Key Of Valor by Nora Roberts Page A

I had. Maybe some people think you don’t have a whole lot when you’re sixteen, but I had so much love to give. I gave him all of it. I didn’t think, I didn’t hesitate, I just gave it.”
    She pulled the cardboard away, let it drop to the floor. “I’ve known men since. Some good men, some who didn’t turn out to be so good. But none of them ever came close to touching me the way that boy did when I was sixteen. I wanted him, Mal, almost more than I wanted to live.”
    â€œHe didn’t stick by you,” she replied.
    â€œNo, he didn’t. He did love me, I believe that, but not enough to stick by me. Not enough to make the choice to be with me, or even to acknowledge what we’d made between us. He just walked away and went back to living his life, while mine was torn to pieces.”
    To vent some of that old, old anger, she sent the knife whizzing through the carton. “He got engaged just a few months ago. My sister sent me the clipping from the newspaper. Got a big wedding planned in the spring. I got mad when I read that. I got mad because he’s planning a big, fancy wedding in the spring, and he’s never once laid eyes on his son.”
    â€œHis loss,” Malory said.
    â€œYes, that’s true. It is his loss. But still, I loved him, and I wanted him. I couldn’t have him, and that almost broke me.” With a sigh, she rested her head on the side of the unit. “I’m not going to want what I can’t have again. So I’m afraid of Bradley because he’s the only one who’s come along in ten years who makes me remember, just a little, what it was like to be sixteen.”

Chapter Five
    T HE important thing to keep in mind was that she was a grown woman, and grown women often had men over for a meal without falling apart, or falling in love.
    It was just a little twist to her Monday routine.
    It meant she picked up some fancy bread and fresh makings for a salad on the way home. And made extra sauce. She had to get Simon started on his homework earlier than usual. And that was a battle, even with the bribe of his good pal Brad coming over for dinner.
    She had to clean herself up, change her outfit twice and retouch her makeup. Then she had to clean Simon up, which caused another battle, then light fragrance candles so everything looked pretty and the air wasn’t tinged with Eau de Moe.
    There was the salad to make, the table to set, arithmetic and spelling to check and a dog to feed.
    All this had to be done between three-thirty-five and six-thirty.
    He probably wasn’t used to going out to dinner so early,she thought as she stirred sauce. The richer people were, the later they ate. But Simon had to be in bed by nine o’clock on a school night. That was the law around here, so Bradley Vane would just have to adjust, or he could go eat his spaghetti somewhere else.
    She hissed out a breath. Stop it! He hadn’t complained, had he? She was the one making all the trouble.
    â€œSimon, you really need to finish that up.”
    â€œI hate fractions.” He bumped his heels against the leg of his chair and scowled down at the math assignment. “Fractions blow chunks.”
    â€œSome things don’t come in wholes. You need to know the pieces that make them up.”
    â€œWhy?”
    She took out the cloth napkins she’d run up on her sewing machine. “So you can put things together, take them apart, understand how it all works.”
    â€œWhy?”
    She folded the napkins into triangles. “Are you trying to irritate me, or is it a natural gift?”
    â€œI don’t know. How come you’re using those things?”
    â€œBecause we’re having company.”
    â€œIt’s just Brad.”
    â€œI know who it is. Simon, you’ve only got three more problems there. Get them done so I can finish setting the table.”
    â€œHow come I can’t do it after dinner? How come I