Читать книгу Wild Horses - B.J. Daniels - Страница 10
ОглавлениеBEFORE AINSLEY LEFT HER, Livie promised she would tell Cooper about the baby. “I just don’t want to do it tonight at the party.”
“He’s going to find out and wonder why you haven’t told him.”
Just as Ainsley wondered why Olivia hadn’t told anyone. As she left to find her other sisters, she couldn’t help worrying. How would Cooper take it? And why did she suspect there was more going on than just the pregnancy?
“The vultures are circling,” Kat Hamilton said as Ainsley joined her sisters.
“Pardon?” Ainsley said, realizing she’d missed something.
Kat motioned with her head to a spot across the dance floor. “Until that wedding band is on Livie’s finger, all’s fair in love and war, right?” She shook her head. “Why can’t our sister see it? That woman is trouble.”
Ainsley spotted Delia Rollins working her way through the crowd toward Cooper. Delia had been Livie’s best friend. She had lived down the road at a small hardscrabble place when they were kids. Buckmaster had seen her one day reaching through the fence to pet one of the horses. He’d insisted that the skinny little thing come down to the ranch so she could learn to ride. She was told she could ride whenever she liked.
She and Livie had hit it off because they both loved horses. They spent most of their childhood on the back of one. They’d made a pact when they were eleven that no matter where their lives took them, they would each be the maid or matron of honor in each other’s weddings.
So come the wedding day, Delia would be Livie’s maid of honor. Livie had been determined to honor the pact even though she and Delia hadn’t been that close since Livie went away to college and Delia stayed to take over her father’s lumberyard when he died.
To make the situation worse, Cooper and Delia had dated for a short time before he’d come to work at the ranch—and fallen for Livie.
“Livie says that Delia and Cooper are just good friends,” Ainsley said.
Kat mugged a face. “Well, if I was Livie I’d be watching that woman like a hawk.”
Bo shook her head. “Livie and Cooper aren’t married yet. I say let Delia give it her best shot.”
“You can’t be serious?” Harper and Cassidy cried almost in unison.
“I’m trying to save our sister any more heartache,” Bo said. “Come on, do any of you really think she should marry Cooper Barnett?”
Ainsley followed Bo’s gaze across the ballroom to the stand of trees where Livie still sat alone. This was Livie’s engagement party and yet she and Cooper hadn’t spent five minutes together. Earlier he’d been talking to one of the ranchers, clearly in a heated discussion about buffalo versus cattle. It was a discussion he and their father had knocked heads over many times.
“Let’s not forget that he is making her live in that little old cabin of his until he can afford to finish the house he’s building,” Bo said. “He can’t expect her to wait just because his stubborn pride won’t allow anyone to help him.”
“He’s working on the house night and day,” Ainsley said. “It won’t be that long before they’re moved in.”
“If they do get married, I give them six months max,” Kat said.
“I’m betting they never reach the altar,” Bo said.
They looked to Ainsley, the one they all seemed to think was the most levelheaded of them. If they only knew, she thought.
“Olivia has loved Cooper since the first day he hired on at the ranch,” she said, even though she’d be the first to admit Livie didn’t seem happy.
“That doesn’t mean she should marry him,” Kat said reasonably. “She’s been acting odder than usual lately. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.” She glanced at Ainsley. “Has she said anything to you?”
Ainsley shook her head. Livie had always been good at keeping secrets. Ainsley was even better.
She looked to the edge of the party. The old Livie would have been glowing with excitement tonight and kicking up her heels on the dance floor—even with morning sickness. She’d waited for so long to marry Cooper. Even pregnant, she should have been radiant with happiness since this was her engagement party and the wedding wasn’t that far off now.
“Maybe she’s getting cold feet,” Cassidy suggested.
“Not a chance. She’s crazy about him,” Harper said.
“Did you know Daddy offered Cooper three hundred and sixty acres of prime land on the creek for a wedding present,” Bo said as she took a sip of her champagne.
