories so far today, her heart suddenly felt like it was flying.
    * * *
    THE SUMMER TRENT had met Reese and everything had seemed so new and exciting, they’d often visited flea markets, galleries, and old bookstores. He’d just come out from under several grueling years of law school, and while he knew that just about anything would feel like a reprieve, what he felt when he was with Reese was miles beyond anything he’d ever experienced.
    Now, just getting to hold her hand as they walked from one booth to the next, rocked him to the core. This was what he wanted—another chance at a life with Reese.
    But would she ever want that, too?
    Sometimes, when she forgot the past, she smiled up at him so easily. Other times, however, he could see the clear hesitation hovering in her eyes. She was here with him today, but that didn’t mean she’d forgiven him for hurting her. Or that she ever would forgive him enough to give him a second chance at loving her the way she deserved to be loved.
    He was so incredibly lucky that she’d agreed to this date, and he wanted to understand everything she was feeling so that he could make sure he never made the same mistakes again.
    But he knew Reese well enough to understand that she had to be totally, one hundred percent ready. Until she felt she could handle it—all of it—it didn’t matter how much he pushed. He’d only push her away if he wasn’t careful. His mother, Abby, had always said, Reese really thinks things through. It’s one of the things I love best about her—that I always know she’ll give every option careful consideration. Trent loved that, too, and now all he could hope was that she’d carefully consider being with him again, rather than outright rejecting him for his past mistakes.
    He’d wait as long as it took for her to make up her mind. He felt as if he’d lived a lifetime in the last ten years, and now he knew what would fulfill him and what he’d been holding out for all these years.
    Reese .
    Just then she made a happy little sound and tugged him toward a booth full of books. It was just what she used to do when they would go to a flea market together, and yet again he prayed that this outing meant she was going to give him a chance at reconciliation. Because he honestly wasn’t sure how he could ever move past her again.
    Again? Who was he kidding? He’d never moved past her in the first place. Wasn’t that why he’d found something wrong with every woman he’d dated since their divorce? Wasn’t that why the idea of moving back to the island had been slowly simmering for all these years? Wasn’t that why he’d