Page 22 of The Unknown Colton
“Do you think he’s the person who broke in here yesterday?” Troy asked.
She gasped. “Why would he do that? I doubt he needs food that desperately.”
The man in the picture looked hungry to Troy. Of course a lot could have changed since then. It occurred to Troy that the stolen food could have beena misdirection, someone wanting the break-in to look more innocent than it was.
“I don’t like this,” Troy admitted. “I don’t think you should call him.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“I don’t think you should trust him,” Troy said. “I think he’s after something.”
“What?” she asked.
“Colton money.”
She stepped back and shook her head. “Youare the one who is obsessed with money.”
“What? I don’t want any Colton money,” he assured her. He wanted desperately to pay his own way and hers; that was why he wanted to wait to propose and start their business until he had more money saved.
She flinched as if he’d slapped her and said, “But I’m a Colton.”
He moved closer to her and gently touched his fingertips to her cheek. “Yes, you are, and I don’t want your money.”
“If we were really a couple, it would beourmoney,” she said. She stepped back again so that his hand fell to his side.
“We are really a couple,” he said, but he felt the same panic from when he’d finally realized why she was mad at him. And that she had every reason to be.
“No, we’re not. You would have called me when you got hurt. You would have wanted me there for you, to support you, to comfort you.”
“Lakin…” Troy didn’t know what to say or how to make it up to her. He had wanted her there, but he’d been so afraid that the paralysis wouldn’t go away. He hadn’t wanted to stick her with someone as helpless and hopeless as he’d felt those weeks in the hospital bed.
Clearly she wasn’t interested in hearing his excuses. She took the photo back from him. “But this isn’t about money to me. It’s about information.”
“What kind of information?” he asked.
“I should know about my heritage, my genetics, what medical conditions I might pass onto kids someday.” She looked up at him, her dark eyes intent on his face. “The kidswetalked about having someday.”
“We were kids ourselves when we talked about having kids,” he murmured, thinking of all their teenage dreams. But then his dad had died, and Troy had been consumed with grim reality rather than dreams.
“Did you outgrow me, Troy? Our relationship? Do you want different things now?” she asked, her voice cracking slightly with emotion.
He wanted the same things he always had. A life withher. But if his back got screwed up again… He didn’t want her to wind up like his mother, raising kids alone, struggling to make ends meet, crying from the stress after she thought they were all asleep.
“I can’t think about the future right now,” he said. “Not until I know how completely I’m going to heal.” He was starting physical therapy soon. How his bodyreacted to that would determine if he would be able to go back to work on the oil rigs. Or anywhere…
“It doesn’t matter to me how badly you’re hurt,” she said. “If you’d stayed paralyzed, it would have changed nothing for me. I love you.”
“You’re being naive, Lakin,” he said. “It would have changed everything.”
“Not my love,” she said. “But apparently it changed yours.” She stepped back again, drew in a shaky breath and pointed toward the door she’d left open when she stumbled in moments ago. “Just leave. I need some time alone.”
“Lakin, I do love you,” he insisted.
But she just shook her head, refusing to believe him.
He was tempted to remind her of her family motto:believe. She’d told him that once, but clearly she wasn’t thinking like a Colton right now. Was she a Whitlaw? Or was this Jasper person running some scam on her?
“Please, let me be here for you,” he said. He had a horrible feeling she was in danger.
