Chapter Twenty-Two"Neal, I have to talk to you."
He looked up from his painting. Susan stood in the doorway of the studio with a strange expression on her face.
"Sure." He put down his brush.
She bit her lip. "First, I want to say this. I've thought about this for a long time and I'm not going to change my mind so please don't try to talk me out of it." She took a breath, and her voice turned husky as the words came out in a rush. "I'm going back to LA in three days. I'm going to stay there. For a while at least. I already made the ticket reservation."
Neal looked at her, stunned. "What? What do you mean? You're leaving?"
"Yes. For now, for a while."
"Just like that, without even talking about it?"
"I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't need to talk about it."
His mouth closed.