“Let me guess,” Ainsley said. “Cooper turned him down flat.”
“Yep,” Bo said.
“I think Dad admires Cooper for standing up to him,” Ainsley said.
Kat shook her head. “Well, I think Cooper’s pride will be his downfall.”
“If we all don’t think they’ll ever get married, then why are we here tonight?” Cassidy demanded. The party had been put off until now because their stepmother wanted it outside.
“Because Livie wants to believe she can change Cooper,” Bo said. “We’re the only ones who know she can’t. The wedding isn’t going to happen, so I wouldn’t get too attached to your bridesmaid dresses if I were you.”
“Maybe Cooper will change his mind and make things easier for Livie by taking Daddy’s offer of help on the house,” Harper suggested.
Ainsley shook her head. “I know Cooper pretty well. He doesn’t say something unless he means it. I wouldn’t count on him changing his mind.”
“Then we should try to talk some sense into her,” Harper said. “Maybe if we tell her how we all—”
“It’s Livie’s engagement party,” Ainsley interrupted. “Let her enjoy the night. We can preach to her tomorrow.” The others laughed.
“I’ll drink to that,” Bo said as she flagged down one of the waiters for more champagne. Shoving a glass into each of their hands, she lifted hers. “To Livie, the first to take the plunge. Maybe.” They all laughed and drank.
“If they don’t get married, it will break Daddy’s heart,” Harper said. “Look how happy he is tonight.”
“Speaking of Daddy,” Kat said. “Does he know yet that you’ve dropped out of law school?”
All of them looked at Ainsley.
“What?” Harper and Cassidy said in unison.
“I’m taking a break.” That was the problem with living in a small town. Everyone knew your business, especially your nosiest sister.
Bo poked her and pointed toward their father. Ainsley recognized the town busybody, Mabel Murphy, talking to Buckmaster an instant before he scowled and looked in her direction.
“I’d say Daddy just got the news,” Bo said with a laugh, and threw back another glass of champagne. “As for Livie marrying Cooper...” They all followed her gaze to see Delia with her hand on Cooper’s arm and in deep conversation. “Delia Rollins is Cooper’s Achilles’ heel.”
It wouldn’t be Delia who would keep the wedding from happening, Ainsley thought. Olivia had bigger concerns than Cooper’s former girlfriend.
* * *
COOPER SPOTTED OLIVIA sitting alone in the pines and had just started for her when Delia grabbed his arm.
“Dance with the future maid of honor?” she said with a grin.
“I’d love to but I have to find my fiancée. Maybe later.”
“I’m sure she’s around here somewhere. Anyway, you have all night to find her. You might not have all night to dance with me.”
He’d always liked Delia. They’d started out as friends when he’d first gotten to town. He wished now he’d left it at that. “Delia,” he said, and sighed. The silly game she’d been playing of apparently trying to make Livie jealous was wearing thin for him.
“Come on, there is nothing wrong in two old friends sharing a dance.”
“We aren’t old friends and you’re Livie’s maid of honor.”
“So I am,” she said, and laughed. “I couldn’t have been more surprised when she asked me. I’m sure you were, too.”
He’d tried to talk Livie out of it. “Why would you do that?” he’d asked when Livie had told him.
“Because she and I were best friends for years. We made a pact when we were eleven to be the maid or matron of honor at each other’s weddings.”
“Livie, you’re not best friends now.”
“No, but I wish we could be better friends. I want to put the past behind us.”
Now, he said, “Livie takes her promises seriously.”
Delia scoffed. “Apparently. We were kids. I was the skinny, scrawny one. We’ve changed a lot since then,” she said, and added with a wink, “as you know.”
He removed her hand from his arm. “Like I said, I need to go see my fiancée.”
“Promise me one last dance for old times’ sake,” Delia said.
“Maybe later.” At least, he hoped there would be a later at the party. Given the way Livie was behaving, he had his doubts.
