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She warmed at his compliment, all the while looking away to avoid the inevitable blush that came with words such as his. “Sometimes I don’t know if I am, but it’s kind of you to say so.”
“I think we can all feel that way sometimes. There are things in this life we have done or know we must do that could cause pain, but we do them for good reasons. Wouldn’t you say that’s true of most people?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I suppose so.” It was like when she avoided telling her father about the marriage so she could handle it on her own and prevent pain for him. Or how she’d have to choose one of these men to spend the rest of her life with and inevitably break the heart of the other.
The angry churning in her stomach continued. Perhaps she should have just waited for the month to be over before she accepted Wade’s proposition. She couldn’t fathom walking away from him.
And yet, the more she got to know Tad, the more she wondered if she could handle breaking his heart after he’d been through so much.
Brielle eyed him, offering a faint smile. “You’re a good guy, Tad. I don’t think people tell you that enough.”
“You’d be right on that one, love,” he murmured.
16
Wade
“What do you mean she’s not here?” Wade snapped.
Eloise leaned in the doorway of her home, shooting an irritated look in Wade’s direction. “I’m not intentionally keeping anything from you, Wade. She’s out with yourcousin.”
He dug angry hands into his hair, then stopped his pacing and stared at her. She knew.
Duh. Of course, she knew. This was Eloise—the woman who was involved with the whole Madeline fiasco. Then again, he wasn’t sure how much she knew. Shane didn’t seem like the kind of guy to bare all. He’d kept his sordid past a secret from Brielle the whole time they’d been romantically involved.
Wade glowered and strode toward her. To her credit, she didn’t even flinch. “Where is she?”
“I. Don’t. Know.” She said the words evenly, without malice. “But from what I understand, she wants a break from you. Did you seriously think she’d be okay with you beating the guy up? None of us like that sort of thing, you know. Our dad raised us to be fair and just. From the sounds of it, you were just acting jealous.”
“I was not—” He stopped himself from allowing his voice to rise further. Schooling his features and clenching his fists, he forced his voice to return to a low growl. “It wasn’t about being jealous, though I won’t deny those feelings are present.”
Eloise huffed.
“Tad isn’t what he seems, but I think you already know that.”
“Tad is harmless. Is he a bit weird? Sure. But he’s only going to be here for a few more weeks. It doesn’t matter how he came to be here as long as he’s gone by the end of it. You were supposed to make Brielle see that you were better. What were you thinking?”
He flinched. Well, now he knew two things. Shanewaskeeping things from Eloise, and Eloise blamed Wade for Brielle’s retreat. She was probably right about that part, as much as he hated to admit it. Wade took a deep breath and released it with a huff. It didn’t change the fact that Tad had made some pretty clear threats. “Do me a favor and the next time you see that fiancé of yours—”
“Whatever it is, why don’t you tell him yourself.” Eloise nodded toward something behind him and he spun around to find a black Ford pickup approaching. Looked like the guy finally did something right and upgraded his mode of transportation.
Without a second thought, he charged down the porch steps toward the oncoming vehicle. His blood was boiling and his head was still reeling from finding out that not only had Brielle spent the evening on a date with Tad, she was out with him again today. Wade hadn’t even registered whether or not Tad had come home late last night.
Shane climbed out of the truck, looking about as happy as Wade felt. He shut the door just as Wade arrived in front of him.
“We have a problem.”
“Yeah, I know,” Shane said.
“No, it runs deeper than what we’ve already discussed. Tad is up to something, and we need to do some digging.”
Shane’s cool, even stare only did one thing. It made Wade feel trapped, like a rabbit cornered by a fox or a wolf.
“Tad went through documents we keep at our house, too. And then he… taunted me.” Wade’s shoulders dropped and he shook his head as he stared down at his balled-up fists. “I shouldn’t have let him egg me on. I shouldn’t have reacted.”
Shane stiffened. “What did you do?”
“I hit him,” Wade said. “But in my defense—”
