Black Opal (3 page)

“He and his older brother are outside trying to join their father in the hospital.” Julienne set her tea cup on the tray and took out her cell phone. “I’ll let him know you’re here.” Her fingers flew over the display, and I heard the familiar swoosh sound as she sent her text message.

“Thanks.” I bit into something totally unfamiliar. “I’m sorry to hear of your husband’s accident.”

“I told Big Rick a hundred times he’s too old to be out there working alongside the younger men. But he thinks not doing it would mean he’s getting old—which he is—so he never listens.” She pursed her lips. “He scared all of us. Then, the old goat tried to leave the hospital, and that started another panic. The doctors expect him to make a full recovery.”

“I hope I’m not keeping you from visiting him at the hospital.” Actually, I hoped I was. Then, maybe I could get out of this uncomfortable situation.

“Oh, dear, no.” Julienne laughed. “Rick’s used to being the boss, and he can’t stand not being in charge at the hospital. I’d prefer not to see all the awful fits he pulls.”

“Daddy made one of the nurses cry yesterday,” said Madeleine.

A few months ago, I’d have been horrified and classified Dean’s father as someone I’d prefer not to meet. But the last several months of dealing with Memaw’s failing health had opened my eyes to a whole new world. Some people didn’t have the patience to be patients. A little stab of guilt for leaving Memaw alone worked its way into me even though her doctor promised to check in on her.

“Remember when Big Rick got food poisoning from that roadside stand?” Lisette’s dark eyes met and held Julienne’s.

“Do I ever,” the older woman laughed. “I thought he would go into shock and die before he let us take him to the hospital.”

“Lisette grew up with my older children,” Julienne told me. “Her mother had…health problems, and we sort of took her in.”

Lisette glanced at me, silently asking if I understood she’d been around way longer than I had. I dropped my gaze to my feet. It wasn’t in my nature to back down, but this place had me off my game. Nothing was as I’d imagined. I wished I could take back the decision to come storming into Dean’s life. Had a black hole to nowhere opened in the floor, I would’ve swan dived into its depths. Feeling eyes on me, I glanced up. Lisette beamed at me.

“Health problems?” Lisette snorted, still smiling like she’d just won something big. I guess she had. “She was a mean-mouthed lush.”

Dean’s mother flushed, and his sister looked at her watch. The sound of a door opening interrupted our uncomfortable silence. Dean’s voice echoed through the house. “Mom?”

“We’re in the parlor, son. Take off your shoes and leave them outside the door.” Dean’s mother flashed another smile at me. I made myself smile back even though regret hung over me like a dark cloud. Y
ou should have stayed home, girl. Oh well.
Another stupid decision in a life full of ‘em.

###

Dean padded into the room, sweaty, dirty, and shoeless. He grinned when he saw me and said, “Isn’t it usually you who looks like you crawled through a mile of mud?”

I felt an unwanted little bolt of joy at seeing Dean. Then I reminded myself to be annoyed. Dean’s family, while nice enough, were wealthy beyond what I could comprehend. His choice not to tell me about them didn’t look or feel good.
I shouldn’t have come here.

Madeleine tugged Dean’s arm and crossed her eyes at him. He arranged his face into an expression of mock outrage and stuck his nose into the air. Formalities complete, he crossed the room, heading straight for me.

“Don’t touch the furniture.” Julienne held up one finger, a gesture that had more command than any amount of shouting she could have done.

I stood, butterflies turning somersaults in my stomach. Somehow I expected him to act different now. I knew his secret. But he held his arms open to me, and, forgetting my irritation with him, I hugged him tight. He pulled back from me, his eyes twinkling, obviously thrilled to see me.
If he didn’t mind me showing up, why didn’t he tell me about these people?

“I’m so glad you’re here.” He inhaled deeply and squeezed me again. “I thought my nosy mother and sister would drive me crazy asking questions about you.”

Feeling eyes on me, I glanced up to find Lisette glaring at me, hectic spots of red flaming on her high cheekbones.
Now that’s more like it.
Was her frequent presence what kept Dean quiet about his family? He said their marriage went down in flames. The details I knew made it surprising she still showed her face here.

