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Her pulse slowed to its normal pace, and she could breathe again. Mac didn’t know about last night. How could he?
She twirled her spoon in the bowl. “I can handle Trent. Don’t you worry. But we need to talk, Mac.”
His bushy eyebrows went up. “Sounds ominous.”
“Do you think Jesse’s problems had anything to do with his mother’s desertion?”
Mac’s gaze shifted away from hers. His hands clenched. “Don’t know what you mean.”
“He was at a vulnerable age when she left. Sometimes kids blame themselves in situations like that.”
Mac’s complexion reddened alarmingly. “That was a long time ago. Jesse was a wild kid. Can’t blame that on a woman who’s been gone for almost twenty years.”
“But what if she tried to contact him?” Did Mac know about the letters? Was that why he was getting upset?
“Forget his mother,” Mac shouted. “I don’t want to talk about her…ever.”
The change was so dramatic, Bryn was blindsided. One minute Mac was the picture of health. And now…
He shoved back from the table and stood up so rapidly he knocked over his chair.
Bryn reached for him in alarm. “I’m sorry, Mac,” she said urgently. “We’ll drop it. I never should have said anything.”
He backed toward the hallway. “Jesse’s gone. Nothing’s going to bring him back. End of story.”
Mac’s knees gave out beneath him. His eyes met hers, imploring, scared.
“Calm down, Mac. Everything's okay. Really.” What had she done? But nothing was okay, not by a long shot.
Six
In that terrifying moment Bryn was desperately grateful that Sinclair wealth meant having access to a helicopter. A 911 call ensured that medical staff at the hospital would be waiting and ready.
Getting in touch with Trent was trickier, and she felt terrible that she was disrupting his important meeting, but she had no choice. She drove herself to the hospital and waited.
Mac was still in emergency when an ashen-faced Trent arrived. “What the hell happened? He was fine earlier. He drank his coffee while I had breakfast, and he was his old self.”
Her eyes burned with tears. “I asked about Jesse’s mother, and Mac went berserk.”
Trent paled. “Dear God. Mac never speaks of her. Surely you knew that. You lived here for most of your life. Etta’s defection wasn’t exactly dinner-table conversation. Are you trying to kill my father? Dammit, Bryn. What were you thinking?”
The accusation in his eyes was made all the worse by the knowledge that he was right. She should have waited.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But I wanted to get to the truth. This family has too many secrets.”
In Trent’s gaze, she saw not one whit of the man who had held her so intimately only hours before. He’d come straight from his meeting, and he was wearing an expensive dark suit, perfectly tailored to fit his tall, virile frame. His shoes were Italian leather. The thin gold watch on his wrist could have paid for several semesters of her schooling.
On the ranch, she had allowed herself to think of him as a normal man. But now he wore his wealth and power with a careless confidence that only underscored the gap between them.
She watched as Trent paced the drab waiting room like a caged lion. Her legs wouldn’t hold her up. She picked a hard plastic chair in a far corner, sat down and stared blindly at her trembling fingers linked in her lap. Last night she had touched Trent intimately with those same hands. It seemed like a fairy tale now.
The wait was agonizing. What if Mac died? What would happen to all of them? Trent would never forgive her, much less admit that Allen was entitled to part of the estate, if indeed he was. And poor Trent…to lose his brother and father so close together. Please, God. Let Mac be okay.
When a young doctor came out, Bryn leaped to her feet, but Trent got there first. She had the impression he might have jerked the poor man to him by the collar if it hadn’t been socially unacceptable.
Trent’s hands were fisted at his sides instead. “How is he? Was it another heart attack?”
The doctor shook his head. “He’s going to be fine. It was an anxiety attack. When his pulse rate skyrocketed, it probably scared him, which merely exacerbated the situation. A frightening cycle, but not life-threatening. Do you know what precipitated this?”
