he had a teenaged daughter. We all keep secrets, Dana.”
“I don’t.” There wasn’t anything secret-worthy in her past. She wasn’t excited to talk about how her father had treated her, but Garth already knew the basic story.
“He’s not with her now.”
Dana logged off the Internet. “Lord, I know. Garth didn’t know she was going to be there, blah, blah, blah. But when it came down to it, he protected her. She was stealing. And he let her get away with it.”
He’d chosen Fawn over her.
Dana would never say that. She wasn’t sure she would admit to even thinking it, but that was the bottom line.
“Fawn obviously needs help,” Lexi said. “She needs to learn to take responsibility.”
“That’s not going to happen while everyone steps in to protect her.”
“I agree.” Lexi frowned. “I’m surprised Garth did that.”
“Why?”
“He’s pragmatic,” Lexi said. “Why would he get involved with someone like that then or now?”
“He probably didn’t know when they started dating. Besides, you haven’t seen her. She’s so beautiful, she doesn’t look real. Talk about a trophy wife.”
“Garth doesn’t need a trophy. He’s young and successful. He can have anyone he wants.”
Dana sighed. “This would be you making me feel better?”
Lexi smiled. “Do you need me to? Is there something you want to tell me?”
“No.”
“Are you falling for him?”
“No one says ‘falling for him’ anymore.”
“I do, and stop avoiding the question.”
Dana leaned back in her chair. Falling for Garth? Not possible. They weren’t anything alike. He was from another planet, while she lived on this one. He was…
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I want to tell you no. I want to tell you he’s just someone I know, but I can’t. It’s too confusing. We aren’t following any rules I know.”
“Then maybe it’s time to start breaking the rules.”
“Have you met me? I don’t break the rules, I enforce them.”
“How’s that working for you?”
Dana shrugged. “Good point. I just wish she hadn’t been there.” Or that she could forget seeing Fawn melt into Garth’s arms.
“You can stay here as long as you’d like,” Lexi said.
“Thanks.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to Garth about this?”
“And be rational? No, thanks. I like wallowing in uncertainty. It’s a new experience for me.”
“Welcome to the real world.”
“When do I get to go back to the old one?”
Lexi smiled. “I have no idea.”
Later, Lexi went to her office, while Dana wandered through Cruz’s large house, feeling more uncomfortable than she did at Garth’s place. The only bright spot in her otherwise boring afternoon was a wild game of chase the string with C.C. the cat.
At three-fifteen, the doorbell rang. Dana opened it to find Garth standing there.
As always, the sight of him made her whole body go on alert. If only she could look into his dark eyes without imagining them bright with passion. She wanted to be able to look at his arms without seeing them around Fawn.
“You left me,” he said.
Why did he have to say it like that? “I needed to think. Wait a minute. It was just this morning, after you’d gone to work. How did you know?”
He shrugged. “I had a feeling. I went home and you weren’t there.”
“So you called Lexi?”
“No. I knew you’d be here.”
How? When she’d left his condo, she hadn’t known where she would go. She’d driven here without thinking.
She waited for him to ask her why. Or to get angry with her for walking out. Or to blame her for everything that had happened. Instead he stared into her eyes and said, “I’m sorry. Please come home.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DANA WANTED TO TELL HIM it wasn’t home, that she had a home. A lovely little apartment where she was never confused. But she knew what he meant and what he was asking. As she had no answer, she held the door open a little wider, to let him in, then closed it behind him.
Emotion complicated everything, she thought grimly as she followed him into the large living room. If she wasn’t confused about her feelings, she could make a decision easily. Stay with Garth because right now it wasn’t safe to be on her own. Or move in with Lexi. Or hire a bodyguard and stay at her place. There were multiple solutions…until she started thinking with something other than her brain.
Garth stood in the center of the room, watching her.
She motioned to the sofa, but he shook his head. She shrugged. “This is your party. You should do the talking.”
“Fair enough.” He cleared his throat. “I met Fawn about five years ago. She was dating some European duke or prince or something back then. I can’t remember.”
“I have that problem all the time,” Dana murmured.
He ignored the comment. “I didn’t think that much about her until she called me the next day and invited me to lunch.”
Dana found it difficult to believe any man could be in the same room as Fawn and think about anything else, but stranger things had happened.
“We went out a few times,” he continued. “I liked her well enough. She was a fun date. A violinist, so we went to the symphony a lot. I wasn’t thinking about anything serious until her father came to see me.” He looked at her. “You met him last night.”
The tall, older man who had collected Fawn? Guessing was enough-she didn’t need Garth to confirm the information. “Go on.”
“He wanted Fawn married and I seemed like a good choice. He let me know there would be many advantages to being his son-in-law.”
“Did he mention her problem with other people’s possessions?”
Garth’s expression didn’t change. “No. He didn’t say anything. I thought about what he’d said, then I talked to Fawn about it.”
“How did she feel about Daddy trying to sell her off?”
“She wasn’t surprised. I sensed there was a catch, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. We went away together for a couple of weeks to see if we could consider marriage. When things went well, I proposed.”
“So it was a business arrangement,” she said, wishing she could believe him. It was all just a little too convenient.
“At first,” he said cautiously. “The more I was around Fawn, the more I liked her.”
Why didn’t he just say he was in love with her? That was the significant information. She didn’t want to hear the words, but once she did maybe the ache in her chest would go away.
“A few months later, I found out about her problem. She liked to take things.”
“You mean steal jewelry that didn’t belong to her.”
“Yes.”
