Читать книгу Texas-Sized Scandal - Katherine Garbera - Страница 13

Two

Melinda wished she’d left the door closed, but manners had forced her to open it and now the plan she’d hatched to break up with Slade and get back to her normal life wasn’t going to be easy at all. He stood there, looking so hot, his square jaw with a little bit of stubble, his thick black hair curled a little on the top and his lips firm. And oh, her stars, she really wanted nothing more than to blurt out everything that had happened since Angela had left that morning. But she hadn’t yet decided what she was going to do about anything.

“I’m actually glad you stopped by,” she said. “Can I get you something to drink? Maybe some sweet tea or lemonade?”

“I’m fine. I’m more concerned that you haven’t returned my texts or calls. What’s up?”

“Oh, well, are you sure you don’t want something to drink? Even water?” she asked. She was stalling and though she normally prided herself on being brave and facing difficult situations, she was going to give herself a pass today. She really had more than one woman should have to deal with. An image of the seven—SEVEN—pregnancy tests she’d taken lined up on her bathroom counter flashed into her mind.

“I’m positive,” he said. “What’s going on, babe? I know you don’t like the media spotlight, but it was one kiss and, honestly, the photo isn’t that bad. Are you concerned that you might be linked to the rumors about your father? I know I’m probably the last man you want by your side while murder rumors are swirling.”

The murder victim had been found at the Texas Cattleman’s Club newest site in Houston, at her father’s Perry Construction site, and the victim was Vincent Hamm, a Perry Holdings employee, and her father was on the short list of suspects.

She shrugged, searching for the words. She couldn’t just blurt out that she liked to rise above scandal. That she expected more of herself and her family or that she didn’t like for anyone to see her looking so...well, totally enthralled by him. Slade gave off that aura of danger and that was part of what drew her to him, but the truth was she didn’t want the world—rather, her world, the Houston society circle she traveled in—to see that embrace and judge her.

“It’s a lot of things. Frankly, I think we both know we aren’t right for each other,” she said. “I figured I was a novelty for you, and you’d get bored and break up with me before this.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not bored. Are you?” he asked. His tone was almost belligerent, but she could sense the vulnerability beneath it.

She’d learned that being Carlo Bartelli’s son brought with it a lot of expectation of the kind of man Slade was. And he spent a lot of his time pretending not to be upset by being prejudged by his last name.

She chewed her lower lip before she realized what she was doing. She’d never be bored with Slade. He was exciting and everything that she’d always dreamed of finding in a man. But dreams weren’t reality and she knew that better than most. She’d always wanted a picture-perfect family and hers was far from that.

“No, I’m not bored, but we really aren’t cut out to be a couple. I mean, when I saw that photo I blushed remembering everything that followed. But you... What did you do?”

He came closer to her and she stepped back, which made him pause. She wasn’t normally someone who backed down from anything, but honestly, she wasn’t prepared to be in the middle of this kind of mess. It was one thing to stand on the sidelines and offer advice to Angela or sympathy to her father, but to have the papers talking about her? That wasn’t in her plan. But heck, when had anything gone according to plan since Slade had come into her life?

“Are you afraid of me?”

“No, never,” she admitted. “It’s me. I have no self-control around you, Slade.”

“From my point of view, that’s a good thing,” he said with that wicked smile of his that made her remember all the reasons why she’d kissed him at the opera the night before.

She felt the blush creeping up her neck and cheeks and shook her head. She wished she could stop doing that, but she’d never been able to control it. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The reason why we need to break up. I mean, is that too high school for us?”

“No,” he said.

“No?” Which part was he saying no to? Did he think they should stop seeing each other? Or that the term breakup wasn’t too high school? Why did she do that? She always asked complex questions because her mind was constantly running with a million thoughts.

“Both. We aren’t breaking up and it’s not too immature to say it. I’m not going to let one picture taken by some intruding paparazzo intrude on us.”

She loved the way he sounded. So in control of his life and never letting the outside dictate who they were. But at the same time, she knew that it wasn’t that simple. At the end of the day, rumors still abounded about him being a mobster, even though he had reassured her he wasn’t part of his father’s illegal operations.

And now there was an even bigger reason she needed to walk away from Slade. She was pregnant. All those home test kits had proven her suspicions.

From now on, she had to make all of her choices based on that. Before, it was okay for her to pretend that Slade was going to turn out to be one of the white knights she read about in her books. But real life told her that a man who lived as large as he did would never be happy with her quiet life.

She knew that.

She had to remember that.

She couldn’t be tempted by the way he offered her everything she’d ever wanted.

She had to think of her baby.

“What are you thinking?” he asked. “You’re looking at me with both longing and fear, and I’m not sure what to make of that.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m thinking that as exciting as it is dating you, I know that there is no future in this. I think we should stop seeing each other.”

“No.”

