Matt Caldwell: Texas Tycoon by Diana Palmer

Author:Diana Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The words cut like a knife. She actually felt them. Her sad eyes met his dark, searching ones.

“Not quite,” she replied tersely.

As understatements went, it was a master stroke. She watched the blood drain out of his face, and knew he was remembering, as she was, their last encounter, in his office, when she’d fainted.

He couldn’t speak. He tried to, but the words choked him. He winced and turned away, striding back to the sports car. Leslie watched him go with a curious emptiness, as if she had no more feelings to bruise. Perhaps this kind detachment would last for a while, and she could have one day without the mental anguish that usually accompanied her, waking and sleeping.

She turned mechanically and went slowly into the house on her crutches, and down the hall to her small apartment. She had a feeling that she wouldn’t see much of Matt Caldwell from now on. At last she knew how to deflect his pursuit. All it took was the truth—or as much of it as she felt comfortable letting him know.

Ed phoned to check on her later in the day and promised to come and see her the next evening. He did, arriving with a bag full of the Chinese take-out dishes she loved. While they were eating it, he mentioned that her job was still open.

“Miss Smith wouldn’t enjoy hearing that,” she teased lightly.

“Oh, Karla’s working for Matt now.”

She stared down at the wooden chopsticks in her hand. “Is she?”

“For some reason, he doesn’t feel comfortable asking you to come back, so he sent me to do it,” he replied. “He realizes that he’s made your working environment miserable, and he’s sorry. He wants you to come back and work for me.”

She stared at him hard. “What did you tell him?”

“What I always tell him, that if he wants to know anything about you, he can ask you.” He ate a forkful of soft noodles and took a sip of the strong coffee she’d brewed before he continued. “I gather he’s realized that something pretty drastic happened to you.”

“Did he say anything about it to you?”

“No.” He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “He did go to the roadhouse out on the Victoria highway last night and wreck the bar.”

“Why would he do something like that?” she asked, stunned by the thought of the straitlaced Mather Caldwell throwing things around.

“He was pretty drunk at the time,” Ed confessed. “I had to bail him out of jail this morning. That was one for the books, let me tell you. The whole damned police department was standing around staring at him openmouthed when we left. He was only ever in trouble once, a woman accused him of assault—and he was cleared. His housekeeper testified that she’d been there the whole time and she and Matt had sent the baggage packing. But he’s never treed a bar before.”

She remembered the stark question he’d asked her and how she’d responded. She didn’t understand why her past should matter to Matt.

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