Beck took a long, slow breath. “Good,” he said. “That makes more sense. And Gordy just went along with it?”
“He’ll do anything to make Florence happy. You can stop judging them now. Even though it’s kinda nice that you’re being so protective.”
“The character of a person is important to me. You know that.”
In many ways I knew a lot about Beck, considering the short amount of time we’d spent in each other’s company. But these days I knew better than to assume I knew anyone. After my conversation with Matt, the lack of confidence I had in my own judgement of people was reaching boiling point.
“I don’t understand why you were with Matt for so long, or friends with Karen since you were five. The pair of them deserve each other from what I’ve seen. Neither of them merit a friend like you.”
It was easy to look on as an outsider and see things that weren’t right. But when you were in the middle of them, they were easier to overlook. “No one is ever entirely one hundred percent to blame,” I replied.
We turned onto the main road, Beck revved up the engine and we picked up speed. “If that tool successfully made you feel like him running off with your best friend was somehow your fault—”
“No, it’s not that. More that when you’re in a relationship, the aim is to be happy and that means compromising and accepting you’re not right all the time.”
“And that’s what Matt did?”
I’m not sure I understood Matt’s aims at all, which made me feel all the more stupid. I’d been blindly trundling along, expecting everyone to have good hearts and me to be granted my happily ever after at some point. “They weren’t Matt’s core skills while we were together,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t have good intentions.”
“That’s the point though, isn’t it? You had good intentions and he didn’t give a shit.”
Matt cared about me. At one point. He must have done. “We were happy for a long time.”
“And when you stopped being happy,” he said. “Did you walk away?”
My stomach roiled. I hadn’t stopped being happy. Even when he’d ended things, I’d loved him and thought it would work.
I’d been such a fool.
Even with a little distance from Matt, it was clear that our relationship was far from perfect. Looking back, he was controlling and demanding and more than a bit of a snob.
Beck was right. I’d seen what I’d wanted to see—ignored the bad and created the good in our relationship. My rose-tinted glasses had been lasered on.
My fear now was that my twisted vision wasn’t limited to Matt and Karen but that I wasn’t capable of seeing reality. Was I only seeing the good things about Beck? It seemed real between us; it seemed like he’d do anything for me. But I’d been wrong before.
“I’m not looking back. I’m focused on the future. On the Mayfair project.”
“If we get it,” Beck said.
“You’ll get it.”
He grinned and grabbed my hand, linking his fingers through mine. Was this just pretend? “Thank you for your confidence. But I’ve decided. I want it without the name or not at all.”
At that moment, a call came through on the Bluetooth and Henry’s name flashed up. He should have been at the ceremony.
“Henr
y,” Beck answered.
“If you’ve got any sense, you’ve whisked the lovely Stella away from this ridiculous parade. The dear girl shouldn’t have to sit through such a palaver.”
“Agreed. We’re headed to the airfield now, and we’re going to make our way back to London.”
“Very good,” he said. “Anyway, I called because we didn’t finish our conversation back at Fort William.”
Beck cleared his throat. “Yes, sorry about that. I—”
“No need to apologize. You did quite the right thing,” he replied. “It actually got me thinking about family and loyalty. There have been plenty of Dawnays who haven’t displayed the character you did to me in that moment when you intervened in the situation between dear Stella and Matt. In fact, between you and me, the cousin I inherited the building from wasn’t the best man I’ve ever met. I’m thinking that perhaps the Wilde name deserves to be the only one on your development.”