I glanced at Dean, hoping for a hint of the situation between them, but he was engaged in exchange of nonverbal insults with his sister. Now that I thought about it, he hadn’t even acknowledged Lisette. Her eyes followed every move he made, though. She caught me looking at her and immediately switched back to her cool as a cucumber routine.
Interesting. Chick’s a hell of an actress.
I ignored her to watch Dean’s and Madeleine’s antics. This side of him was almost charming.

“Don’t do that to her,” I said. “It might warp her for life.” Everybody, except Lisette, laughed. I retrieved the box holding Dean’s wallet and gave it to him. Using a pocket knife, he cut open the box as though it was a special gift. Lisette made Godzilla eyes at us. I made a point to keep my back turned to her, letting her know she didn’t scare me.

“You don’t know how much I appreciate this.” Dean glanced at one of the brocade-covered love seats and received a look from his mother so scathing it burned even me. He shuffled foot to foot.

“Let’s just go outside. Your mother has enough to worry about without you filthying the house.” I wanted to get him alone so I could find out why he never told me he was richer than the richest people I knew, why he didn’t invite me to his sister’s birthday dinner, and what vehicle he drove here to richie-ville. Not knowing those things made me wonder if Dean considered me more of a friend with benefits than a girlfriend. Had I misread our relationship? I didn’t like the feeling of horror creeping over me at this thought.

Dean led me through an open room bigger than the house I shared with Memaw. The crystal chandelier hanging many feet overhead looked as big as my bed. Dean pulled my arm and motioned me into a dark passage.

“What is this?”

“Servant’s passage. They’re all over this house.”

“This place is massive.” I still couldn’t wrap my head around Dean growing up here.

“This old monstrosity has seventy-five rooms.” He pulled me through the passage, which ended at a closed door. Dean pushed it open, and we exited onto the turreted wing I noticed when I arrived. “There are sections of the attic I’ve never even ventured into.”

Part of me wanted to let all the things that didn’t add up fall by the wayside, have a nice visit with Dean, and drive back to Texas. But, now, I’d planted seeds of doubt in my own mind. I had to know why he’d worked so hard to keep me away from this side of his life. Embarrassment? If so, we could end things right here.
Maybe he just ain’t that into you, Peri.
I cringed.

Dean sat on the stone steps and slid his feet into lace-up hiking boots. Feeling my stare, he twisted to look at me. He frowned at whatever he saw on my face. “Let’s get away from the house before you let loose on me.”

3

Dean led me away from the house and the workers on the lawn. A few of them popped their heads up to watch us walking. Neither of us spoke. Tense with anger and trepidation, I wrung my hands. The cloud-filled sky darkened to the color of bruises and thunder boomed in the distance. Dean gazed at the horizon and heaved a sigh.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get this over with. You’re pissed because Lisette’s here, right?”

“Is that what you think?” I rolled my eyes, knowing it would ignite Dean’s fury. “This is about secrets. Your secrets.”

“Secrets?” His eyes widened and darted back at the house. “What secrets?”

He knew exactly what secrets I meant. His babe in the woods routine would not work on me.

“I saw your Trans-Am in the garage when I picked up your wallet. How’d you get here?”
Did he expect me to believe he friggin’ walked?

“I drove.” Dean furrowed his brow.

Boy that told me a lot.
“Exactly
what
did you drive?”

Dean glanced at my forty-year-old Nova in the fenced in parking area and gestured at the BMW sitting next to it. “That’s my other car. The dependable one.”

“You never told me you had two cars. Why?”

“I didn’t realize it was a big deal.” Dean shoved his hands in his pockets and picked up the pace.
Liar. He knew it would be a big deal to me. Otherwise, he’d have mentioned it.

I tagged after him, the silence growing more tense with each step. Thunder rumbled, and I smelled rain coming. Dean and I passed tennis courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool complete with a guesthouse, and stopped at a huge structure I assumed was a horse barn. The opulence annoyed me all the more. Why had Dean put a curtain up between his two lives? The first drops of rain slapped the already saturated ground, and he pulled me into the huge structure.

“The damn car doesn’t matter, and you know it. What’s crawled up your ass?” He put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes at me.