Sidestepping Delia, he headed for the stand of pines and his fiancée. From the moment he’d hired on to the Hamilton Ranch, there’d been Olivia. She’d hung around while he was working with the horses. He’d been captivated by her—her smell, her laugh, her intensity when she set her eyes on something she wanted. He’d never known a woman who’d been raised like her and couldn’t imagine just snapping his fingers and getting anything he wanted.
He’d told himself to keep his distance. But even with him fighting it, within no time, she consumed all his thoughts, all his time, all his energy. He found her infuriating and irresistible, challenging and charming. He had fallen so hard for her that it scared him.
Unlike Livie, he wasn’t impulsive. He planned. He worked hard for what he wanted. He thought things out. Like this engagement and upcoming wedding. Everything had been moving way too fast for him.
From the get-go, though, he’d been reluctant to get involved with a Hamilton girl. The boy from the wrong side of the tracks and a Hamilton? Once he fell for her, he’d wished more times than he wanted to count that she wasn’t Buckmaster Hamilton’s daughter.
As he approached the bench where she was sitting, he realized with a shock that Olivia was crying. Stepping to her, he knelt down in front of the bench. “Livie, what is it?”
“We have to talk,” she said, hurriedly wiping at her tears. “Let’s go into the house,” she said, getting to her feet. “I thought this could wait, but it can’t.”
His insides turned to ice. “Livie, tell me what it is.”
“Not here,” she said, taking his hand and leading him around the edge of the ballroom toward the house. He saw several people at the party looking in their direction, Delia among them.
Delia had tried to warn him when he’d told her he was seeing Livie. “Oh, Cooper, you don’t want to get involved with one of them, trust me.”
It had been too late. He’d already fallen.
“Livie’s not like that.”
Delia had laughed. “She’s Buckmaster Hamilton’s daughter and she will always be his daughter. Do yourself a favor and run as far and fast as you can in the opposite direction.” She’d made the same argument he had made to himself. “She isn’t like you and me. We know what it’s like to be poor, to come from the wrong family and have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. She’s fascinated with you now because you’re different from anyone else she’s dated. But when it comes time to get married, she’s going to want more than you will ever be able to give her.”
Now he feared Delia was right as he and Livie worked their way around the crowd, away from all the noise, to the quiet of the house. “Let’s go into Daddy’s den. There is something I have to tell you,” she said, making his heart begin to ache.
“Tell me what this is about,” he demanded as they walked down the empty hallway even though he was afraid he already knew. She’d changed her mind. Just like that. She’d insisted on getting married sooner than he’d wanted, she hadn’t been able to wait for the engagement party, and now she’d realized what she was doing and was backing out.
“Do we really have to do this now?” he asked as she led him toward her father’s plush, wood-paneled den. He felt himself getting angry. “It’s our engagement party, Livie, a party that you and your sisters and father insisted on, you might recall.” He balked, stopping in the doorway to the den, digging in his heels as he had so many other times with her. “Just tell me.”
* * *
OLIVIA KNEW THE timing was terrible. The thought almost made her laugh. There was no good time for what she had to tell him.
“Would you please close the door and sit down?” she asked impatiently when he remained stubbornly standing in the doorway.
With obvious reluctance, he closed the door and seemed to brace himself. “Just say you don’t want to marry me and get it over with. I’ve been expecting this.”
She shook her head in astonishment, her emotions running as wild as the horses Cooper tamed. The man never ceased to amaze her. “You’ve been expecting me to break our engagement?”
“That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Your father reminded me again tonight that you’re a Hamilton and that you require the finer things in life, things that apparently he feels I can’t give you fast enough.” Cooper’s eyes narrowed. “It isn’t as if you haven’t made it clear you feel the same way.”
Livie sighed. Every fight they’d had was over her father’s offers of financial help. Buckmaster Hamilton lived for his daughters. He couldn’t understand Cooper’s stubbornness any more than she could. Coop had refused both land and money, both graciously offered. He was determined to do everything himself, no matter how hard it was or how long it took.
