Hate to Love You (29 page)

Epilogue

I stood on the balcony and watched the waves below. The tide was up and they were crashing against the shoreline, reminding me of the first time James had brought me to Casa Escondida. Reminding me of a different afternoon, when I’d stared at the Brighton shoreline and found no answers.

I transferred my gaze to the decking. James was devouring his second plate of hamburgers and salad as if he hadn’t eaten in months. Freshly showered, he was once more the civilised host, talking to Tarzan and Marcia while Ryan and Fleur Anise ran circles around them. He waved me down impatiently and I glowered at him. He laughed.

Arrogant, overbearing ...passionate and funny and...

Mine.

My heart clenched at the thought of how different things could’ve been. How telling the truth at James’s wedding had derailed his life and how my subsequent lie had almost destroyed my own happiness.

Truth and lies.

I won’t moralise smugly about what I’ve learned but I can tell you this: in my experience, telling the truth can land you in just as much shit—err, crap, as lying. More sometimes. Sure, a lie can trap you; it can crush you immediately or slowly weigh you down until you suffocate. But telling the truth won’t necessarily set you free; it can cost you everything you love the most. And it can force you to face yourself, as painful as that may be.

So, Truth or Lies?

I chose Truth because I didn’t want to run away anymore, not from the past and not from myself.

I took a deep breath and faced the mirror. Looking into my soul still hurts like hell but it’s no longer crippling. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll find the pain has faded away to nothing. And if that never happens? Well, I can live with it.

Because in fact there’s nothing I can’t live with—only things I refuse to live without.

Friendship.

Intimacy.

Passion.

And of course,

Love.

Punto final
.

* * * * *

About the Author

At age twelve Elise borrowed
Gone with
the Wind
from her school library and thought she’d be traumatized for
life—until she pasted in a happy ending where Rhett sweeps Scarlett into his
arms and declares his love. The librarian was none too pleased, but since the
damaged copy saved Elise’s parents years of therapy fees, they were happy to pay
for a new school copy. Since then Elise has cried, sighed and reveled in Romance
novels. She’s drawn to damaged characters with atypical backgrounds, people for
whom love isn’t a simple matter of boy meets girl, but a gut-wrenching journey
of transformation.

Elise grew up in tropical Panama and spent several years
teaching in Brazil, where she met a traveling Scotsman who swept her off her
feet. Well, he dragged her to his mountain lair, but it’s the thought that
counts! These days, whether she’s star gazing atop ruined castles or seeking
rare butterflies in the jungles of Panama, Elise is thinking up characters who
overcome the odds to be together. After all, if she and her husband could, then
other would-be lovers can find each other across time, distance and even other
galaxies.

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ISBN-13: 9781426898433

HATE TO LOVE YOU

Copyright © 2014 by Lizbeth Crawford

Edited by Kerri Buckley

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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