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Twenty minutes later, they were on the road. Bryn chewed a turkey sandwich that felt like sand in her mouth. Finally, she gave up and wrapped most of it in the waxed paper and stuffed it in the bag.
Trent had finished his without fanfare and was sipping coffee and staring out the windshield in the dwindling light. Encountering large wildlife on the road was always a hazard, but Trent was a careful driver and Bryn felt perfectly safe with him.
She chewed her lip, wishing she could go back in time and erase every stupid thing she’d ever done. Including the day she invited Trent to take her to the prom. Trent had said no, of course. Bryn had cried her eyes out behind the barn, and Jesse had come along to comfort her.
In retrospect, she suspected Jesse’s motive, even from that first moment, had been troublemaking.
When the silence in the car became unbearably oppressive, Bryn put her hand on Trent’s sleeve. “I’m really sorry about Jesse. I know you loved him very much.” She felt the muscles in his forearm tense, so she took her hand away. Apparently even brief contact with her disgusted him.
Trent drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, his profile bleak. “I still can’t believe it. He was such a good kid.”
“You weren’t around him much in the last several years, though. He changed a lot.”
“What do you mean?” The words were sharp.
“Didn’t you wonder why he never graduated from college?”
“Dad said he had trouble settling on a major. He was restless and confused. So he switched schools several times. Apparently he decided he wanted to get more involved with the ranch.”
Bryn groaned inwardly. It was worse than she thought. Mac clearly must have known about Jesse’s problems, but apparently he had done a bang-up job of keeping that information from his other three sons.
Did Bryn have the right to dispel the myths?
She thought of little Allen, and the answer was clear.
“Trent—” she sighed “—Jesse got kicked out of four universities for excessive drinking and drug use. Your father finally made him come home to keep an eye on him.”
The car swerved, the brakes screeched and Bryn’s seat belt cut into her chest as Trent slammed the car to a halt at the side of the road. He punched on the overhead light and turned to face her. “How dare you try to smear my brother’s memory…. You have no right.” His dark eyes flashed, and the curve of his sensual lips was tight.
She wouldn’t back down, not now. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I really am. But Mac has done you a disservice. Perhaps you could have helped if you had known.”
Trent’s laser gaze would have ripped her in half if she hadn’t known in her heart she was doing the right thing. Pain etched his face, along with confusion and remorse, and a seldom-seen, heart-wrenching vulnerability—at least not by Bryn.
He ran a hand through his hair. “You’re lying again. How would you know anything about Jesse?”
Denial was a normal stage of grief. But Bryn held firm. “I’m not lying,” she said calmly. “Jesse called me a couple or three times a year. And every time it was the same. He was either drunk or high. He’d ramble on about how he wanted me to come back to Wyoming.”
“If you’re telling the truth, it’s even worse. He might have wanted to make a family with you and the baby, even if it wasn’t his.”
“Focus, Trent. He didn’t know what he was saying half the time. If anything, he wanted to use me and Allen to win points with Mac…to help cover his ass after whatever new trouble he’d gotten himself into.”
“Jesse loved children.”
“Jesse offered me money to get an abortion,” she said flatly. “He said he had big plans for his life and they didn’t include a baby…or me for that matter. That’s why I ran into Mac’s study that day so upset. I thought Mac would talk some sense into him.”
Trent’s face was white. He didn’t say a word.
“But instead,” she said, grimacing at the quiver she heard in her own voice, “Mac put me on a plane to Minnesota.”
Please, please, please believe me.
He shrugged. “With your talent for drama, you might have a career on the silver screen.”
