Page 17 of Lone Star Country Protector
Chapter Seven
Dalton fixed a cup of coffee for Blakely, keeping close tabs on the conversation going on in the next room in case emotions escalated and he needed to intervene. Blakely was doing a stellar job of bringing calm to the situation. And he learned something else this morning. For reasons he might never know or understand, Blakely Adamson would never trust him.
The reality shouldn’t cause a knot to form in his chest or a sense of dread to tighten around him like a vise. What the hell? The weekend he’d spent with her had been filled with great conversation, humor and the best sex of his life. He needed to let it go and move on because she was all business now. Her normal mode?
Easier said than done, buddy.Especially while he was standing in her kitchen, wanting to dig deeper to find out her secrets.
“Please think about what I said last night,” Greg said.
“It’s time to go,” Blakely stated as Bethany returned to the kitchen, looking like she’d just lost her best friend.
Had she?
“You think you know what your life is, and then someone pulls the rug out from underneath your feet,” she said, returning to her spot at the granite island. She looked overat Dalton as he set Blakely’s coffee mug down where she’d been sitting moments ago.
“Life can throw curveballs,” he agreed.
“People!” Bethany smacked the flat of her palm against the hard surface. “People can throw curveballs!”
“Yes, they can,” he agreed as she took in a couple of slow, deep breaths. He’d seen her sister do the same thing to calm fried nerves.Family trait?A change of subject was in order. “What about your father?”
“What about him?” she asked.
“Are you close?”
“He’s gone,” Bethany admitted. She went from white-hot anger to normal on her next exhale. “He and my mother have been gone a long time. Car crash.” Those words resonated. Too many lives were lost on Texas roadways. I-45, the road connecting Galveston to Houston and on up to Dallas, takes more than its fair share of lives every year.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, drawing on as much compassion as he could muster.
Bethany tilted her head to one side. “Looks like you have personal experience. Have you lost someone you loved too?”
“Grandparents,” he stated with shame. He’d been in Galveston for work, not play, when he’d spent the weekend with Blakely. He’d been waiting for word because a felon he was tracking was supposed to show up there. Never did. But he couldn’t bill the weekend as a total loss. Not when he’d met Blakely instead. Still, shame was a heavy cloud—he’d been having the best time of his life while his grandparents were in comas. Had Blakely provided a much-needed escape from his life? It had been the first time he’d felt anything but numb since hearing about the crash that nearly claimed his beloved grandparents’ lives. Still might. “They weredriving home and ended up in a single-vehicle accident that left them both in comas.”
“Now I’m the one who is sorry,” Bethany said with a frown. “Life is unpredictable. I mean, you think you know where it’s headed and that you have a handle on it all. Then, boom! Everything you know changes, and you have to decide what steps to take next.”
Dalton nodded.
“Forgive the directness of this question, but shouldn’t you be with your grandparents right now instead of here?” Bethany asked, then bit down on her bottom lip.
“I have a couple of siblings and three cousins to share the responsibility with,” he explained. “We set up a rotation based on who could take leave the fastest. My turn’s next.”
Bethany studied him. “How many of the five others have taken a turn?”
“Four,” he stated.
“And when you take leave, I’m guessing it’s at least a few days to a week,” she said. “Which means this has been going on for a long time.”
“Yes, it has.” Too long in his estimation. And then he tuned in to the sound of the door closing in the next room. A couple of beats later, Blakely reappeared in the kitchen and reclaimed her seat next to her sister.
“Tell me about the fight you two had,” Blakely said as she studied Dalton first and her sister second. It seemed to dawn on her that she might have interrupted them. “Everything okay in here?”
“Yes, of course,” Bethany said. “Dalton here was nice enough to offer to make me a cup of coffee.”
“That’s right,” Dalton said, appreciating the cover. He didn’t want to get into his personal life with Blakely right now.There was no need to get personal with her at all now that all her walls had come back up.
Besides, what did he have to offer Blakely other than great sex?
Not much.
