Page 46 of Axel
“I am sorry.” Her fingers curled into her palms and bit into her flesh. “I – thank you for dinner. I have to go.” She fled, not even stopping when they called out to her.
Pushing away her plate, Caitlin pressed her lips together and rose.
“Mom, let me…“
“He is a damn fool!” she whispered tearfully. “How could he hurt that poor girl? I am so mad at him right now.” She started stacking plates haphazardly, her eyes swimming.
“Mom…,” moving around the table, Cathy took the plates from her. “Sit.”
She sat heavily. “Did you see the look on her face? She looked positively broken. How could he just leave without telling her?”
“You know why.” Cathy said quietly. Pulling up a chair, she left the plates and sat next to her. “That woman hurt him to the core. Axel does not give his heart easily and she pretended to be everything he desired in a woman. She made herself over, said and did everything he wanted to hear and played him so well, he fell under her spell.
He told me his instincts are what he values most in business and when he found out she had played him, he started second guessing himself.” She bit her lip. “He told me that she took something from him.”
Caitlin’s hands gripped hers.
“I never knew all that.”
“He always wants to protect you mom.” She closed her eyes briefly, opening them to stare sightlessly at the patch of crab roses she had so carefully cultivated. “She loves him.”
“Yes.” Cathy agreed sadly. “She does.”
*****
The tears burned the back of her throat and formed a ball that was difficult to dislodge, no matter how many times she swallowed. She had no idea how she made the ten-minute drive from his mother’s house to the cottage.
He was gone. He had kissed her with intense longing this morning and he knew he was leaving. And he never saidanything to her. She had to hear it from his mother and sister. She had seen the way they looked at her and they knew.
They knew that she had fallen in love with him. She had seen the realization on their faces as well as the pity.
It was raining again. Sitting in the car, she watched numbly as the rivulets of water racing down her windshield. She was shivering, even though she was wearing her jacket.
She jolted when the jagged lightning slashed the air and highlighted the area shrouded in darkness. When the thunder cracked right after, she roused herself from her inertia and pushed open the door.
She was soaked by the time it took her to reach the porch. But it didn’t matter. She had done the unthinkable and was being punished for her bad judgement.
She had naively thought he was on the same page. She had wanted him to be into her so badly. She had wanted him tolove her, had hoped that after last night, they had scaled all the obstacles. But he was gone.
Shrugging out of her jacket, she stumbled into the living room and sat on the sofa. She had left a fire burning in the hearth in case he wanted to come back to her place and it had kept the place cozy and warm. She would not cry. She had made a fool of herself, but she was going to finish the article and go home.
*****
“I am dying.”
“Again?” Axel did not have time for the man’s theatrics. William Gamble was an old friend and a mentor. He had played the part of a father to him when he was stumbling around trying to find his way.
The man had hired him when he walked off the streets to muck stalls and a grudging friendship had been formed between them.He had been sullen and intense and determined to make his fortune. He had been in a great hurry.
The old man had taught him a lot. Seeing the potential through the rough edges and the ‘I am mad at the world’ persona, William had taken Axel under his wings.
He had spent five years at the ranch learning business and everything else he could learn. He had been like a sponge and an eager student. William had no children and had never been married.
They had formed a wary friendship and then it had blossomed from there into something much more significant. William did not only own the ranch, but several other businesses and Axel had been determined to surpass the old geezer in wealth. And he had. But they remained friends over the years.
William had called urgently and asked to meet. Axel had welcomed the chance to get the hell out of River Glades. He felt trapped and confused.
“Looks like I am not the only one with problem.” He had come straight from the hangar where a car was waiting to transport him to the ranch, where the old man had been waiting for him on the wraparound front porch, smoking his usual cigar.