Page 37 of The Unknown Colton
“Eric, please, Lakin, do I have to beg you to use my name?” he asked and chuckled. Then he looked at Troy standing over her desk and grinned. “So the boyfriend is home from the oil rigs.” He thrust out his hand toward Troy. “Good to finally meet you.”
Troy shook the man’s hand but just nodded.
“You should be down on your knees,” Seller said, “begging this woman to become your wife.”
Troy sucked in a breath at the unsolicited advice.
“If you don’t, I’m afraid you’re going to lose her to someone else,” Seller warned him.
“I trust Lakin,” Troy said. And he did. He’d never had any reason to doubt her love or her loyalty to him.
Unfortunately she no longer believed the same of him. He hadn’t called her when he was hurt, and now she didn’t think he loved and needed her as much as he did. The problem was that he didn’t want to need her too much. He didn’t want to be like Jasper Whitlaw, a drain on her emotionally and physically.
Seller chuckled. “Even trustworthy people get sick of waiting around.”
“I don’t think this is really any of your business,” Troy said, bristling with anger.
Lakin stood up. “Please, Troy, just leave. I need to help Mr. Seller.”
Seller gave him that infuriating, condescending grin again. Troy’s hand tightened into a fist that he was tempted to swing at the smug, rich guy.
“Hey, Troy,” Spence said, stepping out of his office. “Let’s go for that beer you promised me.”
“I didn’t—”
Spence wound his arm around his shoulders and started pushing him toward the outside door. “Right now.”
“But—” He didn’t want to leave Lakin alone with this man any more than he wanted her left alone with Jasper Whitlaw.
“Lakin’s going to be a while yet, and you and I have some catching up to do,” Spence said.
Troy hadn’t had a chance to talk to his sister’s fiancé much yet, but he’d rather put it off for another time. Spence wasn’t giving him a choice, though, as he guided him toward the door and out into the parking lot.
“Come on,” Spence said. “Hop in my truck. You know you’re only going to piss off Lakin more if you stick around and get into it with a client.”
Troy sighed, knowing her cousin was right. He had already pissed off Lakin when he hadn’t called her after his accident. If he didn’t want her to break up with him completely, he had to make sure that he didn’t upset her any more than he already had.
And Parker was walking up to the office now with what looked like a couple of fishermen, so she wouldn’t be alone with Seller. And once the office closed for the day, she would call Eli. Lakin kept her promises.
When Troy moved around to the passenger’s side of Spence’s vehicle, he noted the collection of cigarette butts on the ground in the empty spot next to it. Somebody had either cleaned out their ashtray in the parking lot, or they’d been standing there for a while.
Watching Lakin?
* * *
Since Hetty’s brother had been back in town, Spence had noticed the tension between Troy and Lakin. Hetty had even mentioned it to Spence along with her concern that her brother was going to blow it with Lakin. Spence had managed to stop him thistime from swinging his clenched fist at a client, but he didn’t know what else he could do to help ease the tension between them.
“What’s going on with you and my cousin?” Spence asked once they settled onto stools at the bar.
Troy groaned, but Spence wasn’t sure if it was because of Lakin or because of his back. Hetty had also filled him in on the nearly fatal accident her brother had had while working on the oil rigs.
“She’s mad at me for not reaching out when I was in the hospital,” Troy said.
“Hetty and your mother aren’t exactly thrilled with you over that, either,” Spence warned him.
Troy smiled. “I can deal with them being upset with me.”
“Really?” Spence asked. “Because Hetty’s got quite the temper.” He’d set it off a lot before they finally realized how they really felt about each other.