But none of that mattered now because Livie doubted there was going to be a wedding, anyway. “Please. Sit down. That isn’t what I need to talk to you about,” she said, fighting the ever-present nausea. Her head felt as if it were spinning. The last thing she wanted was to break her engagement, but she figured Cooper would do that once she told him about the note in her purse.
He stood for a moment longer before finally dropping into a chair across from her. Dangling his Stetson on his knee, he said, “Okay, let’s have it. I’ve known something was going on with you for weeks now.”
She nodded, although she was surprised. She’d thought she’d kept her secret better than that. “Remember back in late January? We had an argument. I left in the middle of the night not really knowing where I was going.”
“I remember all of our fights. This one, though, I believe, you threw your engagement ring at me as you left.”
She felt her face flame at the memory. If only she could go back... If only... She swallowed the lump in her throat. Her mouth had gone dust dry. Searching for the right words, she said, “I took a shortcut across the state, thinking I might go to Missoula or Great Falls. I didn’t really know.”
His dark eyes narrowed as he frowned. “You just took off because you were angry. As I recall, you got caught in a winter storm, went off the road and couldn’t get home for several days.”
Livie nodded and touched her temple where she had only a faint scar, a reminder of what had happened that night, as if she needed one. Her other scars ran much deeper.
“Where I went off the road was miles from the nearest town. There was no cell phone coverage. If a driver hadn’t come along when he did...”
“What are you trying to tell me, Olivia?” Cooper asked, his voice dangerously low. His handsome suntanned face had gone pale. As pale and shaken as she felt.
“The driver who helped me...took me to his cabin that wasn’t far from where I went in the ditch.”
His voice dropped to a near-whisper. “You spent the night there?”
She knew she had to get this out as quickly as possible or she wouldn’t be able to. For months she’d tried hard to forget. “He called to have my car towed so I’d have it the next morning. He seemed nice...”
Cooper was on his feet, his expression stricken. “What happened?”
She’d told herself not to break down, but her hormones were out of whack and she was so scared she was going to lose Cooper, the only man she’d ever truly loved, that she couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.
“I woke up in his bed. I have no memory of—”
Cooper shook his head as he took a step back. “You slept with him.”
“It wasn’t like that. You have to understand. I didn’t want any of this to happen. If I hadn’t been on that road...”
He raised a brow. “Are you blaming me for this?”
She swallowed. “We’ve both made mistakes.”
He stared at her, his gorgeous face a mask of anger. “Is that what this was? Payback?”
“No, it wasn’t like that.”
“Some man saves you in a blizzard and you end up in his bed—how do you explain that, Livie?”
“That’s just it. I can’t.” She wiped angrily at her tears. She could see herself sitting in the man’s cabin, sunken into a deep leather chair in front of the fire, feel the heat of the crackling blaze he’d built, taste the wine on her lips. Red. The glass in her hand glowing like rubies as the music lulled her.
“It must have been the wine.”
“The wine?”
“It was just one glass.” She remembered him refilling her glass. “Maybe two. I was cold, the fire, the wine, I hadn’t eaten...and I’d hit my head when I went into the ditch.”
Cooper shook his head angrily. “And you don’t know how you ended up in his bed.” He let out a curse as he turned away from her and rubbed angrily at the back of his neck.
The man had seduced her, just not the way Cooper thought. She’d trusted him, believing he’d saved her when all along he must have been planning to do exactly what he’d done. “I think he might have put something in my wine.”
“Are you saying he drugged you?” His jaw muscle jumped as he spun back around to look at her. “What else did he do?” Seeing her expression, he let out a curse. “So you called the sheriff, right?” When she said nothing, he let out a bark of a laugh and said, “Wouldn’t a woman who’d been drugged and possibly raped have called the sheriff on the bastard?”
“I don’t know if he drugged me or if the wine just hit me and I passed out.” She shook her head and began to cry again. “I was too embarrassed to do anything but get out of there.”
