Page 118 of Crosshairs

Linc was quiet a minute. “Your dad and I don’t talk much.”

“Really.” Somehow, she’d just assumed they did. They sure used to talk a lot. “What happened?”

He shrugged one shoulder, but she noticed he gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I had no business telling you what you should do. I’m sorry.”

Words she’d longed to hear for so many years. “What made you change your mind?”

“Maybe I’ve grown up. And maybe it’s because I have enough trouble figuring out my own life without trying to run someone else’s.” He gave her a wry grin. “I never should have sided with your dad.”

“Why did you?” The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it.

It lay between them like a grenade.

When Linc didn’t answer right away, she glanced at him. He stared straight ahead at the road. A mile passed, and then another. “I’d really like to know.”

He sagged against the seat and then lifted his shoulder inanother half shrug. “Part of it was what I told you back then,” he said. “I really was afraid the music business would chew you up and spit you out.”

“You might have been right about that one.”

“I take no pleasure in that.”

“You said that was part of it. What was the other?”

“The rest of it is ... The real reason was I...” He took in a deep breath and released it. “I thought if you went on the road, your feelings for me would change.”

“You didn’t trust me?”

“It wasn’t you I didn’t trust.”

“You didn’t trust yourself?”

“Me? No.” He glanced at her. “It’s just ... I didn’t trust the situation. Being on the road changes people. My parents had a happy marriage until my dad took a traveling job. I thought that might happen to us.”

“I don’t remember your folks splitting up.”

“They didn’t, but they came close after Dad cheated on Mom.”

“What?” Linc’s parents were rock solid. Things like that didn’t happen to families like theirs.

“I couldn’t believe he’d do something like that. I always worshiped my dad.” He glanced her way. “It happened my first year in high school, before we started dating. That whole year was a nightmare. Almost killed Mom. And ifhecould do it...”

Maybe he was fooling himself, but what he was saying clearly pointed to him not trustingher.

“Okay, I understand how the affair could have devastated you, but I’m not your dad,” she said slowly. “Just because he cheated didn’t mean I would, but you painted me with the same brush. You didn’t even give me a chance.”

“I know that now, and I’m sorry. It’s just that Dad had told me he was so lonely when he was gone, and there were so many temptations on the road.” Linc rubbed his hand on his pants. “He quit the traveling job and they worked it out, but, I don’t know,I guess it marked me. I hate that I ever gave you that ultimatum, but at that point, I didn’t know a lot about trust.”

She didn’t know what to say. Ainsley turned and stared out the window, seeing only a blur of green. “I guess I understand what you’re saying,” she said slowly. “But I trusted you with my dreams ... my heart.” With a sigh, she turned back to him. “You destroyed my trust, and once trust is lost, it’s hard to get back.”

61

Ainsley’s tone was so final. The hurt was still there.

Linc had to believe that if his parents could save their marriage, he and Ainsley could work things out. Only if she was willing, though. He glanced at the speedometer and eased off the gas pedal. “I’d like to try to regain your trust.”

“Do you think that’s possible?” she asked.

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