She was.
Finally, after a good ten minutes, she exited the car and made her way around, her eyes not meeting his as she approached.
“Hey,” he greeted, realizing she wasn’t going to speak to him. She’d managed to avoid him completely on the phone as well, but he’d expected they would have to say something to one another being face-to-face.
Clearly, she didn’t think so.
“Can we talk?” he asked when she didn’t respond.
“It’s a little late, don’t you think?” she retorted with a snap.
“I would’ve tried earlier,” he added snidely, “but you were working.”
He noticed Katie’s slight cringe at his statement, and he felt like a world-class asshole.
“Fine,” she muttered. “What do you want to talk about?” Her gaze slid up toward the second floor where he assumed her apartment was.
“Someone waiting for you?” he asked, not expecting the reaction that he received.
Katie’s eyes widened, and she wrung her hands together in front of her, but she didn’t answer. The heat that scorched his insides was laced with fury. Did she have a guy up there? Was she seeing someone?
Surely, Tessa would’ve mentioned that she was. Or even Cooper. Based on their conversation the other night at dinner, he had to assume they would’ve said something. Then again, aside from trying to figure out why he wasn’t seeing her anymore, they hadn’t actually talked about her. He had assumed that was because he hadn’t been talking about her. Now he had to wonder.
“I’m really tired,” Katie finally stated.
“I bet,” he bit out.
Katie’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything. As he watched her face, he expected to see anger reflecting back at him. What he saw looked more like regret.
“Shit,” he mouthed. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re tired. It’s been a long day,” Dalton said, grabbing the back of his neck as he stared down at the ground. He was sure she really was tired. He got that. It didn’t mean he wanted to leave or that he wanted to let her walk away from him. He wanted to talk, to find out what was going on with her, because damn it all to hell, he just couldn’t fucking stop thinking about her.
No matter how hard he tried.
When it was evident she didn’t have anything to say to him, he dove right in, not holding anything back. “Why are you workin’ there, Katie?”
The look he got would’ve singed the hairs on his head had he not had his hat on. He’d never seen Katie pissed off, not even when she’d had to deal with unruly cowboys at The Rusty Nail. No, this was an entirely different side of the sweet woman he’d found himself unable to stop thinking about.
“That’s none of your business,” she snapped, her eyes slamming into his.
“God, Katie, don’t you get it?” he asked rhetorically. “I want it to be my business.”
“Why?” she asked, her eyes raking over his face.
“Because I… Damn it. Because I do,” he told her. Telling her that he loved her wasn’t going to earn him any points, and he’d suffered enough at this point. Making that public knowledge would only add to his pain. “I thought you and I had something,” he added, his own frustration getting away from him.
Katie’s eyes darted down to the ground. “We did.”
Hope sparked in his chest.
“But this,” she said, motioning toward her face, “is why it can’t work. You don’t deserve this, Dalton.”
“Don’t deserve what?” he asked, thoroughly confused.
“I’m a stripper, Dalton. That’s all I am.”
“That isn’t all you are,” he retorted.
“Really?” she questioned, her gray eyes sparkling. “You’ve seen me workin’, Dalton. I think it’s safe to say that it’s true.”
“Fine, maybe you’re a stripper. But you could’ve told me. Could’ve given me a chance to understand.”
“Are you serious?” she snapped. “I tried to explain myself, Dalton. You ignored my phone calls, remember?’
“Hold up,” he said, almost pointing his finger at her but pulling it back at the last minute. No, he couldn’t allow her to put this all on him. “You’re the one who told me it was over. You turned your back on me the minute I drove out of Devil’s Bend.”
“For your own good,” she replied, her eyes softening.
“How was it for my own good? You’d been lying to me the whole time. I was the dumbass who thought we had something good going.”
“I never lied to you,” she bit out.
“No? You just conveniently forgot to mention that” — Dalton lowered his voice slightly — “you were a fucking stripper?”
“You never asked,” she answered angrily.
“Oh, sorry,” he belted out. “I’ll have to remember to add that to the list of first-date questions for the future.”
“You do that.”
Okay, great. He’d succeeded in widening the gap between them. And to think it’d taken very little effort. Taking a deep breath, he tried to steer the conversation back to less hostile topics. “I thought we were dating, Katie.”
“No, we weren’t,” she countered. “We went on a couple of dates. That does not constitute dating.”
Okay, she had a point there.
“Maybe not, but I kinda figured the sex constituted a relationship.”
“Well, you were wrong.” Katie looked as though she was hoping the ground would open up and swallow her whole. She also looked as though she didn’t believe a word of what she just said.
The sight made Dalton’s chest hurt. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “Fine. We went on a couple of dates, had mind-blowing sex. And you know good and damn well that it was going somewhere.”
“I didn’t know that,” she said harshly, and Dalton realized it for the lie that it was.
Damn, the woman was hot. Especially when she was pissed. That was strange enough to think, so Dalton opted not to tell her as much.
“Why do you have to be like that?” he asked. “I thought we were friends.”