She’d blamed herself for being lured into thinking she was safe with the man. The next morning, she’d found that he’d had her car towed. It was out front, just as he’d promised. She’d quickly grabbed her things and left. Her plan had been to never look back. To never tell anyone, especially Cooper.
She would have taken the secret to her grave.
“You must have at least confronted the man the next morning,” he said, studying her with an angry, disappointed intensity that made her squirm.
She hated to admit waking up to find herself not only naked in the man’s bed, but discovering him long gone. “He’d already left.”
“Left? Without a word? Slam-bam, not even a thank-you-ma’am?”
She said nothing. What could she say? She couldn’t explain how comfortable she’d felt in the man’s company the night before. How protected. She’d relaxed, let her guard down, drank too much wine on an empty stomach. But how she’d ended up in his bed...she didn’t know. The drugged part sounded far-fetched, she had to admit. Maybe she just wanted to believe that over the alternative. She could tell Cooper certainly had his doubts about her story.
Cooper was still rubbing his neck, his face filled with anguish. She couldn’t bear the pain she was causing him. Suddenly, he froze, his gaze slowly lifting to hers. “Why are you telling me this now? Assure me it is only because you don’t want to go into the marriage with a lie between us.”
She swallowed again, choking back sobs as she tried to pull herself together. When she met his dark eyes, she cringed at the way he was looking at her. “He’s blackmailing me.”
“Blackmailing you?” Cooper let out a curse, then a bitter laugh. “Of course he is. How could I forget for even an instant that you are Buckmaster Hamilton’s daughter?” He raked strong fingers through his dark hair. “So if this man wasn’t blackmailing you, you would never have told me about this, would you have?”
“I didn’t tell you because I wanted to spare you,” she cried. “That’s why I didn’t tell you about the first blackmail demand.”
His voice turned deadly. “First blackmail demand? Are you telling me you paid this man?” He started to turn toward the door as if he had to get out of this room or he wasn’t sure what he would do.
“You can’t leave.” She reached for him, needing to touch him, to feel the connection between them.
“Give me one good reason to stay here right now.”
“There’s more.”
He turned, but took a step back out of her reach. “More?” His laugh was harsh. “You get a blackmail note and you don’t come to me, the man you say you’re going to marry? Of course not. You went to Daddy. You got the money from him, didn’t you? Why would you go to the man you say you’re going to spend the rest of your life with when you were in trouble?”
“I didn’t go to Daddy. I used some of my own money.”
“How much?” Cooper asked from between clenched teeth.
“Ten thousand.”
“You paid the man who you say possibly drugged and raped you ten thousand dollars rather than come to me with the truth?” Cooper stared at her as if he didn’t know her. “And now he wants more, right? What a surprise. The man must have thought he struck oil when you told him your name.”
Livie hadn’t told him her name, though. She’d given him the name of a friend of hers from college. She’d lied and even now she wasn’t sure why she’d done that. She guessed she’d done it because that night she hadn’t wanted to be Olivia Hamilton, daughter of Buckmaster Hamilton. And future bride of Cooper Barnett.
Apparently she’d been more angry with Cooper than she’d realized.
When she’d gotten the first note, she’d wondered how the man had found out the truth until she realized how easy it would have been for him to check her driver’s license while she was asleep. Or knocked out.
As if suddenly too exhausted to stand, Cooper lowered himself into a chair. He looked defeated. She watched him drop his head to his hands for a moment before he looked up at her. She couldn’t bear the pain in his eyes. “You didn’t trust me to help you. Livie,” he said with a shake of his head.
The way he said her name was a knife to her heart. No matter what he thought right now, she loved him and couldn’t imagine a life without him.
“How could you be so naive?” Cooper sighed. “Give me the blackmail note.”
She reached into her clutch and handed him the envelope.
