Instead of finding her mysterious and enigmatic, her silence made her now secretive in his eyes. Dishonest even. He couldn’t believe that he’d found her shyness attractive once. He now saw her for what she really was: withdrawn and deceitful.
“How long did you stay at that crappy house?”
She sniffed. “We would stay there for just a few weeks.”
He pulled a brow. “And where would you have stayed after that dump?”
She took a moment too long to answer him. So she was basically homeless and still didn’t want to come with him to Winter Peaks.
“What did we ever do to you to hate us this much?”
Her voice broke when she said, “I don’t hate you or your family…”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Your family is the best. I never had that. I wish I had grown up in a family like yours.”
He swallowed his immediate response that she had robbed their daughter from growing up with his family. They still had ten hours to go on their road trip and he wanted Frankie to rest up before meeting his family and not wake her up by arguing with her mother.
Tara’s deep sigh filled the silence in the truck. “Look. I know you probably don’t believe me… but I’m sorry. I really am.”
He shrugged, not accepting this half-ass apology. He first needed to understand before he could accept her apology. Or at least know the reason why she just upped and left him. How was hiding her pregnancy, taking Frankie with her all across the country, raising her on her own and sleeping in a house that was one heavy rainstorm away from falling apart, in Tara’s mind better than bringing Frankie up together in Winter Peaks?
“Will you at least let me explain?”
His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. As if he’d discouraged her in some way to explain herself. He glanced over at her, her eyes holding his captive. He quickly returned his gaze to the road.
“You slipped out of Winter Peaks six years ago. Six damn years! You never gave me the slightest hint that you weren’t happy and that you wanted to call it quits. You never once called or texted me to tell me I have a daughter. When we dialed your number by accident, I asked you if Frankie was mine, and you hung up the damn phone, Tara!”
He slowed down his truck as his anger had made him step up the gas.
Tara placed her hand on the headrest of her seat and turned around to check up on Frankie in the backseat.
Once satisfied that Frankie was still sound asleep, she whispered, “Could you please keep your voice down? I know we have to talk about this, but not in front of Frankie. It’s not fair to her to start out her life in Winter Peaks with her parents going off on each other every other minute.”
He mumbled under his breath that she was one to talk about what’s fair.
Tara huffed and made a show out of wrapping her sweater like a pillow before stuffing it between the window and her headrest. She pulled up her knees to the passenger window, pushing out her curvaceous ass in his direction. He followed the fabric of her knee-length black pencil skirt crawl up mid-thigh and he bit back a groan.
Owen had always loved Tara’s delectable round ass and perky breasts. He couldn’t help but notice how well she’d filled out over the past six years. He would do anything for a glimpse of Tara with a round belly as she carried his child.
He would have loved seeing Tara’s belly grow as the weeks progressed. But she took that away from him. She deprived him of the time to get used to the idea of becoming a father. He stumbled upon this news and now he had to deal with it—ready or not.
He was sure she would have made a beautiful pregnant woman. Glowing even. The idea of impregnating Tara again screwed with his head. Where the fuck did that thought even come from? He pushed that idea far away.
He wouldn’t let himself get drawn back into Tara Houston’s web. He’d been there and done that. No matter if he needed to be a jerk, Owen would keep up the wall that protected him from any further heartbreak.
CHAPTER FOUR
Tara was sick of sitting in this awkward silence after driving for hours. She bit her bottom lip while passing yet another motel. He’d busted her front door after his earlier thirteen-hour road trip and drove straight into the night like nothing had happened. The man had to be tired.
“You need a break, Owen. Can we please stop at the next motel?”
He huffed a breath. “I’m not leaving my daughter out of my sight.”
“Well, I’m not leaving Frankie out of mine, so we’d better all share a room, then.”
Something flashed in his eyes before he quickly shook his head. Tara didn’t like the idea of sleeping in the same room as Owen anymore than he did, but they would have to make do.