She laid her fork on the table. Not even a slice of chocolate heaven could revive her appetite. “Our lives took us in different directions.”
“You invested seven years with him. Why give up?”
Her skin prickled uncomfortably, and the soft robe abraded her behind as she shifted on the sofa. “Does it matter?”
“I wouldn’t ask if it didn’t.”
She swallowed, but the bitter taste in her mouth remained. Not even another sip of wine washed it away. “Because he didn’t want me to go with him. He said a country girl like me wouldn’t fit in with his new urban lifestyle.”
“He’s an idiot.”
Her lips twitched in a smile at his support. “You and my sisters share that opinion. What about you? Any lost loves in your past?”
“No.”
She waited, but he didn’t elaborate. “No? You made me spill my guts and all you’re giving me is no? I don’t think so.”
His mouth twisted. “Let’s just say I’m not convinced a woman can be faithful, and I don’t want to always wonder whose bed my wife is in at night when she’s not in mine.”
She grimaced at the bitterness in his voice. “Your mother?”
He refilled their wineglasses instead of responding.
“You said you had a surprise sister. Your mother must have had at least one affair.”
“More than one.”
“I’m sorry, Trent. I can’t imagine how that feels. My parents have been together forever. They’ll celebrate their thirty-sixth anniversary this year. That’s a good thing because in my home town if either of them had strayed the news would have reached home before they did.”
His eyes narrowed on her face. “You miss your hometown.”
How had he seen something she’d refused to acknowledge? “Yes, I do. It’s hard to believe, but I miss the nosy neighbors, the local diner, the drive-in movie theater and Main Street. I even miss the crazy tourist season when the roads get clogged with people who don’t know where they’re going. And I miss my parents. But mostly, I miss my sisters.”
Loneliness welled within her. She fussed with the hem of her robe. “We were close, y’know? We shared everything—a bathroom, makeup, clothes, shoes…When I moved here I thought not having to share any of those things would be great. And it was—” her voice broke “—for about a month.”
“Didn’t you have privacy when you lived in Charleston?”
“I was close enough to home for them to drop in for a weekend at the beach or an overnight shopping trip. I saw my sisters at least once a week. Sometimes they packed. Sometimes they just threw their purses in the car and drove over—which meant my closet was their closet.”
She mashed her lips together over the aching emptiness and struggled for composure. Crying all over a guy was not the way to end an intimate evening.
“If you miss them that much, why not go home? And don’t throw the convention center crap at me. There are convention hotels in South Carolina.”
“For several reasons. First, because the people back home never forget. Kelly, my oldest sister, will always be the unmarried McCauley who got knocked up. I’ll always be ‘poor Paige’ the one who got dumped by her high school sweetheart. I’m more than that. That was only one small part of my life, not the sum total of it. And if you keep this up I’m going to need Oreos.”
“The cookie?”
His confusion was adorable. “You can’t have a pity party without Oreo cookies, the ultimate comfort food. Surely you’ve had them before and understand the healing power of a chocolate, cream-filled treat?”
“No. But you just had chocolate cake.”
“You’ve never had an Oreo? You poor, deprived man. My sisters and I always devoured a bag when one of us had a crisis.”
“Did you have many crises?”
She grimaced. “We’re talking about a houseful of emotional women. There is always a crisis. That was the second reason I wanted out. I was Miss Fix-It and the family mediator. Whenever something went wrong, my sisters expected me to talk them through the situation and help them make the difficult decisions. I got tired of being the scapegoat when things didn’t turn out well. I wanted them to learn to handle their own problems. It was really hard, but I had to risk letting them fail.”
He frowned. “The consequences of failing couldn’t have been that great.”
“Of course they were. I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, but we’re talking life-or-death decisions. When my oldest sister got pregnant she wanted me to tell her whether to keep her baby or abort. I couldn’t have lived with her hating me for the rest of our lives if she’d followed my advice and then later decided that my suggestion was the wrong one. There were other, smaller issues, too, but Kelly’s pregnancy was the turning point in my decision to be…less accessible.”
“What if they make mistakes?”
“They will, and I hope they’ll learn from them and that the lessons won’t be too painful.” Enough about her. “Are you and your siblings close?”
He picked at a lobster tail. “We work together.”
“What about outside the office?”
He shrugged. “We’re not a social bunch.”
“But…you’re family.”
“We gather for Christmas somewhere around the globe.”
She noted his lack of excitement. “Somewhere?”