He opened it carefully as if to not get any more fingerprints on it than was necessary. His gaze flew up to hers when he saw the amount her blackmailer was now demanding. “Fifty thousand dollars? When did you get this?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer, as if he’d already read the answer on her face. “Today. That’s why you had to tell me the night of our engagement party.”
“I didn’t tell you because I hated that I’d been duped like that. All this is my fault. I wanted to fix it myself. Also I was afraid you would never forgive me.”
He pocketed the blackmail note and stood as if to leave.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, suddenly scared.
“I’ll take the blackmail demand to the sheriff in the morning and let him handle this.”
“You can’t do that.”
He turned back to her, his eyes narrowing again. “Why is that? Wait,” he said. “Because of the bad publicity for your father, right? Can’t have any of that for our next president.”
“It’s not just that.” Being the daughter of a senator, she knew what bad publicity would do to her father’s political career. But right now it wasn’t her father she was worried about.
She had to tell Cooper everything, but her heart broke at the thought of dealing him the final blow. She didn’t know what he would do. Or what she would do. “I’m pregnant.”
Cooper looked as if she’d hit him with a sledgehammer. “But we were being so careful.” His features suddenly softened as if he’d dreamed of the day when she would be pregnant with his baby. Then he froze, his face transforming into a mask of shock and disbelief as he realized what she was telling him. “His baby?”
Her words fell like stones. “I can’t be sure.”
Cooper let out an inhuman sound that tore at her heart. She reached for him again, but he sidestepped to avoid her touch.
“Please, don’t walk away,” she pleaded. “You have to understand—”
“I do understand. If it wasn’t for the blackmail, you would never have told me any of this.” He let out a curse. “You would have let me believe it was my baby.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. You have to know me better than that.”
He shook his head, his look saying he didn’t know her at all.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, crying again. “I’m so sorry.”
As he walked away, the echo of his footfalls sounded like a death knell. She’d destroyed everything. When the door slammed, she feared she’d never see him again.
* * *
COOPER STUMBLED OUTSIDE, blind with pain. He hadn’t known where he was going. Even when he reached the corrals, he didn’t remember how he’d gotten there. Out here with the horses was where he’d always been at home so it didn’t surprise him this is where his footsteps had led him.
He fought to catch his breath, feeling as if he’d been kicked in the chest by one of his wild horses. He could still hear music coming from behind the house, the engagement party continuing even without the future bride and groom. The future bride and groom. The thought threatened to rip out his heart.
It all felt like a bad dream. He felt poleaxed, incapable of rational thought or even movement. He stood, his face turned up to the billions of stars twinkling in the vast sky overhead and yet he saw nothing. This wasn’t happening.
Olivia’s confession had knocked him down. He’d known something was wrong, but he’d never imagined...
He cursed himself for falling in love with his boss’s daughter. All his life he’d kept his distance from women like the Hamilton girls. Everyone in the county knew about them, beautiful but pampered and protected by their doting father, the great Buckmaster Hamilton. No man would ever be good enough for his daughters.
While Cooper had known all this, Livie had gotten under his skin. No matter how hard he’d tried to keep her at a distance, she’d still gotten to him. The rancher’s daughter and the hired hand. What made it even worse was his family background. He’d worked so hard to prove that he was not only his own man, but that he wasn’t like his family. That he was worthy. But worthy enough to marry a Hamilton?
He let out a bitter laugh at the thought.
To make matters worse, no one here even knew about his family and yet they all thought he was marrying Olivia for her father’s money. It infuriated him. He’d turned down Buckmaster’s gifts not just to prove everyone wrong, but also because he didn’t want to be indebted to the man.
Now he wasn’t sure which part of Livie’s devastating news hurt the most. The bottom line was that she hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him the truth when it had happened or even later when she’d gotten the first blackmail note and decided to take care of it herself rather than come to him.
But the pregnancy... He closed his eyes and tried to breathe. From the moment he’d fallen in love with Livie, he’d dreamed of the day they would have children. He’d seen himself with his hand on her swollen belly, imagined the feel of their child moving beneath it... Their child.