“Holy shit, Dalton!” Katie exclaimed. “One minute we’re dating, the next we’re friends. Which is it? I’m getting whiplash trying to follow your questions. I’m sure you have a point. Could you possibly get to it?”
Dalton ground his back teeth together. So maybe he shouldn’t have followed her home. Maybe he should’ve waited until they had an opportunity for a civil conversation at The Rusty Nail. Or even at a get-together with Tessa and Cooper. It was obvious she didn’t want to be alone with him, and Dalton still wondered whether it was because she was hiding something or someone. He wouldn’t put it past her. She’d lied to him enough already.
When her gaze launched back toward the upstairs apartment, he realized she was hiding something. “Why should I be surprised?” he blurted, pushing himself to his feet before turning to close the tailgate. “You didn’t bother to tell me you were a stripper, why would you bother telling me you had a boyfriend?”
Katie’s eyes widened, but she didn’t tell him he was wrong. That hurt worse than when he’d run into her at the strip club, half-naked and counting her earnings for the night.
She took a step back when he came toward her. That made his stomach hurt. Although she seemed to be convinced that what they’d had wasn’t the same as what he thought it had been, Dalton really did think they’d made more progress than this.
This woman had caught his eye and held it from the moment he’d seen her. And the more he’d gotten to know her, the more he had liked her. And then he’d gone and fallen in love with her.
She isn’t who you think she is. “Yeah, I get that,” he grumbled beneath his breath, answering the voices in his head.
“What?”
“Nothing. You better go inside.”
Katie turned toward the stairs but stopped. She looked over her shoulder at him, and for half a second, Dalton thought he saw tears shimmering in her eyes. But then they were gone.
Almost as fast as she was.
Chapter Twenty-One
Katie slipped into her apartment, trying to be as quiet as possible. She knew Sarah and Lexi would be asleep, and she didn’t want to wake them. Even though she wished she could talk to her best friend, she knew it wasn’t fair to do it in the middle of the night.
On tiptoe, she bypassed the tiny kitchen. She would have to forgo dinner, or rather, breakfast. Or whatever a meal at this ungodly hour would be considered. She just needed to get some shut-eye at this point, merely because she was ready to shut her brain down for the day.
By the time she got ready for bed, showering because she hated the way she felt after she came home from the club, Katie was wired. So much for the closed-eye conversation she was going to have with her pillow.
As was habit, Katie stopped at Lexi’s doorway, leaning in to make sure her sister was asleep. When she confirmed that she was, she padded barefoot inside, making her way to Lexi’s bed. As gently as possible, she pulled the soft, pink microfiber comforter up over her sister’s little body and then slipped back out.
Sometimes, on nights like this, Katie just wanted to fall into bed and cry at the injustice of it all. She’d gone from young adult to full adult far too soon, having to become a mother figure at eighteen. And Lexi had lost so much by losing her real mother, having to deal with an inexperienced and not-quite-so-patient Katie. They’d managed to make their own little family, though, and at this point, Katie didn’t know what she would do without her sister, but sometimes, she daydreamed about all the possibilities the future had once held.
All of those dreams she’d had: getting out of Devil’s Bend, going to the big city, getting a place of her own, going to school, finding a job. Even at eighteen, her motivation had been getting away from her crazy mother, and how ironic was it that Katie had been planning to be the one to disappear and her mother had just beaten her to it.
Katie crawled into bed, flipping off the bedside lamp before curling beneath the heavy blanket. As she stared across the room, the orange glow from the parking lot light filtering through the cheap plastic blinds, Katie fought the urge to cry.
Why? Why her?
Why had all her dreams come crashing around her? She’d been a good kid, made good grades, gone to school every day. And then when she’d turned eighteen, she’d been planning to head off to college, get a degree, and make something of herself.
Only that had never happened, and she’d resorted to stripping just to make ends meet. Three years as a fucking stripper and she had nothing to show but a steadily growing bank account, a baby on the way, and a broken heart that continued to weigh her down more and more each day.
Oh, and now she could add liar to her repertoire of skills.
In her defense, providing for Lexi was the only thing that mattered to her these days. Katie scrimped every last penny, trying to make it by on the least she could so that Lexi would have what she needed. As far as Katie was concerned, as long as she had food and clothes, then she was fine. Lexi was who mattered. And now the baby.
Only, on occasion, Katie did need something. She needed that human connection that she didn’t seem to have. That she’d never had.
Sweet little innocent stripper.
God, she was pathetic.
She hated the pity parties she had, and she hated even more that they’d increased in number since the night Dalton had run into her at the club. Tonight’s encounter wasn’t going to help, either. She still remembered the look in his eyes, then and now. He’d been hurt and angry. Which was the only reason she hadn’t told him about the baby. She had wanted to, but she didn’t want him to take pity on her. She was doing enough of that on her own.
Who the hell did he think he was just showing up at her apartment anyway? Following her home like that? He had to have been at the club. How else would he have known to follow her?
