Cal inhaled deeply and raked his fingers through his hair. “I’m his lawyer. He’s been in trouble before.”
Dismayed, she thought about his answer. “Your brother has been in trouble with the police? You said he worked in Houston as a car salesman.”
“Juliana, I should have told you.”
“Why didn’t you?” she asked, realizing again how much he kept things to himself, shocked that he still did after the intimate moments they had shared.
“At first, I didn’t want to tell you for obvious reasons. Then it was easy to put off telling you. Lately, I’ve meant to and have just forgotten about it.”
Her shock transformed to anger. “Like you forgot to tell me you were having repairs done to the house! What else are you holding back from me? Your brother is wanted by the police, and you didn’t mention it?” Hurt and anger mush- roomed within her. “I trusted you! You don’t know one thing about keeping someone’s trust. Has your brother been in jail?”
“Yes, and in prison,” Cal said in clipped tones, staring at her and seeing Andrea all over again, remembering when Andrea had learned about Webb and screamed at him about having a jailbird in the family when her father hoped to run for senate someday. He could hear her screaming at him about his notorious brother ruining her life in Dallas society.
His anger grew. At the same time, disappointment crashed through him because he had expected Juliana to be more forgiving and tolerant. He should have told her, but this was why he hadn’t. He knew he would lose her.
“How could you have kept that secret from me?” She trusted Cal, telling him about everything in her life. Yet he wouldn’t share or deal with her with the same openness and honesty. “Your parents knew, you knew—”
“Yes, I did,” he snapped, thinking he was twice the fool for giving his heart. Only this time he had given more and loved more. And it was going to hurt more.
Juliana’s face flushed and fires danced in the depths of her blue eyes. “How could you! You don’t know anything about trust!”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t go through with the marriage.”
“You would do anything to get your hands on money!” she cried.
“Dammit. I should have told you about Webb, but then you wouldn’t have married me. I had a tough enough time talking you into it, as it was,” he said in a rush. He placed his hands on his hips. “I needed the money for Webb’s de- fense.” He also needed it for his parents’ medical bills, but he didn’t want to sound as if he were whining about his needs. And he figured it wouldn’t matter whether he told her or not. It was Webb’s police record that sent women running.
“From the start I told you that trust was important to me,” she said. “I have no idea what else you’re hiding or what you’ll hide from me in the future.”
“What future?” he asked in a flat voice.
She stared at him, hurt and furious with him because he didn’t seem to understand anything about trust and hon- esty. “There can’t be one when there is a—”
“You don’t have to say it,” he interrupted cynically, knowing she was going to say jailbird or something equiv- alent. “I knew this is how it would be,” he said.
“You still have your precious money,” she said, hurting more than she had ever hurt before, “but I don’t want you in the same bedroom.”
His eyes narrowed and he inhaled swiftly, turning to yank up his tie and cross the room to get his jacket. He went to his chest of drawers, yanking out clothing, going to the closet to snatch his jeans and a T-shirt. “I’ll get the rest later. I’ll stay out of your way and out of your life.” He strode across the room and through the door that slammed behind him.
Numbly, she stared after him and ran her fingers across her forehead. Why hadn’t he trusted her? She realized it just was not in the man to trust someone else. And he was gone now, but that’s the way she wanted it because she couldn’t love someone or live with someone she couldn’t trust. Yet, why did she feel as if he had ripped out her heart and taken it with him?
She walked to the window and looked at the yard and the new corral that Cal, the boys and Stoddard were building. The boys were hammering on it as she watched, Red stretched in the grass near them and Snookums curled on the low branch of an oak.
The boys. Losing Cal would break their hearts just as she had once feared. Quin had made wonderful improvements, coming out of his shell, beginning to trail around with Cal the way Josh did. And Cal spent so much of his time at home doing activities with the boys. She paused, thinking about Cal playing ball with them, seeing his hands deftly catching and throwing the ball, teaching Chris how to swing a bat, patiently working with all three of them. She gave in to a sob. Why was he so marvelous on one hand and so un- trustworthy on the other? Why hadn’t she kept up the bar- riers between them and avoided hurt?
She turned around to look at the bed and remembered the wild nights and the passion they shared. She shook with hurt and anger and went to strip back the covers and rip off the sheets, yanking at them in fury, heedless of tears burning her eyes or streaming down her cheeks.
Why hadn’t he told her about his brother? If he had been ashamed to admit his brother’s criminal record, he should have realized he couldn’t hide it forever. Bitterly, she clenched her fists in the sheet she held in her hands. He hadn’t told her
