Gold - Linde K. A. (версия книг .TXT) 📗

Bryna’s mouth opened and then closed. On some level, she could see Stacia doing the same thing. “Maybe she just cared about you?”

“No. She cared about herself.”

“Then, why did you keep sleeping with her?” she asked.

“Guilt mostly.” He sighed and looked sad. “In my head, I knew that she was using me. I mean…I knew what she wanted from me at least. But she was there for me. She took care of me. She helped me so much. It’s hard to erase someone like that from your life, especially with a constant reminder from her.”

“I think that makes sense. It’s hard to let go of your past. That is something I’m very aware of.”

He smiled forlornly. “I couldn’t really escape it, so I would say horrible things about people who were after someone for what they had, and I thought you were no different. But when I got to know you over Christmas last year, things changed. Everything changed.” He reached out and stroked her cheek. “You changed my world.”

She smiled. “You changed mine, too.”

“The other thing is…I wasn’t a hundred percent honest.”

She stiffened. “About what?”

“What Audrey said about my trust fund is true.”

“You have a multimillion-dollar trust fund?” she asked in a whisper. It was strange to think she wasn’t even as eager as she once would have been. Her heart would have soared with her good fortune, but this was Eric. He could have had nothing, and she would still love him.

“Yeah.” He awkwardly looked away. “It’s weird to talk about. It’s not really me. But my family is big money oil. They have been for generations.”

“Oil,” she whispered.

“Yeah. There’s a good chunk of land in the middle of nowhere with my name on it.”

Bryna laughed. Once she started, she couldn’t stop.

Eric looked at her warily. “Why are you laughing?”

“I have no idea. It’s just…you have a trust fund?”

“Yeah?”

Bryna wiped her eyes where tears were forming. “I find that hysterical. After all this shit I’ve gone through, somehow, I ended up with someone wealthy.”

Eric stiffened. She realized how harsh her words sounded as soon as they had come out of her mouth. That wasn’t how she had meant them.

She reached out and grabbed his hand. “It was never about the money. I have money. Digging was about power and control. What I realized was that I didn’t need that at all. I needed an equal. I have no interest in your money. I love you. I loved you before. I love you now. I’d love you penniless.”

He raised his eyebrow. “Really?”

“Well, I’d give you a few pennies, but yes. This doesn’t change anything. You’re still you. I’m still me. We’re still us.”

He smiled. “I like that.”

“Me, too,” she said before kissing him.

The next morning, Bryna awoke with a wicked headache. Whatever had been in that Hunch Punch was something fierce. She swallowed down what felt like a bottle of Tylenol and a gallon of water. After a few extra hours of shut-eye, she felt mostly whole again.

Eric was downstairs, studying, when she resurfaced.

“What time is it?” she said.

He checked his watch. “Two.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah. I was going to come wake you, but you seemed like you needed the sleep.”

“Thanks.” She took a seat next to him at the table.

“Margaritas?” he offered.

She laughed. “I know it’s Sunday, and I’m all for our margarita Sunday, but I think I’m going to have to pass.”

His eyes met hers across the table, and she saw fear reflected back to her.

“What?”

“I’m sorry about last night,” he said. “I know we’re good now, but Audrey shouldn’t have said those things, and I should have told you sooner about my parents.”

Bryna gave him a rueful smile. “How exactly would you have brought that up? ‘Oh, P.S., Bri, my parents own big oil in Texas.’”

“Uh…yeah, that’s about right.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about talking money to me. I don’t need to know how much you’re worth because I already know your real worth. And Audrey was just jealous.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, but I’m still sorry.” He reached across the table and gave her a kiss.

“You can stop apologizing. You have no reason to apologize, and I don’t need an explanation from you. We’re on the same page.” She nodded her head, as if that was the end of the conversation. “I do, however, have something I want to talk to you about.”

“Should I be worried?” he joked.

“Horribly.”

He made a face at her.

“I think I know what I want to do with the money and jewelry that Hugh gave me while we were together, and I was wondering if you could help me. That relationship is totally over, and I don’t want that money and guilt hanging between us any longer. You know?”

“I know what you mean.” He arched an eyebrow, suddenly curious. “What do you want to do? I don’t think he’s going to take any of it back.”

Bryna shook her head. She didn’t think so either. Actually, she knew he wouldn’t. If he could toss a Harry Winston necklace over a balcony and return the check for the house without hesitation, she knew that he wouldn’t take the money back now.

“I don’t think so either.”

“Then, what?”

“I thought I would donate it to charity in his name. Does that sound dumb?”

Eric’s face lit up. “No. That sounds like a great idea.”

“I’ve thought about a few charities, but I really don’t know which one to pick.”

“Hmm.” Eric sat back and contemplated it for a minute. Then, something struck him, and he jolted forward. “Did you ever find out how his wife died?”

“Um…yeah. Breast cancer.”

Eric nodded at her as if that were her answer.

“Oh! That’s perfect. You’re right. I’ll donate the money through him in his wife’s honor. It won’t make what I did better,” she acknowledged, “but maybe it will show him that I did care and didn’t mean to hurt him like that.”

Eric smiled at her and kissed her knuckles. “Look at you. All grown-up.”

She laughed. “Not entirely, I think, but I don’t want this hanging over my head. Hugh is a decent man. He deserved better.”

“There’s nothing you can do about the past. Do what you can to make yourself feel better now that you’ve moved on, and everything else will fall into place.”

“You’re right.”

Her phone buzzed in her purse, pulling her away from their conversation.

“It’s been buzzing on and off all morning,” Eric told her.

“Weird.” She picked up her phone and saw that her dad was calling. “Oh no.”

“What?”

“It’s my dad.”

“Is that bad?”

She bit her lip and steeled herself for this conversation. She needed to be hard to hear what he was about to say because she could almost guarantee he was going to cancel on her. There was no other reason for him to call her the weekend before homecoming.

“Hey, Daddy,” she said.

“Hey, sweetheart! How are you?”

Bryna took a deep breath. “Good. Just get it over with.”

“Get what over with?” he asked.

“You know, just go ahead and tell me you’re canceling.”

“Bryna,” her dad said softly, “I’m not canceling.”

“You’re not?” She couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice.

“No, and I’m sorry if you think the only reason I call you is with bad news.”

“We don’t exactly have the best track record.”

He sighed. “No, we don’t, but we’ll work on that. I actually called because I wanted to let you know that the whole family is going to come up on Thursday for homecoming. Celia, Lacey, Kacey, and baby Zoe, of course, are all going to come up with me. We thought that we could meet you and Pace at the condo and have a dinner with just us family.”

“Really?” she asked.

She wasn’t sure if she could quite process this. Her dad wanted to have dinner with the whole family, and he was coming to homecoming to see her.