She’d had no right to introduce Brandon to the old bitch.
Brandon had claimed that Margaret Fulbrook had obviously engineered the meeting, but Colby knew it could have been avoided. All Diana and Brandon had to do was perform a simple hundred and eighty degree turn, get back in the Jeep and drive away. But, no. Diana had calmly made introductions and then sent Brandon off to have a cup of coffee with his grandmother.
His son had shared a cup of coffee with the old bat. Colby still couldn’t believe it. And Diana had coolly done the grocery shopping while Brandon dealt with Margaret Fulbrook alone. It was too much. Too damned much.
What if Harry had swung at Brandon? It was true Colby had made certain Brandon was trained to take care of himself, but the boy had never been in a real street fight.
Harry was slow, but vicious and strong. One lucky punch was all it would have taken to down Brandon. What if Diana had gotten caught in the middle of such a fight? Not an unlikely possibility since she probably would have tried to stop it. She would have been seriously injured.
Colby’s right hand clenched into a fist. He forced himself to relax the fingers one at a time. There was no excuse for Diana’s behavior. She had known full well that he hadn’t wanted Brandon to meet Margaret Fulbrook.
Sure, Brandon had been curious about his grandmother, but the boy wouldn’t have engineered the meeting against Colby’s direct orders. It was Diana who had taken it upon herself to arrange it.
“Damn it to hell.“
He should never have come back here this summer. Everything would have been fine if he hadn’t taken it into his head to see Fulbrook Corners again. He must have been out of his mind.
But if he hadn’t come back here, he would never have met Diana.
Colby got out of the Jeep and walked to the edge of the water. Mist from the falls enveloped him, dampening his hair and his shirt. He stood looking up toward the hidden cave.
She had been so warm and loving and sweet that night. She had been everything he’d ever wanted in a woman.
She had given herself to him in a way he knew instinctively she had never given herself to any other man. She had held back nothing. She had been his.
And the next morning she had acted as though nothing had happened, even though there was a very real chance she might have gotten pregnant.
Today she had given him her personal, money-back guarantee that she wouldn’t involve herself in his life ever again. She was going to walk away from him the way she planned to walk away from her job. Probably saw herself as a victim of male chauvinism once more.
Colby turned back to the Jeep and got behind the wheel. He didn’t like the idea that she was lumping him in with every other unreliable male in her life – her father, the men she worked for, that bastard when she was twenty-five.
But he had a right to his anger, by God. It was she who had failed him, not the other way around. She had no business going cold and brittle on him the way she had when he’d yelled at her. No business withdrawing into herself like that.
He was half way back to Aunt Jesse’s before he began to calm down and think rationally.
The first rational thought that occurred to him was that he couldn’t let Diana just walk out of his life.
The second rational thought was, that there had been something wrong with the hall table in her cottage.
10
Diana had finished cleaning up the kitchen and was packing unused food into a cooler when Specter snarled a warning. A moment later she heard the Jeep engine and closed her eyes in pain. Colby was back to yell at her again.
Diana didn’t think she could take any more.
She straightened and went quickly down the hall to the front door. She managed to set the lock just as he vaulted up the steps to the front porch. He must have heard the faint click.
“Diana, let me in.“ Colby pounded peremptorily on the door.
Specter barked loudly in response, but Diana didn’t bother to answer. She went back down the hall to the kitchen, locked the back door and then resumed her packing.
The pounding continued. “Damn it, Diana, let me in. I’ve got to talk to you.“
Diana let Specter answer for her. The dog did so enthusiastically. The ensuing racket of barking and fist-pounding continued unabated for a couple of minutes. The pounding stopped first. Specter gave one last victorious woof and trotted into the kitchen.
“Good dog,“ Diana murmured. “I can count on you, at least, can’t I?“
But there was no sound of the Jeep’s engine being switched on, and Specter began to growl again. He stood poised for a moment and then, with a loud yelp, went dashing out of the kitchen toward the bedroom.
“Too late, you fool dog. I’m already inside.“
Colby’s voice came from the bedroom and Diana remembered the window she had left open in there. She turned slowly around to face him as he strode into the kitchen. Specter growled at his heels but made no move to cause genuine injury.
“What the hell is going on here?“ Colby demanded, taking in the array of boxes and cleaning items.
“What does it look like? I’m getting ready to leave.“ Diana made herself go back to work, methodically putting packaged food items into a box to take with her.
“Going to run out now after causing all the trouble?“ he asked, his voice rough.
“I gave you my word I would not interfere in your life again, Colby. That means I have to leave Fulbrook Corners.
To use an old western expression, this town isn’t big enough for both of us. There’s no way we can avoid running into each other here.“
“Do you always run away when things don’t work out the way you had planned?“
“As I told Brandon the other night at dinner, a smart businesswoman has to know when to cut her losses.“
“And I’m a loss, is that it?“
She took a firm grasp on her jangled nerves and uncertain temper. “The bottom line is that our relationship is a loss. A complete write-off.“
He walked over to a kitchen chair, spun it around and straddled it backward. He crossed his arms along the laddered seat back and watched her with brooding eyes. “Is it comfortable and convenient to be able to talk about our relationship in business jargon? It’s a complete write-off? It’s time to cut your losses? Let me tell you something, the bottom line as far as I’m concerned is that I don’t like being referred to as just another bad business investment.“
Diana’s hands tightened on a box of cereal until the thin cardboard began to crumple. “You’re the creative writer in the crowd. You think of a better way to put it.“