“You were telling me about Houston,” Daniel prompted, leaning back and picking up his bottle of beer.
“Mike loves dealing with the clients—he’s a born salesman but he’s not so fond of overseeing the staff or paperwork. And the financial aspects of running a business. He’s offered me a full partnership if I take over that side of the business.”
Daniel looked out into the inky darkness. Alex followed his gaze and could just make out the boulders on the beach, the white bubbles of waves hitting the shoreline. “And you have to be in Houston to do that?”
Initially, Mike had suggested that she could spend the bulk of her time in Royal, commuting to Houston only a few days a month. Theirs was a web-based business and there was little that couldn’t be managed over email and by video calling. It was Alex who’d pushed to move to Houston, who’d felt the need to get away from Royal and a certain sexy cowboy.
Yeah, that plan had worked out so well.
“I think I should be in Houston,” Alex said, keeping her voice low.
Daniel took a few more bites of his dinner before pushing his food away. He used his thumb to trace the lines of the bamboo place mat. “What the hell happened to us, Lex?”
“We had sex and I got pregnant.”
Daniel ignored the sarcastic retort. “I mean...back then.”
To her, it was simple. He’d chosen The Silver C and Rose over her. What was there to discuss?
Daniel’s eyes met hers and she almost whimpered at the pain she saw in his depths. “I asked for a long-distance relationship when you went off to college. You told me that it had to be all or nothing. Why? Why did you insist that my leaving was the only way I could prove that I loved you?”
“Because I needed you—I needed someone—to choose me, to make being with me the most important thing they could do.”
Daniel sat up and linked his hands behind his head. “I needed to stay on The Silver C. I couldn’t leave, Lex.”
“No, you wouldn’t leave. Rose said no, and you just did her bidding. You didn’t fight for me, Daniel.”
Alex pushed back her chair and stood up, taking her nonalcoholic wine over to the edge of the pool. She sat down and dipped her bare feet into the sun-warmed water and stared out to sea. The rising moon was the silver blue of a fish scale, the flash of an angel’s wing. It was a night meant for passion, for making love in the sweet, fragrant air. It felt wrong to be opening old wounds under the light of a benevolent moon.
She heard Daniel crack open another bottle of beer and then he was sitting next to her, thigh to thigh, leg to leg, feet touching in the tepid water of the pool.
“I’m sorry I hurt you, Lex,” Daniel said in a raspy voice, and Alex heard the sincerity in it.
“I just wanted you to come to college with me, Dan. To be somewhere else with me, away from our grandparents and their disapproval and their stupid feud. I wanted to see who we could be when we didn’t have all of that hanging over us.”
“I couldn’t and wouldn’t leave, Alex. And it wasn’t because I didn’t want to.”
Alex pulled her thigh up onto the stone rim of the pool and pushed her hair off her forehead. Half facing him, she ran her hand down his arm until she found his fingers. His spread open in welcome and her hand was quickly enveloped by his. She took a breath, knowing that she shouldn’t ask a question she wasn’t completely sure she wanted the answer to. But she was going to anyway.
“Explain it to me, Dan, because I still can’t work it out.”
Daniel pulled her hand from his and leaned back, his hands behind him. He tipped his head up to look at the stars, and Alex knew that he was looking for his words. Instead of answering her question, he turned his head and swiped his lips across hers, his tongue sliding into her mouth. Alex instantly ignited, and she wound her arms around his neck, falling into his touch. How could he fire her up with just his mouth on hers, his big hand holding the back of her head, anchoring her to him?
God, he was a magnificent kisser...
He was also, she dimly realized, brilliant at avoiding the subject. Reluctantly, Alex pulled back and scooted a few inches from him. “Nope, I’m not going to be distracted, Clayton. Talk to me.”