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“Since you have company, I’ll go home. We can talk later.” Curt had a lot of explaining to do, but she didn’t need witnesses around when he did it. “It was nice meeting you, Trent. Curt, call me later.” Before either man responded she turned and walked away, eager to get away from both.
Although she left the room before them, she only managed to open the front door and step outside when Trent and Curt reached her.
“Please stay,” Curt said. He touched her forearm, but then pulled his hand away. “Trent is leaving.”
“He’s right. I’ve got a bit of a drive home.” Trent smiled warmly at her. “I’m glad I got a chance to meet you.” He fished his keys out of his pocket. “Sometime soon, you and my cousin need to join Addie, Kendrick, and me for dinner.”
She ignored his comment about joining his family for dinner. Depending on what explanation Curt gave her, she may never see him again, never mind his family. “It was nice meeting you, too. Have a safe drive home.”
An older model vehicle, its passenger side door painted a different color than the rest of it, slowly drove by, catching Taylor’s attention. She didn’t remember seeing the car around before.
“Tell Addie I said hello.”
She heard Curt speak as she watched the car speed up and disappear from view.
Trent stepped outside. “Will do. Call me later.”
The fancy car she’d admired a short while ago drove away, leaving her and Curt still standing on his front step.
“We need to talk,” Curt said.
“You’ve a knack for understatement.”
He touched her arm again, and slipped his fingers across her skin until he reached her hand. “Come back inside?” he asked as he gently squeezed her fingers. “Please.”
She considered saying no. Making him wait and suffer until she was ready to hear whatever he had to say. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the patience to wait. She wanted the whole story now, not a day from now.
Taylor stepped back inside and shook her hand free from his. She’d hear him out before she made a final judgment. However, for the moment he’d lost the right to touch her.
“How about we go in the other room? I think we’ll be more comfortable.” Curt closed the front door behind them then stuck his hands in his front jeans pockets.
With a simple nod, she walked back down the hallway. Curt didn’t have much furniture in the house. It was either sit in his living room, his bedroom, or his office. His office only had one chair, and no way in hell was she going to his bedroom today.
“I know you’ve got some questions, but can I explain first?” Curt remained standing while she took the seat his cousin had been in before. “Afterwards, you can ask anything you want, and I’ll answer you.”
“As long as I get some answers, I don’t care who goes first.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t know my cousin would drop by. If I’d known you would be here so early—”
“You would’ve kicked him out sooner?” She’d agreed to hear him out first, but she couldn’t keep the comment inside.
“Yes, but not for the reason you’re thinking.” He paced in front of her. “When I asked you over it was because I wanted to explain things. But having you meet Trent like that wasn’t what I had in mind.”
Her instincts last night had told her Curt wanted to talk about something. Revealing his true identity hadn’t occurred to her as a possible discussion topic. Why would it? “Seeing him here was a little surprising.” She was picking up his habit of understating facts.
He stopped moving and faced her. “I imagine it—”
“Doesn’t matter now. Just tell me why you’ve been lying to me and my family since you moved in.” His opinion on the situation didn’t matter.
Curt let out a slow breath before he responded. “You’ve figured this out already, but my last nam
e is Sherbrooke. Trent’s one of my first cousins. He works for Sherbrooke Enterprises, my family’s company. The bachelor party I went to a few weeks ago was for my cousin, Gray, one of Trent’s brothers.”
“Fascinating.” Her annoyance grew with each passing moment. “But you didn’t answer me. Why did you tell us you were Curt Hilton?”
“When I bought this house, I intended to keep to myself. I hoped no one around here would recognize me, and people would leave me alone while I worked. When I brought the cat home and Priscilla invited me for dinner, I thought it’d be a one-time thing. That afterwards we’d see each other in passing, nothing more.”
“And then what happened? You decided to make up a story about being C.S. Hilton so you could come by for supper and get out of cooking your own meals?” She gripped both hands together in her lap instead of shaking him. Can’t the guy give me a straight answer? she wondered.