“My mother chooses a location—usually some place she’s heard about or discovered during her travels. We show up.”
“Where are you going this year?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“But reservations—Wait, I guess if you own your airplane company you don’t need to make airline reservations.”
“No. Our pilots fly on four hours or less notice to wherever we tell them to go.”
Such unbounded freedom sounded thrilling, and yet…sad and isolated despite having the world at his fingertips. “You live in the same city as your siblings and yet only get together for Christmas?”
“And board meetings. Now that one of my sisters is pregnant, she’s trying to force us to gather more often.”
“Force?” She had to force herself to stay away. “It’s too bad that you don’t enjoy each other’s company more.”
Paige realized Trent didn’t get together with his family because he didn’t care. She cared, but she’d been dumb enough to willingly walk away and break or at least fray the bond. It had been for her sisters’ own good, or so she’d told herself. But was that really the truth?
She’d accused him of abandoning something he loved—flying and roller coasters. What she’d done really wasn’t any different. The acknowledgment disturbed her. She rose and crossed to the refrigerator to get a soda. If she kept drinking wine, she was going to end up a soggy mess. She’d already shared more than she’d intended.
When she turned around she caught Trent studying her with a speculative expression. “What?”
“I was watching the way you move. It’s…”
Her muscles snapped taut. She braced herself for an insult. She’d never been a girly girl. She left that to Jessie and Sammie.
“I don’t know the exact word. Unique. Deliberate. Powerful. Sexy.”
Warmth rushed over her. “My mother made us take gymnastics and ballet from the time we turned five until we turned sixteen. She claimed it was the only way a houseful of tomboys had a chance at being graceful.”
“You’re a tomboy? From your sexy dresses and do-me heels I never would have guessed. The roller coasters should have been a clue.” The upward twitch of one corner of his mouth made her stomach pitch.
Something inside her that had been dead since David told her she wasn’t good enough for New York blossomed to life. She’d tried very hard to eradicate any remaining traces of small-town girl from her looks and demeanor. That’s why her Southern accent bothered her so much. It was the only part she hadn’t been able to shake. But she wasn’t finished trying.
“Remember the McCauley girls grew up working in a hardware store. We can handle anything from power tools to fishing and camping gear.” She wrinkled her nose. “I used to be a lot less…girly. I kind of gave myself a makeover before I moved west.”
“I can’t imagine you needing one. You’re a beautiful woman, Paige.”
Her breath caught. He couldn’t have said anything more perfect. She dug deep for the worldly attitude she’d fought so hard to acquire. “I dare you to say that from over here.”
She pointed to a spot on the floor in front of her, and when his eyebrows shot up she mentally kicked herself. Trent Hightower wasn’t the kind of man to take orders from a woman. And while he had been watching her every move for the past half hour and making her very aware of her near-nakedness while they ate, he’d also kept to his end of the sofa as they passed the dishes between them, sharing servings of each.
His gaze raked over her from head to toe. Desire kindled in his eyes. He uncoiled—she couldn’t think of a better word—from the sofa with an alertness of a snake ready to strike, and made his way across the room slowly, deliberately, with his eyes assessing her. “You’re changing the subject.”
She licked her dry lips. “I am?”
“We were talking about you.”
“We were?” Her brain couldn’t seem to catch gear.
“What do you hate most about being away from your family?”
She blinked to try to break the mesmerizing spell of his eyes and tried to think. No matter how much fun he might be or how good in bed, he was only going to be a part of her life for a short time, and he’d never meet her family, so what could it hurt to be honest?
“I hate having to watch every word I say when I call home.”
He circled behind her. “Why would you do that?”
Her pulse pounded heavily in her ears. She wanted to make up something pretty or flippant, but she couldn’t think of anything. “I might have misled my family a teensy bit about how much fun I’ve been having out here.”
He circled in front of her again, snagging the belt of her robe as he passed and tugging hard enough to loosen the knot. “Why?”
The fine hairs on her body rose and her n**ples tightened. How could she be embarrassed and turned on at the same time?
“Back home my sisters and I traveled in a pack when we went out. Safety in numbers, et cetera. Here…the singles scene is daunting. I tried going out alone for a while, but I wasn’t comfortable. And then there was…us. After the way that turned out…let’s just say I decided to take a break and focus on my job. But I don’t want them to think ‘Poor Paige is sitting at home alone.’ So I, um…spend a lot of time talking about the cool places in Vegas.”
“That you haven’t visited.” He stopped behind her. She couldn’t see his face and had no clue what he was thinking.