Not a blackmailer’s and possible rapist’s.
Now the bastard was demanding fifty thousand dollars? Cooper sure as hell didn’t have it—as if he would ever consider paying it even if he did. Buckmaster would pay, though. Hell, he probably wouldn’t even miss that amount. But Livie would ask her father for the money and pay the blackmailer over Cooper’s dead body. He’d take care of the blackmailer himself.
But the baby... The ache in his chest made it impossible to breathe at even the thought of her carrying someone else’s child.
At a sound behind him, he turned, expecting it would be Livie, the last person he wanted to see right now. Didn’t she know him well enough to know that now wasn’t the time?
“There you are,” Delia Rollins said as she materialized out of the darkness. “I wondered where you’d gone off to. You promised me one last dan—” The rest of her words died on her lips when she saw his face. “What’s happened?”
There was both worry and hope in those words. Delia had been his friend from the first time they’d met at the lumberyard. He’d liked her, sensing that they shared a similar background even before he’d heard about her family. Everyone in town said that the lumberyard would have gone under years ago if it hadn’t been for Delia taking it over.
“Cooper? What’s wrong?” she said, grabbing at him as he turned away. She caught the hem of his jacket. He didn’t see the blackmail note fall from his pocket as he turned his back on her. Delia was the last thing he needed right now because it would have been too easy to turn to her for comfort.
“What is this?” Delia said behind him. He turned as she held up a sheet of pale blue paper, squinting to read it in the ambient light of the ranch yard lamp. “Cooper, who’s blackmailing you?”
“It’s not mine,” he said as he took it from her.
“Not yours?” Her eyes widened as she looked at the envelope she’d taken the paper out of—and the name printed on it. “Someone is blackmailing Olivia? Why?” She let out a curse under her breath as he took the envelope from her. “What has she done to you now?”
“Delia, please. I don’t want to talk about this,” he said as he put the blackmail note back into his jacket pocket.
“Someone is demanding fifty thousand dollars? How can you not talk about it? What are you going to do? You don’t have that kind of money.”
“I’m not paying the blackmailer and neither is Livie or her father. Delia, let it drop. I’m sorry you saw the note. You can’t say anything about it.”
She stepped closer. “You know I would help you any way I could.”
He caught a whiff of her perfume, the familiar smell tugging at him. Drunk and angry, he’d made the mistake of going to Delia after a fight with Livie early on in their relationship. Things between him and Delia had always been easy—unlike his relationship with Livie. Delia accepted him for who he was. But that moment of weakness had almost cost him Livie.
He couldn’t make that mistake again, even though it would have been easy right now to turn to a woman who understood him in a way he feared clearly Livie never could. Fortunately, he recognized how vulnerable he was right now, as vulnerable as he’d ever been.
He looked into Delia’s concerned face and shook his head. “I can’t,” he said, pulling away from her comforting touch. It would be too easy to let her salve the poison bite of Livie’s betrayal.
“If you ever need someone to talk to...”
He nodded, telling himself the worst thing he could do was compound his and Livie’s problems by taking Delia up on her offer. Turning, he headed for his pickup. When he reached it, he looked back to see her watching after him.
Glancing at the house, he saw Livie standing at the window. She was crying, something he’d only seen her do once before tonight when her colt had died. That time, he’d taken her in his arms and held her. He hadn’t been able to bear seeing her in pain like that.
He hesitated now, desperately wanting to go back, dry her tears, hold this woman he loved. What if it was true that some man drugged and raped her? What if none of this was her fault? How could he turn away from her?
If only she’d come to him right after it had happened. If only she had trusted him. If only he didn’t suspect that there was more to her story than she was telling him. If it was true, what she’d said, then why did she act so guilty?
She must have seen his hesitation. Hope seemed to bloom in her beautiful face in the instant before he saw her hand go protectively to her belly. The baby. His heart broke all over again.
