The Last to Die. Beverly Barton

for all. But he keeps coming around and…well, Jamie’s just a bad habit she’s had a hard time breaking.”

      Caleb leaned across the bar and planted a kiss on Lacy’s cheek.

      “What was that for?” she asked.

      “For being Jazzy’s friend.”

      Jazzy looked directly at Laura Willis, rose slowly from her chair, and said, “Yes, of course, please come in.”

      Laura entered the cluttered office, looking totally out of place. Jamie’s fiancée was a slender, delicate girl with luminous blue eyes and golden blond hair. The fairy princess type, Jazzy thought. But there was a fragility to the young woman—a hint of it was apparent in not only her pale, delicate appearance, but in the way she moved and talked.

      “I told Jamie and my parents I was going to the ladies’ room,” Laura said in a soft, hushed voice.

      “What did you want to speak to me about?” Jazzy asked, even though she had a really good idea. What else did the two of them have in common other than Jamie Upton?

      “I—I know Jamie came to see you last night—”

      “Look, Ms. Willis, I can assure you that—”

      “He told me why he left our party and went directly to you. He explained that he felt last night—when we officially announced to the world that we’re to be married—was the right time to say his good-byes to you, once and for all.”

      “Oh, yes, of course.” Why was she surprised that Jamie had lied to this girl? She shouldn’t have been. And why was she surprised that Laura Willis had believed him? Hadn’t Jamie talked his way back into Jazzy’s life time and time again, always with promises that he never kept?

      “I’m well aware of your relationship with Jamie, that the two of you are…were lovers.” Laura stayed close to the open door, as if she thought she might have to flee at any moment. “And I know there have been others. But Jamie wants our marriage to work. He loves me and I love him.”

      He doesn’t love you, Jazzy wanted to say. Jamie isn’t capable of loving anyone except himself. But you love him, don’t you, you poor girl? He’s going to break your heart the way he broke mine, and it doesn’t really matter that you’ll be Mrs. Jamie Upton. He’ll never be faithful to you. It’s not in his nature.

      “I wish you well,” Jazzy said. “I hope you’ll be very happy.”

      “I believe we will be, that we can be if…” Laura’s cheeks flushed. “Please, Ms. Talbot, let him go. Don’t hold on to him. If he remains tied to you, in any way, he’ll never be able to commit himself fully to me, to our marriage. Please, please…set him free.”

      Undoubtedly Jamie had told his fiancée that Jazzy was pursuing him and not the other way around. That, too, shouldn’t have surprised her.

      “You love him enough to forgive him for everything, don’t you?” Jazzy understood all too well that kind of foolish love.

      “I know you love him, too, but he loves me now. He wants to marry me. I’m sorry if—”

      Jazzy held up a restraining hand. “No, it’s all right. I promise you that I will never pursue Jamie again. I did set him free. Last night.” Only a little white lie, Jazzy thought. “He’s all yours. You have nothing to fear from me.”

      Tears glistened in Laura’s eyes. She swallowed, then smiled weakly. “I’ll be a good wife to Jamie. I’ll do everything I can to make him happy.”

      “Yes, I’m sure you will. He’s a very lucky man to have someone like you.”

      “Thank you, Ms. Talbot. Thank you.” Bitting down on her lower lip in an obvious effort not to burst into tears, Laura continued smiling as she nodded her head, then turned and all but ran from Jazzy’s office.

      Jazzy sank down on the edge of her desk, took a deep, cleansing breath, and exhaled. She felt like crying herself. Odd, she thought, but she had truly meant what she’d said to Laura. Jamie was lucky to have someone like her love him. But Laura was very unlucky. It would take a miracle for Jamie Upton to change, to become the kind of man who could be faithful to one woman. And in that one moment, Jazzy experienced some sort of epiphany. She had seen herself in Laura, looked right in the face of hopeless, ill-fated love, and knew that but by the grace of God, she might be in Laura’s shoes. How many years had she longed to be Jamie’s wife? She had blamed Jamie’s grandmother for keeping them apart. She had railed at cruel fate. She had made countless excuses for Jamie’s behavior and kept on loving him, forgiving him, accepting him back into her life.

      “Oh, God, if I had married Jamie when I was a teenager or even a few years ago, it would have been the biggest mistake of my life.” Tears gathered in the corners of Jazzy’s eyes as the hard, bitter truth hit her like a ton of bricks.

      Jamie would have married her, but never been faithful. He would have lied to her day after day and betrayed her in every way possible. Why had she ever thought that marriage would have solved their problems? Jamie was the problem. He always had been. Marriage to him would have changed nothing.

      Okay, so maybe mentally she’d known this fact for quite some time, but never before had her heart accepted it. For the first time since she’d fallen head over heels in love at sixteen, she faced the truth emotionally.

      Please, please…set him free. Laura Willis’s words replayed themselves in her mind. Over and over again.

      But it wasn’t Jamie she needed to set free. It never had been. She was the one she needed to set free. Now she could. Now she had.

      Jazzy hugged herself as tears trickled down her cheeks. She laughed aloud, the sound reverberating inside her head, the sweetest music she’d ever heard.

      She was free. Free of Jamie Upton. He could never hurt her again.