“Poor Garth,” Skye said, from the other chair. “Do you have a blood pressure problem? Should we be worried?”
“I didn’t have one before today,” he said, unclenching his teeth.
They were in Lexi’s living room. He’d brought along a list of Titan assets with the foolish hope they would be able to easily divide them. There was plenty to go around. But would his sisters talk rationally about any of it? Of course not. They’d shifted the conversation every time he’d tried to steer it toward stocks, the racehorses or the house.
Defeated, he tossed down the papers he held and dropped his head to his hands. “I give up,” he said. “You win. What do you want?”
“Magic words,” Izzy said with a sigh.
“They are pretty,” Skye agreed.
“Not pretty enough.” Lexi groaned and shifted into a sitting position. “We want to talk about Dana.”
His head snapped up. Every sense went on high alert. “Why?” he asked warily.
“She moved out,” Skye told him.
“I know that. She said she wanted to go and she did.” He hadn’t liked her leaving, but she was an adult. He couldn’t force her to stay.
“That’s it?” Izzy demanded. “You don’t have anything more to say?”
“I miss her?”
Izzy rolled her eyes.
“She’s in love with you,” Skye said quietly. “Do you know that, too?”
“She told me.”
They all stared at him.
“And?” Lexi prompted.
“She probably doesn’t mean it.”
It was a weak response, he knew that. But it was the best he could come up with.
“Men are so stupid,” Izzy grumbled. “Dana tells you she loves you and all you can come up with is she probably doesn’t mean it? What if she does? What if she totally loves you and believes you’re the one?”
His first thought was that his luck wasn’t that good. His second was that she would expect him to love her back and that wasn’t going to happen. “She doesn’t.”
Lexi glared at him. “Are you serious? Come on, Garth. Give us something to work with here.”
“This isn’t your problem.”
“It is because we care about you both,” Skye said. “Dana is our best friend and you’re our brother. Let’s walk through this together. She said she loved you and you said what?”
“Nothing.”
All three of them stared at him.
“Nothing as in…” Izzy said.
“Nothing,” he repeated. “She told me not to say anything.”
“And you chose that moment to listen?” Izzy’s voice was a shriek.
Lexi’s annoyance turned to speculation. “You were totally freaked out,” she said slowly.
“That’s not how I would describe it.”
“But you were. You don’t want her to love you. After all, you stood in my office and said you weren’t in love with her. I believe your exact words were ‘I don’t love Dana. I don’t do love. Ever.’”
The sisters all exchanged a look. He knew exactly what they were thinking, but they were wrong.
“She wasn’t there,” he said.
“Yes, she was,” Lexi told him. “She heard it all.”
He swore silently. No way. He wouldn’t have wanted that. Wouldn’t have said anything if he’d known. “Are you sure?”
Lexi nodded.
“Talk about sucky timing,” Izzy said. She pointed at Garth. “This is all your fault.”
“Why? What did I do?”
“You hurt Dana.”
“I never asked her to care about me,” he said without thinking.
“There’s a defense,” Lexi snapped. “Dammit, Garth.”
He stood. “No way. I’m not the bad guy here. I was minding my own business.”
“You were coming after us,” Skye reminded him.
“When out of nowhere, Dana appeared.”
“You hurt us,” Lexi said. “She was protecting us. Man, you so don’t deserve her.”
He agreed with that.
He hated that he’d hurt Dana. She didn’t deserve that. She was…he didn’t know what. Special for sure. But love? He wasn’t the kind to fall in love. Out loud, he only said, “I don’t believe in love.”
Lexi nodded as if she thought that was perfectly understandable. “Yes, but the question is, do you believe in Dana?”
Garth was quiet. “What?” Izzy demanded. “What are you thinking?”
“Shh,” Skye said. “Let him be. He’s a guy. This isn’t easy.”
He ignored that and them.
He’d always told himself he didn’t want to fall in love. That love was all risk and no benefit. He’d won-he had it all. And without Dana, what was it worth?
He wanted to be with her, to share his life with her. He wanted to make her laugh, make her happy. He wanted her crabbiness and her humor, her stubborn determination and her tender heart.
“What the hell have I done?”
“Finally,” Lexi said, and collapsed back on the sofa. “I’m exhausted.”
Izzy tilted her head. “I could almost hear the rusty gears grinding in place. I wonder if Nick went through the same kind of thing. I’ll have to ask him.”
“There’s a conversation designed to make him feel good,” Skye murmured.
“What do I do?” Garth asked. “How do I fix this?”
“Not our problem,” Lexi told him. She picked up the list he’d brought. “Back to dividing up the assets you bought. There are a few personal things I want from the house. A desk in the east guest room. One set of china.”
“The one with the blue flowers?” Skye asked. “You always liked that pattern.”
“That’s the one.”
“There’s a great set of flatware that goes with it, and you should take some of the crystal.”
“Okay.”
“I want the racehorses,” Izzy said. “When they retire, they can come live on the ranch. Rita will be thrilled.” She turned to Garth. “Rita runs the stable.”
“I don’t care about who gets what,” he said, frustrated again. “You have to help me.”
They weren’t listening and he had a feeling it was on purpose.
“I’m thinking Garth,” Izzy said.
“You should have it,” Lexi told him. “You earned it.”
“Plus we can have Christmas Day there,” Skye said.
Wait a minute. “You said you were having Christmas at Cruz and Lexi’s place.”
“We changed our minds,” Izzy told him. “Just as an FYI, you need a really big tree. I know where all the ornaments are, if that will help.”
“It won’t.”
“I have the name of several caterers,” Skye added. “I’m guessing you won’t want to cook.”
“We are not having Christmas at Glory’s Gate.”
