Warmth spiraled out from there, and Beth forced herself to breathe and think, both of them as slowly as she could.
“Beth,” he said. “You’re worrying me.”
She finally opened her eyes, the world too bright beyond her. Trey filled her vision, and everything seemed right. “I didn’t tell them,” she admitted. “Because I knew they’d all try to talk me out of it.”
“Would they now?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “I didn’t want to be talked out of it, Trey. I liked you—Ilikeyou. You’d asked me out before, and I—”
“And you weren’t ready,” he said, his dark eyes flashing with that dangerous fire she’d seen before when they’d argued. “I heard you, Beth, telling your dad you weren’t ready. I made up some excuse and left.”
Her eyes widened, as did the hole in her chest. Darkness filled it, and she felt certain that same blackness would consume her whole.
“Not one day later, you’re asking me to marry you so you can enter this horse race, and I was so smitten with you, and I wanted to help you so badly.” He pressed his teeth together, removed his hand from her arm, and paced away again.
Beth needed to sit down. She needed to find a way to make this right. She leaned against the back of her father’s truck, almost sitting on the bumper.
He turned and came back toward her, his gaze narrowed and angry. “I didn’t tell them, because I wanted to marry you,” she said.
“For the horse race.”
“Partially,” she said. “Idolike you, Trey, and everything we talked about before the wedding was one hundred percent true. I want it all, and I want you, and I want to see if we can make it into something real.”
“It is already something real for me,” he said.
“Me too,” she shot back. “You think you’re the only one with feelings here?”
“Of course not.”
“Then stop acting like it,” she said. “Ichoseyou, Trey. I chose you, because you first chose me. You asked me out. You showed me kindness after kindness with TJ. I desperately need that money, and I choseyouto help me get it.” Tears filled her eyes, and she didn’t bother trying to hold them back. “Isn’t that what you wanted? To help me? You said it over and over, and I just…”
“Of course I want to help you.” Trey paused in front of her, taking a moment before he reached out and wiped her tears away. “Baby, don’t cry now.” He gathered her into his chest, and with him as an anchor, she could stand tall and be brave.
“I have money, Beth. I could’ve just given it to you.”
“Then it would always be between us,” she said into his brown, red, and black plaid shirt. “Trust me, I thought about it.”
His anger seemed to have blown itself out, and Beth stepped slightly out of his embrace and wiped her face again. “I’ve had real feelings for you since the moment you knocked on my back door,” she said. “The very first time you brought TJ home, I remember thanking God that he’d sent someone to take care of that maddening child, and that that someone was Trey Chappell specifically.”
“I prayed about us too,” Trey said very quietly. “I never do that, Beth. I don’t, um, really have a relationship with the Lord. I haven’t been to church in years, and honestly, I haven’t missed it.”
Beth looked up into his eyes, where that edge of darkness still rode. She searched his face for the rest of the story but didn’t find it.
“I talked to my parents, and you know what they said? Pray about it, Trey.” He shook his head. “I was angry. God doesn’t hear me. He doesn’t answer me.”
Beth swallowed, because she’d felt the exact same way in the past. “I understand how that feels.”
“I suppose you might,” he said. “Anyway, I did what they said, and I…it’s hard to describe. I just knew I was supposed to help you if I could. I felt peaceful about it, and I guess I still do. I just wasn’t expecting to come here today and get asked when we’re having kids and how I’m faring with how much you snore.”
Beth blinked and then burst out laughing. A sob or two worked its way into the noise, and Beth flung her arms around Trey and held him very, very tight. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Please don’t be mad at me for very long.”
“I’m not mad, baby,” he whispered, his lips landing lightly on her neck.
Beth kept her eyes closed and her arms around her very sturdy husband. She started a prayer that she would know what to say and what to do in this situation.
Ask him, she thought, and while she wasn’t sure if it was a thought inspired by her own mind or the Lord, she decided to follow it.
“What do you want to do now?” she asked, pulling away once more. Apprehension ran through her like swift-moving water, but with the truck behind her, she couldn’t escape his gaze. “Do you want to tell them now?” She swallowed. She didn’t want to do that, but she’d do whatever Trey said.