Lynne blinked at his response and then looked down. Her. He'd meant her. The thought sort of made her stomach turn in discomfort. She meant to be the Matt to Noah's Lynne. She had a half a second to process that thought enough to feel awful for putting Matt in that sort of position without even realizing it at the time before he went on.
Her eyes moved back up to him again. Was that his way of apologizing for the past without actually having to say it? Nodding, she gave Matt a sad smile and took another sip of her cappuccino. "Right..." she said quietly. If he had felt then the way she felt with Noah now, it wasn't like she could actually fault him for doing what he had done. It almost went as far as to justify his actions to her. "Then...I'm sorry," she added sincerely. "I had no idea."
Neither does Noah, that niggling voice in the back of her head pointed out. She'd have changed a lot of things along the way if she'd known Matt had felt trapped. Maybe if she said as much to Noah, he'd do the same for her; change a few things.
Matt's comment was a welcome change in mood and she feigned offense. "That was only a couple days a month and you know it," she joked back. Even as she put up the front of washing the previous topic away with the new, playful and teasing one, Lynne found herself wondering if maybe now that she knew how Matt had felt, if they were ever to give things another chance, maybe she'd be able to tone it down now that she was aware.
That thought hurt because it dropped a bomb on her that had been looming for years and she'd been steadily ignoring. Lynne, in spite of everything, still loved him. Perfect timing for your epiphany, moron, she thought as she looked back at him and found herself unable to keep her eyes from roaming over the features of his face and down his neck and chest before settling on the steadily emptying cup of cappuccino in front of her on the table. With the gaze had come memories she'd thought were long since forgotten.
So much for a vacation; so far this cruise has been the trip from Hell...