keeping a nonexistent secret. The problem of being around him was much more about her reaction to seeing him again.
Despite his anger, despite the things he said and how he acted, she’d missed him. Buried under the bastard he was pretending to be was a good guy who had loved her with a devotion that made her head spin. He’d been her world and she’d walked away from him.
All these years later, she couldn’t help wondering what-if. The wonderings were complicated by the knowledge that she knew she’d made the right decision…even if it was for the wrong reasons.
“We should get to know each other,” he said, surprising her.
“Why? You hate me.”
“I don’t hate you.”
She managed a slight smile. “Very touching. And convincing. If the ranch thing doesn’t work out, you could go into advertising.”
“We have a child together, Skye. Whether we like it or not, we’re stuck together.”
She wanted to bang her head against the table. Erin wasn’t his. She knew that, but he wasn’t going to believe her. She had a bad feeling that there was a part of him that
“I don’t want to argue about that,” she said.
“Then let’s argue about something else. You’re dressed all fancy.”
She glanced down at her black suit. “I had an emergency board meeting this morning. I find it helpful to dress the part of a powerful woman. I’m faking, of course, but they don’t seem to notice.”
He frowned. “You’re on a board?”
“I run a foundation that feeds hungry children in this country. I started it six years ago with the money my mother left me. We’ve grown a lot and now feed over a million children a day.” She leaned back in her chair.
“Go ahead,” she told him. “Make fun of the rich bitch playing at saving the world.”
“Why would I do that? You’re doing a good thing. Kids shouldn’t go hungry.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it. “Okay. I thought there would be something more than that.”
The waitress arrived with their milk shakes. Skye pulled out the whole cookie on top and took a bite, then drank some of the creamy milk shake.
The ice cream slid down her throat and sugar flowed into her bloodstream. She would swear she could feel it lifting her mood already.
“Better?” he asked when she’d swallowed.
“Some.”
“What’s Izzy doing with her half of the inheritance? I can’t see her running anything.”
“She’s not the type.” Skye hesitated. “Pru didn’t put Izzy in her will. I don’t know why. Maybe she didn’t think to change it.” There hadn’t been any hint of the reasoning. When their mother died, she left her considerable fortune only to Skye. “I gave Izzy half in a trust fund. She can’t touch it until she’s thirty.”
“But you got yours at twenty?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
“I’m very responsible.”
“Izzy must hate your guts.”
Skye thought about their recent fight over T. J. Boone and Izzy’s claims that he wasn’t actually interested in Skye as a person. “We’ve had our moments. She wasn’t happy about the trust. But she’s totally wild and crazy. I didn’t want her blowing through the money. I wanted it there to keep her safe.”
“Does she see it that way?”
“She didn’t at first, but she does now. She knows I love her.”
“As long as you get to be in control.”
The dig hurt, although she did her best not to show it. “You don’t know me anymore, Mitch. It’s been a long time.”
“You’re right. There have been a lot of other relationships between then and now.”
Something she didn’t want to talk about. The other women in his life. He would have attracted plenty of attention wherever he went. He was just that kind of guy.
“Did you enjoy being a SEAL?” she asked. “Taking on the world with a Q-tip.”
He frowned. “What?”
“I thought you had all kinds of specialized training. Like how to kill someone with a Q-tip.”
He grinned. “I didn’t take the Q-tip killing class, but I learned a few things along the way. And yeah, I liked it. I liked working with my team, making a difference.”
“Erin thinks you’re personally responsible for saving the world.”
“She mentioned that. I think Fidela talks too much.”
“She loves you and is proud of you. Why wouldn’t she talk?”
He shifted in his chair, almost as if he was uncomfortable. Good. He’d earned a little squirm time.
“What’s it like being back?” she asked.
“Different. Arturo made a lot changes I didn’t expect.”
She felt her lips twitch. “Are we talking about the certified organic beef or the free-range poultry.”
“Damn chickens.”
She tried not to laugh. “On your family’s grazing land. How the ancestors must be feeling.”
“I know. It’s humiliating. I’m sure there’s good money in it, but still. What’s worth that? Chickens.” He swore under his breath. “Do you know there’s documentation on every cow. From conception to their last breath, he has to keep track of every single thing that happens to them. And if they get sick or hurt and need antibiotics, they’re no longer organic. They get pulled from the herd. It’s insane.”
“Welcome to the new organic world.”
“I told Fidela if I found tofu in our refrigerator, I was throwing her out of the house. Or soy milk. I’m not drinking soy milk.”
Skye laughed. “Big, tough, old cowboy. That’s what you are.”
He glared at her. “Very funny.”
Their gazes locked. The room seemed to fade away until there was just the two of them. Her heart pounded so fast, she thought it might jump out onto the table and flop around. The image was enough to break the spell. She looked away.
“So, um, you’re adjusting to being back,” she said, feeling awkward. “If you hadn’t gotten hurt, would you have come home?”
“No.”
“Don’t you want to think about the question?”
“There’s nothing to think about. I didn’t miss the ranch. There was nothing keeping me here.”
Not even her? Which was a stupid question. Of course he hadn’t missed her. It had been years. She’d broken his heart and that wasn’t something he would easily forgive.
“Why don’t you ask what you mean?” Mitch pushed away his milk shake. “How long it took me to get over you. Because that’s what you want to know, isn’t it? Fine. I’ll answer that question but first you answer mine. How long did it take for you to stop thinking about me when you screwed your husband?”
Skye had had a really bad week already. Despite her need for sugar, she stood, grabbed her milk shake and threw it directly at Mitch. It hit him in the center of the chest and splashed up onto his face.
“You want to hear that my late husband was a total bastard and that I cried for you every day because that gives you the right to punish me? Well, I didn’t. I loved him. Ray was a good man. A decent man. You know what? You would have liked him. That’s just the kind of guy he was.”
She grabbed her purse and stalked out, leaving Mitch alone at the table, ice cream dripping onto his lap.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE RESTAURANT WAS trendy-an upscale Tex-Mex with comfortable seating and great margaritas. Skye clutched hers in an effort to keep from downing it in a single gulp.
