After Piper’s bath, Dallas read her a story and tucked her in. Her own bed pulled at Dallas. Her usual glass of wine didn’t even sound good. She dropped on her pillow, feeling drugged though she hadn’t taken anything. A few minutes later, her phone rang. The caller’s name filled her with dread. Cash. Dropping the cell unanswered on the nightstand, she turned over, grasping for the reprieve of sleep.
Tuesday afternoon, after moving through her day like a sleepwalker, she arrived home with Piper, determined to get her fed and ready for bed early. Her phone rang as she lay on the couch while her daughter ate dinner in the kitchen. Heart sinking, Dallas read Cash on the caller ID. She couldn’t dodge him anymore. Punching the green-lit button, she said, “Hi, Cash. How are you?”
“Worried.” His voice, full of anxiety, sounded loud over the line. “You haven’t answered my calls. Is everything okay?”
Telling Cash that she needed to spend more time with Piper didn’t seem right. He always went out of his way to include her daughter in the time they spent together. With an overwhelming need to be honest, she said, “It’s ... ah ... I’m having a hard time...” God, how could she say she didn’t trust him? It sounded so wrong.
“What is it, honey? Let me help you.” His concern came through loud and clear.
She signed heavily. There was no way to make this sound nice. “Something’s happened. I mean, I don’t really know you at all. I don’t know I can trust—”
“I’m coming over.” He hung up.
God, what had she done? The last thing she wanted was to meet him face-to-face. Every muscle in her body felt limp, lifeless. She couldn’t see Cash. Not like this. Not tonight.
Piper walked in. “I’m done, Mommy. Can I watch cartoons now?”
“How about we take your bath first, honey?” Escorting her daughter to the bathroom, she searched every inch of her being for the strength to face the man who’d be knocking at her door in an hour.
WITH HIS MIND FRACTURED into a million crazy thoughts, Cash sped toward Dallas’s house. What the hell was the woman thinking? She didn’t know him? Didn’t know if she could trust him? Where in God’s name did that come from? The woman may as well have hit him with a shovel. Dammit. He’d done nothing to give her cause to doubt him.
He shook his head, gritting his teeth. Her past few days of silence, except for that damn happy face, had driven him crazy. He’d imagined all sorts of awful things that might be going on. The worst of which was that she’d dumped him and chosen the lawyer. He pressed his lips together. It could still be that, couldn’t it? She might have been spouting excuses on the phone. Gusting out a breath, he rubbed his forehead hard. He really hoped not. He loved Dallas. No way was he losing her to that freaking guy.
Later, after knocking firmly on Dallas’s door, he promised himself that he would be calm and listen to what she had to say, despite his frustration.
She opened the door, and the first thing that popped into his mind was that she looked bedraggled. He instantly shifted gears from angry and hurt to extremely concerned for Dallas. Drawing his brows together, all he could think to say was, “Hey.”
“Hey.”
Everything he planned on saying now felt wrong. He had to find out what she was going through. Forget about his feelings.
As he entered, the house was quiet. “Where’s Piper?”
“I put her to bed a little early tonight so we could talk.”
He followed her to the living room and sat on the couch, giving her plenty of space. “So, tell me, what’s worrying you?”
Dallas eased down on the cushion and pulled a throw pillow against her stomach, her eyes downcast. “I’m sorry you came all this way tonight, Cash.”
Frustrated, he said more sharply than he meant to, “I had to, dammit.” He sighed and went on calmly, “Dallas, I don’t think you know how much you mean to me. Will you tell me what’s wrong?”
Her fingers tightened on the pillow. “There’s this guy...he...” Her voice trailed off and she looked away from him, as if frustrated.
He clenched his fists. “What? Did he hurt you?” His pulse pounded.
She looked up with a startled expression. “No, no, that’s not it.”
He blew out a hard breath and unclenched his hands, urging her, “Start from the very beginning.”
Picking at the design on the colorful pillow, she slowly told him about seeing Doug and how angry his betrayal made her. “Suddenly, I thought, how do I know I can trust you or Ethan? Everything I believe about you could be lies.”
She paused to gather her thoughts. “Cash, I lived with Piper’s father for a year and a half, and he planned to leave me and move back east without telling me. And, after saying for two years how much he loved me, when I got pregnant, he wanted nothing to do with my baby. How am I supposed to trust? I never saw any of that coming, and it nearly destroyed me. I can’t trust right now. Not you or Ethan.”
Her eyes were red with tears. It was all Cash could do to keep from pulling Dallas into his arms and comforting her as she spoke. He had a feeling that doing so wouldn’t be right. She needed to stand on her own two feet while she faced up to her feelings.
He slid a little closer to her and picked up her hand. It was icy cold and he sandwiched her fingers between