And now he knew where she lived, something she’d tried to hide from everyone she knew because she didn’t want to disrupt Lexi’s life by having friends. It was enough that she had Sarah, her best friend from high school. And she had Tessa, Cooper, Eric, and Izzy, although they were more acquaintances than anything else because even they didn’t know about Lexi.
Nor did they know where she lived. And she didn’t want them to, either, which was why she used a post office box as her address, trying to keep herself off the radar.
Until now, until Dalton, it had worked.
As her eyelids drooped, Katie forced the thoughts away, choosing instead to focus on the good memories she had. The one she revisited most frequently these days was the first real date she’d had with Dalton.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dalton whispered.
Katie glanced over at the handsome cowboy with the sexy voice and smiled. It wasn’t easy to do, considering the situation, but just looking at this man made things seem that much better.
Maybe not for Tessa and Cooper, who were currently having a hush-hush conversation on the front porch. The night had gone terribly wrong, at least for Tessa, but Katie was glad to see that Cooper was there for her.
Allowing Dalton to link their fingers together, she walked alongside him toward his truck.
A few minutes later, they were pulling down the driveway and out onto the main road.
“Where are we going?” she asked as she focused on the scenery outside of the truck.
“The lake,” he informed her.
“The lake?” she asked, looking over at him.
His grin was enough to make her insides turn to mush.
“Yes, ma’am. I thought we’d go make out in the bed of my truck. That is, if you’re game.”
They’d done a little making out, if that’s what some hot and heavy kisses were considered these days, but not much more than that. Although she was a bit nervous, Katie was more than happy to spend some alone time with Dalton. For whatever reason, she enjoyed his company.
He made her feel safe. He made her feel important. And more so, he didn’t treat her like she was just a sex object.
Then again, he had no reason to.
Katie tore her gaze off him and settled on watching the porch lights as they passed by in a blur. She wasn’t going to think about the fact that she’d never told him much about herself. At least not the important details.
It wasn’t the right time, she reminded herself.
Maybe one day. But not tonight.
Tonight she just wanted to enjoy their time together.
As Katie drifted off, she felt a single tear slide down her cheek.
The first of many.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
By the time Dalton made it home, he was in a strange state of mind.
Not bad.
Not good.
After the argument he’d just had with Katie, he actually felt a little numb.
Strange, because that had never happened to him before. At least not that he could recall.
He was tempted to try to nail down the reason, but he couldn’t come up with anything. Aside from the fact that his confrontation with Katie had actually hurt. Like a physical ache that he hadn’t anticipated.
The only thing he knew for sure was that it all stemmed from what had started between him and Katie. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, there was no doubt in Dalton’s mind that what they had started wasn’t the usual brief relationship. It was more than that. So much more.
Fucking hell.
Marching into his house, he slammed the front door behind him. Damn good thing he lived in the country or he was sure someone would have questioned him, even at four o’clock in the fucking morning.
Unable to keep himself upright, Dalton made his way to his bedroom, still about the only room that was completely set up in his house. And the only reason that had happened was because of Katie. He fell facedown onto the mattress, fully clothed, and closed his eyes.
Katie.
Son of a bitch.
Why did he care so fucking much? Wh
y couldn’t he just let it all go rather than try to stir it up and make it worse? It was clear she didn’t want to have anything to do with him. And if he thought about it long enough, he should’ve been able to rationalize his reasons for not wanting her, either.
But he couldn’t get there.
Even knowing what he did, even after she’d pushed him away and put a ridiculous amount of distance between them, he still wanted her. And it wasn’t all just sex.
At least he didn’t think so.
As the memories of their time together swirled together, morphing into one giant commemoration, Dalton took a deep breath. He could clearly remember their first date, their second, and all of the others that followed. He remembered the first time he’d made love to her in his truck, and the nights she’d spent in his bed. He doubted he would ever forget any of it.
His mind drifted to that first night in his truck. What he had expected to be a simple hour or two between friends just talking and enjoying one another’s company had turned into one of the most memorable nights of his entire life.
They’d had sex for the first time that night. And he knew … damn it, he knew that she had been a virgin. But why wouldn’t she have said something? How could she possibly just let that go?
Oh, hell, yes, he’d give his left arm for another few minutes with her in his arms, but at that point, he wasn’t sure that was ever going to be an option.
Yet he couldn’t shoulder all of the blame.
It was obvious that Katie was hiding something else; he just didn’t know exactly what. Another man, maybe? It was possible, but he wasn’t so sure that was the case.
An easy assumption, though, especially considering the way she’d reacted tonight at her apartment. She’d wanted him gone; there was no doubt about that.
But what about the look she’d given him when she’d turned to go? He’d seen something there. Something that looked like remorse.
Or was that just wishful thinking on his part?
Flipping over to his back, Dalton toed off his boots and let them fall to the floor with a thud, first one and then the other. As he stared at the ceiling, he found himself thinking back to that night when he’d taken her to the lake. The night he had taken her virginity.
Vanishing Dreams: Vanishing Dreams (Devil's Bend #2) Page 17