“We’ve been dating for six months, and you never told me about this?” I swept my arms wide. “Hell, you never even mentioned your family. Your sister said she asked you to include me in her birthday dinner. You didn’t do it. Why?” My shame came rushing back, and I wanted to curl up, to lick my wounds, to run away. “Are you ashamed of me?”

“Oh, come on. The timing hasn’t been right.” He crossed his arms over his chest, completely ignoring the question I asked. “Your grandmother’s cancer has you stressed. You’re so tired you can barely take care of your business. Can you honestly tell me you’d have welcomed meeting my family in the middle of all that?”

“Maddy said she wanted to meet me, but you never even mentioned it to me. You could have let me make my own choice.”

“I was spending the night, getting a hotel room.” He spoke through clenched teeth and balled his hands into fists so veins stood out in his arms. “Since you refuse to spend a whole night in the same bed with me, I didn’t want to put you on the spot.”

I jerked, wanting to crawl under the worn boards at my feet. I couldn’t have looked like a bigger jackass if I’d planned it. Over the past six months, Dean had hinted, joked, and finally given me the key to his house to make clear he wanted me to spend the night. And I couldn’t. Just couldn’t.

When things got quiet, I itched to go home, sleep in my own bed. In some dark, hidden part of my mind, I thought not spending the night with Dean might keep him from hurting me. Because, in the end, they all left—my father, my mother, my ex-husband, my friends. It wasn’t that I kept my feelings secret. There was no way to make him understand.

A board creaked overhead. Dean and I both peered into the open loft to see a man looking down at us. I gasped. It was the same drunk who confronted me in the parking lot. He climbed out of the loft and walked toward us.

###

I backed away. Dean frowned at my reaction and stepped in front of me, separating me from the stranger. The man—what did Beautiful call him? Trey?—took slow steps toward us, his hands held out in front of him.

“Miss, I am so sorry I upset you earlier. Sometimes my drinking gets the best of me.”

I moved closer to Dean until my hip bumped him. He reached one arm behind him and held it across me, as though one arm could protect me if this guy attacked us. Something about the man felt off, and he scared me. Had I been alone, I’d have thought both he and the gorgeous man I met earlier were ghosts, that the fuckers had now gained the ability to speak with me.

“What’s going on here?” Dean kept himself between the man and me.

“I scared your girl in the parking area.” A mottled red flush spread down Trey’s neck and disappeared into his shirt. Pity washed over me. I didn’t want to get this sick little man in trouble.

“I overreacted…Trey? Is that it?” I peeked around Dean.

Twisting his baseball cap in his hands, Trey ventured a glance at my face and nodded.

“Forgive me, Trey. I was in an unfamiliar place, and you surprised me.”

Trey nodded and turned his attention to Dean. “Hate to say it, but y’all getting sort of loud. Horses don’t like it. With the storm outside, they’re a little jumpy.”

“No problem.” Dean motioned me to follow him from the barn.

Even the dark sky didn’t hide the anger etched into Dean’s face. Cold rain pattered down on us, chilling me and adding to my foul mood. Before I could voice a smart-assed remark and make things worse, he said, “I wanted to tell you about my family, introduce you to them, but I didn’t know if you wanted to take that step.”

He meant because I wouldn’t spend the night with him. I guessed he wondered where he stood with me. Same thing I wondered about him. I gulped but said nothing. If Dean was guilty of putting a curtain between me and this other life of his, I was guilty of keeping myself separate from him.

“Peri, I can’t do this indefinitely.” Dean glanced at the fenced parking lot where his fancy BMW sat next to my old clunker and wiped the rain off his face. “There are things I love about you, but this isn’t one of them.”

My face heated, and my words came out swinging. “Can’t keep doing what?”

“Walking on eggshells for you. I know you’ve got trust issues, and I get it. But I can’t ride through one of your upheavals every time something scares you.”

My toes curled as embarrassment stung me.
Do I freak out that often? But who is he to talk about trust issues? I do a good deal of tiptoeing around for him, too.

“Like you’re well-adjusted. Before yesterday, I thought you were either estranged from your parents or they were no longer living. And you’re riding my ass about trust?”

“Okay. Neither of us is easy. Point taken.” Dean held out both hands. He shook his head and let out a sigh. “All this is why I cringed when Memaw called and said you were on the way. I knew you’d see all this, see Lisette here, and feel insecure.”