“Yes, you should have. And if you notice anything else at all suspicious—if you have any reason to be concerned—I want you to tell me, you understand? Do you have a cell phone?”
“No. I’d rather spend the money redecorating my house for now.”
He shook his head. “You spend a lot of time driving around town alone. You need a phone for safety reasons. We’ll look into getting you one first thing next week.”
He was doing it again. Making decisions for her, telling her what she should do, as if she wasn’t capable of taking care of herself. Just as too many men had done before him, beginning with her father. Maybe it was her diminutive size that made them think of her as incompetent. “In my next life,” she grumbled, “I’m going to be at least six feet tall.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about your mistaken assumption that I want or need your protection. I want to be your friend, Trent, but I don’t need a hero.”
The word made his jaw harden. “I’m no damn hero.”
She’d stumbled into his insecurities again. Maybe Trent had been treated like a hero at one time—maybe he’d even subconsciously gotten into the habit of thinking of himself in that way—but that had been before the accident. Maybe she should just end this conversation before she put her other foot in her mouth. “I’m hungry. If you’ve finished lecturing me, I’d like to go home now.”
“We could stop at Cora’s—”
She shook her head, deciding to quit while she was at least holding her own, if not ahead. “Not tonight, Trent. I’m really not up to being watched and whispered about tonight.”
“Then I’ll follow you home. Just to make sure you get there all right. And before you start arguing, remember that I have to go that way, anyway.”
She shrugged. “Then I can’t stop you, can I?”
His smile was grim. “No. You can’t.”
She was very aware of him following her as she drove home. He pulled into her driveway behind her, but didn’t get out of his truck. He merely waited until she had unlocked and opened her front door, and then he backed out and drove on. She didn’t try to detain him. She needed some time alone to think.
Did she really want to fall for a man who was rude, moody, temperamental and domineering? No.
Had she fallen for a man like that? She was terribly afraid that she had.
IT TOOK TRENT a long time to fall asleep that night. He did so only after calling himself every synonym for fool that he could remember. When the telephone rang at one in the morning, he jerked awake, his heart pounding as he fumbled for the cordless telephone on the nightstand. Calls at this hour were never good. “What?”
“Trent?” There was a quiver in Annie’s voice. “I’m sorry, I—”
“Annie, what’s wrong?”
“I—God, I feel like an idiot, but I think someone’s prowling around my house. I keep hearing someone at the back door, but I don’t see anyone out there.”
He was already out of bed, reaching for his glasses and his jeans. “Have you called the police?”
“Yes. There was another break-in at the other side of town, and I was told it would be a few minutes before anyone could get here. They said for me to keep the doors locked and wait.”
That was one of the disadvantages of living in a small town, Trent thought with a scowl. The police force was small, particularly in the middle of the night. “I’m on my way.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He hated to disconnect, but he had no choice. “Sit tight,” he said gruffly and pushed the button. He was dialing Wade’s home number even as he shoved his bare feet into his shoes and pushed one arm into the sleeve of a shirt. Wade answered on the first ring, sounding clear and alert even though he’d probably been sleeping.
Still moving toward the door, Trent quickly outlined the situation. “I’m on my way there,” he concluded, snatching up his truck keys.
“Don’t be a hero, Trent. You don’t know what you’ll run into.”
“Just get your guys over there.” Trent turned off the phone and tossed it in the general direction of a table on his way out the door.
A police car was sitting in Annie’s driveway when Trent squealed to a stop there. Apparently, the police had arrived immediately after she’d called him. He jumped out of his truck and ran to her door. She opened it just before he reached it, indicating she’d been watching for him.
“The officers are searching the woods around the house, but they haven’t found anyone,” she told him, her voice taut with tension.