Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars #2)(108)

Gracie could feel Bobby Tom’s frustration as Luther pulled them toward the dining room. “We’ll talk about this later,” he warned her under his breath. “Don’t think we won’t.”

To Gracie, the dinner felt as if it dragged on for hours, although everyone else seemed to be having a good time. The guests began table-hopping not long after the main course was served, and she knew that she had become one of the chief topics of conversation. She was certain none of his friends could fathom why he’d tied himself to such a drab little sparrow, especially one who seemed to have lost the power of speech.

Although Bobby Tom didn’t show it, she’d obviously embarrassed him, and he would never believe she hadn’t done it deliberately. Even now she didn’t want to hurt him. He couldn’t help being what he was, just as she couldn’t, which was why she hadn’t been able to put on her stylish clothes and pretty makeup tonight.

The people of Telarosa acted both insulted and puzzled by her appearance and her silence. It was as if she’d shown up drunk instead of simply wearing bad clothes. Suzy wanted to know if she was ill, Toolee Chandler followed her to the rest room and asked if she’d lost her mind showing up looking like that, and Terry Jo met her on the way out to scold her for embarrassing Bobby Tom.

Gracie couldn’t take any more. “Bobby Tom and I are no longer engaged.”

Terry Jo’s lips parted in surprise. “But, Gracie, that’s not right. It’s obvious to everybody how much you two love each other.”

This was suddenly more than she could bear. Without a word, she turned away and fled from the building.

A little over an hour later, she heard the thud of boots taking the stairs outside her apartment two at a time, and then a hard fist connecting with her door. Still dressed in her white blouse and navy skirt, she had been sitting in her darkened bedroom trying to come to terms with her future. She got up from the chair, turned on a light, and passed a weary hand back through her hair, which was freed now from its bobby pins. Trying to compose herself, she walked through the living room and opened the door.

After all this time, she still had to catch her breath at the sight of him, always larger than life, standing on the landing and filling up the empty space with his presence. The diamond studs in the front of his lavender shirt glittered like distant planets, and he had never seemed so far removed from her own earthbound existence.

She had expected his anger, but not his concern. He took off his hat as he came inside. “What’s wrong, honey? Are you sick?”

Some ignoble, cowardly part of her wanted to say yes, but she was made of sterner stuff and she shook her head.

He pulled the door shut with a hard thud and turned to confront her. “Then you’d better tell me what you thought you were doing tonight. You show up looking like hell and stand around like somebody’s cut out your tongue. Then you put the icing on the cake by telling Terry Jo we aren’t engaged anymore! Everybody in town knows it by now.”

She didn’t want to fight with him. She just wanted to leave this town and find a quiet place where she could lick her wounds. How could she make him understand that she would have given him anything he’d asked of her, but only if she could have given it for free?

He glared at her, all his sunny charm replaced by a crackling anger. “I’m not going to play twenty questions with you, Gracie. I just walked out on a lot of people who are doing me a big favor, and I want to know why you picked tonight to embarrass me.”

“I found out today that you’re the one who’s been paying my salary.”

The first hint of wariness appeared in his eyes. “So what?”

The fact that he would even attempt to dismiss this as unimportant showed how little he understood her and made the pain sharper. How could she have believed, even for a moment, that he loved her? “You lied to me!”

“I don’t recall ever remarking on who your employer was one way or the other.”

“Don’t play games with me! You know how I feel about taking money from you, but you did this anyway.”

“You were working for me. You earned it.”

“There wasn’t any job, Bobby Tom! I had to look for things to do.”

“That’s crazy. You’ve been working all kinds of hours getting ready for this golf tournament.”

“That’s only been for the last few days. What about all the time before then? I was getting paid for doing nothing!”

He tossed his hat on the nearest chair. “That’s not true, and I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal out of this. They were going to fire you, and, no matter what you say, I needed somebody to work for me. It’s that simple.”

“If it’s that simple, why didn’t you ask me to work for you straight out?”

He shrugged and headed behind the open counter into the kitchenette situated at the end of the living room. “You got any Alka-Seltzer?”

“Because you knew I’d say no.”

“This is a ridiculous conversation. Willow was going to fire you and it was my fault.” He opened the cupboard over the sink.

“So you hired me out of pity because you thought I was too incompetent to take care of myself.”

“That wasn’t it at all. Stop twisting my words!” He abandoned his search of the cupboard. “I’m trying to keep an open mind about this, but I don’t see the problem.”