She shook her head, not sure she’d heard him properly. She smiled and tried again. “I mean you and I really are two different types of people and it makes more sense for us to stop going out.”

“No,” he said again.

She took another deep breath. Sometimes people didn’t take her seriously because she was soft-spoken and polite, and they took her ladylike manners and modest dress to mean she was a pushover. But Slade should know better. The fact that he didn’t just cemented in her mind that they definitely weren’t meant to be.

And he was making her lose her temper.

“You can say no as much as you want, but at the end of the day, my decision is final. I’m not going to go out with you anymore. I’m not going to be on the society pages kissing you. I know it seemed to you as if I were asking you what you thought, but I wasn’t. I’m telling you. This is over.”

* * *

This was worse than he’d thought, but he’d faced tougher situations. For a moment, Slade thought about just leaving. It was the lady’s request, but he wasn’t entirely sure that she wanted him gone. He had been walking a tightrope with Melinda since they’d met in a committee meeting.

He remembered that afternoon vividly. She’d been dressed very prim and proper, yet she’d made some hilarious comments under her breath to him while the meeting had been going on. Then apologized later because she’d said she was used to his nonna getting her sense of humor. She’d been such a contradiction that he couldn’t help but want to learn more about her. So, he’d asked her out.

She’d said no.

He’d asked her out again, claiming he needed her help because he was representing the Conti family, and she immediately said yes. One thing had led to another and they’d wound up in bed. He couldn’t regret any of it.

And he wasn’t ready for it to end. If he believed that she was asking him to leave her alone because it was what she wanted, he’d do it in a heartbeat. But a big part of him thought it was due to the photo in the paper. She didn’t like the limelight. She left that to her twin, Angela, and just kept to her quiet philanthropic work.

Her family had been one scandal after another lately and he knew that Melinda had been trying to rise above it while being supportive of everyone. Her twin was engaged to her daddy’s business rival—Ryder Currin of Currin Oil—a man rumored to have had an affair with her mother years ago.

He knew he had to handle this delicately and if when he was done trying to convince her to give him another chance she still wanted him out of her life, he’d leave.

“I don’t think you can just dictate things in our relationship,” he said. “That’s not really fair, is it? Is it because I’m a Bartelli?”

“Slade, you know I don’t hold your family’s reputation against you. You’ve assured me you have no part in that criminal world and I believe you,” she said.

“Thank you for that,” he said. He was always having to prove he wasn’t a thug to most of the people he met. And as much as he was using the details of his life to make himself seem not good enough for her, he knew she’d jump to defend him.

“You don’t have to thank me for that,” she said, reaching out to gently squeeze his forearm. “You’re a good man. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“I won’t,” he said, taking her hand in his and running his thumb along the back of her knuckles. She shivered delicately.

“Is it because your family doesn’t like me?”

“Seriously, if they ever met you, I’m sure you’d have them eating out of your hand in no time,” she said. “You can be very charming when you want to be.” She pulled her hand away from his. “I see what you’re doing.”

“What am I doing?”

“Trying to point out that there are a lot of good reasons for us to keep dating. But, Slade, you haven’t taken into consideration that we are at our core very different people. I’m single, but there is a part of me that is always hoping that whomever I date will turn into Mr. Right-for-Me. I want the whole shebang—husband, family, big house in the suburbs—and when I’m being honest with myself, I can’t see you as that guy to give them to me,” she said.

He couldn’t argue with that. “I’m not ever having kids, you know that. I don’t want a child of mine to have to grow up like I did in the shadow of my father’s reputation.”

He’d told her that on the first night they’d gone out. They had stayed up until the early hours of morning, talking about life and family and just everything. He had been honest with her because she was Melinda and she was different from the other women he’d hooked up with. For one thing, she was his age and she didn’t seem to be a part of the hook-up culture. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her in the long run. He still didn’t.

And when she framed her objection to their being a couple that way, it was hard for him to keep on with his plan to talk her into not dumping him.

“I get that. I know I’m not a family man,” he said. “But I’m not ready to say goodbye, Melinda.”

She tipped her head to the side, studying him for a long moment before she nodded. “I’m afraid if I don’t end things now, I never will, and when you do walk away, I won’t find the man I need who can give me what you are making me realize I want.”

Her words just made this even harder. She wanted him to stay but to turn into the man she dreamed of. And if there had ever been a man who was made for Melinda, he was the polar opposite of that. He knew the gentlemanly thing to do would be to walk out that door and never see her again. She was too good, too honest for the likes of him. But as much as he wanted to believe he wasn’t a Bartelli through and through, he knew he was.

And he wanted her for himself. All he’d have to do was pretend he’d reconsider, and she’d be his, but he wondered if he could live with himself if he did that. Nonna always said one white lie was all it took to start down the path to the gray area that his father operated in. One where crimes were framed in a way to make it seem as if there were no other option.

He had to find a way to convince her to give him another chance. Because he wasn’t ready to let her go. Not yet.