Part 20 (1/2)

Her shoulders straightened and her chin came up. ”I haven't lied. Not about anything. There's a reason I kept that check.”

”Other than to cash it?” he asked cynically.

”You think I'd cash it after all the things I told you the past few weeks? You think I'd cash it when you know how much I want to be independent from my parents?”

”As your stepfather said in his letter, you can be very independent with that amount.”

”Married to Winston? Reed, what's happening to you? Why are you doubting what I told you?”

”It's easy to doubt when the proof's in front of my nose.”

Where before she had looked confused and hurt, now he recognized sparks of anger in her hazel eyes. ”If you can't trust me or accept my word, we don't even have a fake marriage.” Keys still in her hand, she spun around, walked out and slammed the door behind her.

Reed glanced at the check again and then with a loud oath, slammed his fist down on the table.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Mallory left the Double Crown and turned onto the main highway. Then she drove, not on the back roads where she'd supervised Matilda's driving this morning, but on the main highway. When she saw the sign to Leather Bucket, she turned and headed for the small town. She didn't really care where she was going. The wind blew in her window, ruffling her hair as she tried to sort her thoughts.

But only one thought kept making itself clear-Reed didn't trust her. Apparently he hadn't felt any of the love she'd tried to give him. If he had, he never would have doubted her, never would have believed she'd go back to Winston.

She drove through Leather Bucket, pa.s.sing a twenty-four-hour diner and the other businesses on the main street. But she kept going. Reaching a main thoroughfare, she headed for San Antonio, parked, and walked along the river. She remembered all too well the night she'd come here with Reed and they'd met with Gwen and Zane. She remembered every minute of these last few weeks with Reed...except for their wedding ceremony and her first night in bed with him. Maybe she'd never remember that. Right now she wished she could block out the rest of it, too. She never knew love could hurt so much.

It was after dark when she returned to the Double Crown. She couldn't go back to the adobe. Without thinking twice, she went to Ryan and Lily's. Rosita had left for the day, and Lily answered the door herself. When she saw Mallory's face, she said, ”Come inside and tell me what's wrong.”

Mallory knew she couldn't do that without crying. Matilda came into the room then, took one look at her and asked, ”What has my brother done now?”

Mallory's tears began falling then, and they didn't stop for quite a while. Finally drained, she sat in the guest bedroom where she'd spent the nights when Reed was away and told Lily and Matilda exactly what had happened. She started at the beginning from her first dance with Reed at the Golden Spur, through Winston trying to kidnap her, to this past weekend when she realized just how very much she loved her husband.

”But you didn't tell him, did you?” Matilda asked.

”Of course, I didn't tell him,” Mallory erupted. ”How could I tell him when he's still in love with Stephanie and he's going back to Australia?”

Lily and Matilda exchanged a look.

”What?” Mallory asked.

”Most times, it takes men longer than women to realize their feelings,” Lily offered.

”Oh, he has feelings, all right. He expressed them in bed.”

”Exactly,” Matilda agreed.

Mallory was none too happy Reed's sister had agreed with her. ”Terrific. So I was convenient for him, a way to get his needs met.”

”All of his needs,” Lily said wisely. ”Even the ones he wasn't conscious of. I called him, by the way, while you were drinking your third cup of tea. To tell him you were safe.”

”What did he say?” Mallory asked, holding her breath.

”He thanked me. That's all.”

Mallory felt as if the bottom had dropped out of her world. ”I was just a subst.i.tute,” she concluded morosely.

Lily came over to sit beside her on the bed. ”I don't think you could be anybody's subst.i.tute, Mallory, and I think Reed knows that, too. If he doesn't now, he will shortly. Give him a little bit of time to think about everything.”

”But if he thinks I was going to cash that check-”

”If he decides to believe that, then he doesn't deserve you,” Matilda added.

But that was small comfort when Mallory knew her love for Reed was so high she couldn't see over it and so wide she couldn't see around it, and so deep she couldn't imagine ever letting it go.

For the second night in a row, Reed hardly slept. In the early morning he stood at the kitchen window, watching the sun come up, thinking about his life, a.n.a.lyzing it, searching his soul. Though he thought he'd wanted a future with Stephanie Milton, how much had he really wanted it? How much had he cared for her? He'd decided it was time to settle down, and that she would be an appropriate wife. Was he any better than Winston Bentley who'd decided the same thing about Mallory?

Once he'd met Mallory, he hadn't thought about Stephanie. He'd practically forgotten her.

In a flash of insight, Reed realized he'd never truly loved Stephanie, not the way she deserved to be loved. Apparently she hadn't loved him that way, either. When the right person for her came along, she'd known exactly what she had to do.

Maybe so had he.

Mallory had bowled him over from the first moment he'd seen her. As he'd spent the evening with her at the Golden Spur, subconsciously he'd known she was the woman he needed in his life. That's why he'd asked her to marry him. It didn't have anything to do with s.e.x. Sure, he'd wanted her. She was a beautiful woman. But he'd started caring about her, and falling for her, before he'd even had a chance to realize what was happening.

But what about her? She didn't even remember their wedding ceremony! She'd kept distance between them.... But then, so had he-because he was afraid of wanting her too much, of caring too deeply when he had to return to Australia.

Why had she kept her stepfather's check? Why hadn't he listened when she'd tried to explain? Because he was afraid the explanation would take her out of his life?

What if he asked her to go back to Australia with him?

What if he tried to explain he hadn't known true love until he'd found her?

He had to ask her if she'd go back home with him. Because he couldn't imagine leaving Texas without her.

Waiting until a respectable hour was as difficult as spending the night not sleeping. Thank goodness Lily had phoned him or he would have been out looking for Mallory. Now he just had to figure out what to say to her and how to say it.

After several cups of coffee, he finally got in the pickup and drove to Ryan and Lily's. But there was a limousine sitting outside the house, and Reed's pulse pounded as he wondered if Winston Bentley had come to claim Mallory.