Secretly Yours (The Wild McBrides 2) - Page 49

She thought there was a note of hurt behind the anger in his voice. “I’m sorry—but I knew how you would react. I knew you wouldn’t understand why I’ve been working so hard to be supporting myself. I was right, wasn’t I?”

“You’re right. I don’t understand why you would endanger your health and let yourself get in this shape just to prove a point to your father. Did you decide to clean other people’s houses because that would really get to him? Are you trying to work yourself into the hospital to make him feel guilty?”

She shook her head wearily. “You don’t understand,” she repeated.

“Yeah, well, it’s a little hard to understand when you never told me anything. And it’s a little hard to watch out for you when you don’t tell me what’s going on.”

Because she knew she’d hurt him, even unintentionally, she tried to speak gently. “Trent, I appreciate your concern, but it really isn?

?t necessary. I don’t need you to watch out for me. I left my father’s house—years later than I should have—to prove that I could make it on my own. I don’t need you to take his place as my caretaker.”

His face tightened. “Hell, Annie, I can hardly take care of myself,” he drawled gruffly.

She almost groaned. “Trent—”

“I’d better go,” he said, moving toward the door. “You know how to reach me if you need anything. And, by the way, there’s no need for you to clean my place in the morning. I’m taking the day off. It wouldn’t hurt you to do the same.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she felt compelled to say. “It just all seemed so awkward. I know it looks odd, but if you—”

“What it looks like,” Trent cut in, one hand on the door, “is that the rich girl went slumming to spite her daddy. Getting involved with an unemployed carpenter might have added a nice touch.”

“Surely you don’t believe that,” she whispered, appalled.

He shrugged. “I didn’t say I believed it. I just said it could be interpreted that way. People tend to come up with all kinds of far-fetched scenarios when the truth is kept from them. I should know. I’m a McBride, remember? Lock your doors, Annie—just in case some of those crazy scenarios have merit.”

He didn’t sound angry anymore, she decided. He didn’t even sound particularly hurt. He just sounded…tired. Resigned. And she let him go because she could think of nothing to say to explain why she’d made love with him but hadn’t been honest with him.

She crossed the room to sink into the rocking chair. Her head was pounding; she lifted her hands to her temples and pressed, though it didn’t help. She had always suspected that Trent wouldn’t react well to finding out that she was wealthy, especially as often as he had chided her for working so hard.

She had actually begun to feel guilty that he had labored so many free hours on her house when she was fully capable of paying for his work if she dipped into the trust fund she’d been so determined to live without for a while. She’d tried to repay him with equal hours at his house, but she was aware that she’d been falling behind. She had been trying to figure out a way to reimburse him financially without bruising his brittle pride. Yet she had slighted him, anyway, by letting him find out the truth from someone else. She had never actually lied to him, but she had been guilty of deliberate omission.

She had hurt him, and he wouldn’t get over that easily.

Closing her eyes, she laid her head against the back of the rocker and wondered if she should be annoyed with him for having her investigated without her permission. But he had been worried about her, he’d said. Coming from Trent, that was something.

He had just started to trust her a little—enough to show her glimpses of the real Trent behind the defensive shell he’d donned. Would she ever win that trust back?

11

EASTER SUNDAY DAWNED sunny, clear, beautiful. Annie enjoyed the church service, the music, the flowers, the little girls in frilly dresses and the little boys anxious to get outside and mess up their crisp new clothes. Her heavy mood lightened for a couple of hours, darkened only by the realization that reality would hit again when church ended and she went home to be alone with her thoughts of Trent.

Bobbie McBride had other plans for her.

“You’ll have lunch at our house today,” she informed Annie after church, as if there was no other alternative.

“Oh, no, I—”

Bobbie didn’t even seem to hear her. “My whole family will be there and I’d like to introduce you to the ones you haven’t met yet. There will be more than enough food, so no need for you to stop for anything. Just follow us home.”

“Ms. Stewart’s coming to lunch?” Approaching them just in time to overhear his grandmother’s brusque instructions, Sam beamed in pleasure. “Cool.”

“No, really, I think—”

“Oh, Annie, I’m so glad you’re coming for lunch,” Jamie gushed, coming up behind young Sam. “I’ve told Tara about you and she would love to meet you.”

Annie tried one more time to politely decline. “This is very kind of you all, but—”

Bobbie looked at her watch. “We’d better be going. I have a few more things to do to get lunch ready. Come along, Annie. Don’t be shy.”

Tags: Gina Wilkins The Wild McBrides Romance
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