Page 4 of A Reckless Memory

He finally lifted his gaze to meet mine, and all my hopes and plans withered like a fallen leaf in fall. There would be no cozy little cabin home. No horse-training business run by the two of us. No blueprints for a bigger home on family land that’d house all the kids I’d planned to have. Nothing but humiliation.

I stepped farther into the hallway. Daddy caught my elbow. “Come on now. Don’t be dramatic. I wanted you taken care of.”

Men will say it’s to take care of you. Now I understood what Mama had been telling me and why she’d had to leave. “This is the wrong way to do it.”

Without looking at Ansen again, I picked up the skirt of my dress, circled around Daddy, and ran for my bedroom like a fairy-tale princess fleeing a dragon.

“Aggie.” Ansen’s long strides caught up to me by the time I stormed into my bedroom.

Tex barked at the commotion. Sutton was standing next to him, her eyes wide. Meg’s attention was finally off her phone, her expression just as startled as Sutton’s.

“Aggie, dammit,” Ansen said, his volume louder than I’d ever heard. He never raised his voice at me, unlike Daddy. “We need to talk.”

“I’ve heard enough.”

“Yeah, he offered me money, but I thought we’d use it to start our lives.”

I spun on him, and he backed up a step. “Then why didn’t you tell me?”

That strong jaw of his clenched again. Chasing me had knocked a hunk of hair out of place and it hung over his forehead, shading his eyes.

Cody appeared in the doorway. I was determined to have a warmer relationship with my husband than my brother and his wife had, but right now the look they shared and the way she stood and cupped Sutton’s elbow in silent communication that they should leave filled me with envy. I thought I had at least that level of understanding with Ansen.

I didn’t know him at all.

“Because I knew how it’d look,” he said.

I flung my arms out and yelled, “Like you’re being paid to marry me?” One of my hands hit the shelves behind me and books thudded to the floor, but I had other things to worry about. Like the deceitful bastard in front of me.

“Come on—”

“Don’t ‘come on’ me one more time, slick.” My chest was heaving. I lost my fiancé. I hurt so damn bad I wasn’t sure if I’d pulled every muscle in my body when I’d fled the office. “If you have one fleck of respect for me, you’ll go out there and tell everyone what you did and that the wedding is off, so I don’t have to face anyone.”

I didn’t want to see Daddy’s face or hear his voice for a long time. Looking Cody in the eye would only remind me of my humiliation. I had secretly gloated about inviting those who’d whispered about the unlikelihood that someone like Ansen would want me. They could see for themselves he only had eyes for me. But they’d seen his pupils were dollar signs, and I was the only one who hadn’t had a clue. My pride had bitten me in the ass faster than a startled rattlesnake.

“I can’t—can’t we talk for a minute?” He stuffed a hand through his hair, and it all fell over his forehead. The young, carefree guy I thought I’d spend my life with was really a duplicitous charmer who wanted to use me. To trap me so he could reach my family’s money. A knot hardened inside of me. Everyone in town was right. They saw what I hadn’t.

I couldn’t be that naive again. “No matter what, the wedding’s not happening. If you have any feelings for me, know that I never want to see you again. I never want to speak to you again.”

“It was a lot of money, Aggie. Life-changing money.”

“My life wasn’t changing.”

“Goddammit,” he said harshly. “You have everything. You’ve always had everything. You grew up with a silver pitchfork in your hand. You don’t know what it’s like to come from nothing, to struggle every damn day, to watch your family ranch be taken over, to barely earn enough to buy a new pair of jeans, then be offered that much money.”

“No. I don’t. But I hope I’d have enough heart that I wouldn’t use an innocent girl’s emotions to get it.”

“You’re not innocent!” Bitterness dripped off his words. “You mistake nice and young for innocent. You step on people around town as much as the rest of your family. Thy Knight’s will be done.”

I jerked at his use of the town’s common mockery. My anger was like a whip snap. “Stop it.”

“What? Is spoiled little Aggie Knight not used to hearing the truth?”

“I’m not spoiled.”

“Says the girl with two fucking horses that cost more than a house in town. Says the girl who drives a brand-new Chevy Silverado. Says the girl who has hundreds of thousands in the bank and complained that her daddy wasn’t paying for college.”

Hurt closed off my throat. He was right, but he was also wrong. I thought he understood, that someone finally understood. Daddy was willing to pay for all four brothers’ college if they wanted to go, but he’d never offered the same for me. “I didn’t complain about paying for college.” Ansen lifted his brow like really? “I was hurt.”

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