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Humiliation swamped him. Now they all knew. The old accusations swept through him and there was nothing to do except get the hell out. He straightened himself up, refusing to be cowed. Even by the damn pain that pulsed through him. It was so much worse since he’d banged into that table. “Well, I didn’t exactly walk away. I wheeled myself away. I did, however, leave as Javier has so kindly explained.”
“I know,” she replied.
He turned to look at her. Her cheeks were the faintest shade of pink and her eyes shifted away from him before she obviously forced herself to look back up. “What do you mean, you know? Did Javier send a report over to you? What did he do? Hire an investigator?”
“I didn’t have to,” Javi replied. “My sister’s one. She asked a couple of questions. Apparently, you’re still the source of a lot of gossip in your hometown.”
“You know how people love to talk.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She knew. How long had she known? “Did he tell you about it today?”
She swallowed, a sure sign she was nervous. “Javi didn’t tell me anything. I heard that you had a sister and I did some digging of my own. Why don’t we go and talk? It’s almost lunch. I’ll pour you a Riesling and we can try to trip up the servers. And you can yell at me for not minding my own business.”
He stared at her. What had she done?
Tiffany strode in the room, shedding any illusion that she was nervous about how he was going to react. “Come on, Sebastian. You know you want to do the last part. The yelling, that is. Or you can growl my way, but I think you should get off your feet and let me take care of you.”
Take care of him? Like he was a pathetic thing that needed taking care of. He knew how quickly that could turn. He needed her to understand that he wasn’t something soft and needy. “Javier is right. I had a fiancée. I went home to see her and I walked away from her. And, yes, Alicia was pregnant when I walked away. That’s why my mother wouldn’t speak to me for the last year of her life. I denied her a grandchild. Alicia had a miscarriage, but believe me she knew who to blame. She blamed me for Alicia losing the baby.”
“I’m sure she did.” Tiffany held out a hand.
“You had no right to call my sister.” The enormity of the betrayal hit him like a punch to the gut. She’d gone behind his back and called his sister?
“I did. I care about you. That gives me the right.”
“It gives you no right at all.” He could feel the walls pushing in on him. She wanted to sit down and talk? What would she do? Gently break it off with him because she’d finally seen who he was? He wasn’t about to sit back and allow her to take over. Not in this. She didn’t get to pry into his life like this. She didn’t get to walk in and bring back every bad memory of the life he’d left behind. “You broke trust with me. You’re manipulating me again and I won’t stand for it.”
“She’s manipulating you?” Javier asked, judgment plain on his face. “You’re the one who ran out on your pregnant fiancée. Responsibility a bit too much for you?”
Shame burned in his gut. He could see his mother standing on shaking legs, looking at him like she wished she’d never had him.
You killed your father. Now you want to take this away from me, too.
“You back off and back off now.” Tiffany moved between him and Javier. “He isn’t Rafe and I won’t have you bringing your personal baggage into this. I love you like a brother, but this is between me and Sebastian.”
“He knocked up a woman and dumped her,” Javier insisted.
Yes, there it was. All the judgment. He was the monster. Alicia was the well-bred girl from the right side of the tracks who made the mistake of falling for the middle-class monster. Everyone had known it would go wrong. Alicia had been guaranteed a beautiful future and he’d taken it all away from her.
“Or it wasn’t his baby, dumbass,” Tiffany shot back. “I am usually all about the sisterhood, but I know Sebastian. The man can’t leave an order form unfinished. He’s the single most responsible man I’ve ever met. He wouldn’t leave his child. He came home, wounded and needing love and healing, and he found out his fiancée had cheated on him. So back off.”
All eyes were suddenly on him. It didn’t matter that she might understand. She’d disobeyed. She’d done exactly what he’d always been afraid she would do. There would be no careful distance with her. There would be no happy relationship because she would need far more than he could give her.
I don’t need you anyway, Sebastian. What kind of a husband or a father could you be? God, I wish it had been you instead of Gary. Why did Gary die and you come crawling back home like the pathetic boy you’ve always been? Gary showed me what it meant to have a man in my life. I’m glad you know because the thought of actually getting into bed with you makes me sick.
He wasn’t going to give Tiffany a chance to be disgusted with him. It took a special kind of love to deal with a man who needed help bathing himself. Hell, there had been times when he couldn’t go to the bathroom without help. Weak. He felt a little weak. Like the room might start spinning.
“Eric, I’m sorry I’m going to need the afternoon off. I’m going to move my things to a hotel for the duration of the training period.” He couldn’t give up his job. It was all he had. But how could he work with her every day?
Tiffany turned to him. “You’re moving out?”
She looked so hurt, but that was what he did. He hurt people. She would have found out sooner or later anyway. “Yes, I’m moving out. I explained to you that I wouldn’t put up with these kinds of manipulations. Did you or did you not know I wouldn’t want you to look into my past?”
She sighed. “I knew it, but we can’t go on like this. We have to talk to each other more.”
More. She wanted to talk more, but that wasn’t what she meant. She would want to move herself into his world lock, stock, and barrel, and he would be devastated when she finally realized she wanted a whole man. She would want to get as close as she could and then she would find out how difficult he was, how hard he was to deal with.
He’d thought Alicia had ripped him apart. Tiffany would destroy him.
“Yes, you’re right. We’re not going on at all anymore.” He needed to get away from her. He already wanted to call back his words, wanted to find a way out of the trap she’d put him in. It was already in his head to sit down and put forth her punishment and command her to stay out of his business, but to keep her.
