GINA WILKINS – Secretly Yours (страница 8)

He glanced at her as he spoke, and their gazes locked for a moment. Annie felt her toes curl inside her sneakers—as they had a tendency to do every time Trent McBride looked at her this way.

“Trevor should be home soon, Trent,” Jamie said quickly. “Why don’t you stay for dinner?”

Breaking the visual contact with Annie, he shook his head. “Thanks, but I have other plans. See you later.”

He left then without looking back.

“But…” Jamie sighed as the door closed behind him. She turned back to Annie, her expression rueful. “I guess he was ready to leave.”

Dragging her gaze away from that closed door, Annie nodded, drawing her first full breath since her gaze had been captured by Trent’s. “Apparently he was.”

“He didn’t like us talking about making a new start with our lives, I suppose. That subject’s still too raw for Trent. I…um…assume you’ve heard that his air force career ended with a plane crash a little more than a year and a half ago.”

“Yes.”

“Of course you have. You’ve probably figured out by now that Honoria has the most efficient rumor mill in the world.”

“Well, yes, I…”

“Trent’s having trouble adjusting to the forced changes in his life. All he ever wanted to do was fly, and now that’s been taken from him. I didn’t know him very well before the crash—Trevor and I had only been dating a short while when it happened, and I hadn’t seen Trent since high school—but I understand he was very different before. Trevor said Trent’s always been moody, but before the crash he was more extroverted and jovial. He was cocky and self-confident and wisecracking, the life-of-the-party type. I guess that’s hard for you to believe.”

Annie thought of the emotional pain she’d sensed in Trent the first time she’d met him. She had no problem believing that his accident had changed him. She’d been changed by recent events herself. There’d been a time when she’d been blindly naive, dependent and pathetically eager to please. While she hoped she had avoided the bitterness Trent’s accident had left behind, she could identify well enough with his anger and regret. An airplane crash had altered Trent’s life; Preston Dixon, with his lies and empty promises, had changed hers.

Because she still didn’t feel comfortable talking about Trent behind his back, she changed the subject by glancing at her watch and rising to her feet. “I’d better go,” she said. “I have offices to clean.”

Jamie stood to escort her out. “I’ll see you next week for Sam’s lesson, if not before. Do you mind if I give your number to a couple of other parents who are looking for a piano teacher?”

“Not at all. I’ll find a way to work their students into my schedule if they’re interested.” Annie was actually pleased by the prospect of finally putting her education to use, something her father and her former fiancé had mockingly predicted she would never be able to do.

AS SOON AS Trent opened his door for her the following Friday morning, Annie could tell he was in a bad mood. His jaw was hard, his mouth set in a grim line. Though his head was lowered so she couldn’t meet his eyes, she thought she saw shadows of pain through the lenses of his glasses. “Are you all right?” she asked impulsively.

His chin lifted. “I’m fine. There are a couple loads of dirty laundry in the hamper. I could use some clean jeans if you have time to wash.”

“I’ll make time.” She watched as he moved toward the door. He was definitely walking stiffly, and she sensed that he was hurting. She also knew he was likely to bite her head off if she expressed concern or in any other way acknowledged that she had noticed his discomfort. Still, she felt the need to try. “You know there’s really not much more to do at my house, so if you’d like to take the day off…”

He looked at her then, his expression openly disbelieving. “Not much more to do? Have you actually looked at your house lately?”

She knew there was still plenty of work to be done, but she was trying to give him an excuse to rest a day. She should have known his stiff-necked pride would get in the way. “You’ve done so much for me already,” she offered weakly. “I feel as though I’m falling behind in repaying you.”

His eyebrows drew even more tightly together, and she almost sighed. She had handled this badly, letting her concern for him show through her usually carefully maintained professional distance. She knew he was oversensitive about his disabilities, whatever they were; she should have known he would not concede any sort of weakness in front of her. To the contrary, he was likely to try to do twice as much as usual just to prove he could.

And what was really bothering her was this feeling that she was beginning to know him so well, despite the very limited nature of the time they had spent together so far.

“We have an arrangement,” he said shortly. “You’ve been doing your part, and I intend to uphold mine.”

She caved. “All right. The knob on the medicine cabinet in my bathroom came off in my hand this morning. I tried to put it back on, but I think the screw is stripped.”

He nodded. “Anything else?”

“The window in the living room won’t open. It was so warm and pretty yesterday, I wanted to let some fresh air in, but it was stuck.”

“Is that it?”

“If you could just fix those two things today, I’d be grateful.” She figured neither task would demand too much from him physically—and maybe he would feel he’d done his part today if he accomplished at least that much. As she watched him cross the room and open the door, she wished she could make him understand that he’d already done so much more than she’d ever expected.

“Mule-headed male,” she muttered as the door closed behind him.

The door opened again. “I heard that,” Trent informed her. And then closed the door behind him with a snap.

Annie was startled into a laugh. Had she actually seen a glint of amusement in Trent’s usually grim blue eyes? Had that been a wry smile playing around the corners of his hard, straight mouth?

Her laughter fading, she groaned and rubbed her temples. She really didn’t want to make Trent smile. He had a strong enough effect on her when he was being rude and irritable.

IT TOOK Trent less than twenty minutes to replace the screw on Annie’s old-fashioned wooden medicine-cabinet door and reattach a round ceramic knob. The cabinet needed to be stripped, sanded and repainted, he noted. Actually, the whole place needed painting, inside and out. With spring weather just setting in, it was a good time to get started on that project. He’d have to figure out a way to ask Annie if she wanted to invest in paint.

He found himself chuckling softly as he moved into the living room to check the problem window she’d told him about. He was remembering her disgruntled summation of his character when he’d refused to take the day off. “Mule-headed male,” she’d called him.

His amusement faded when he considered why she’d been so determined to talk him out of working today. She’d obviously noticed that he was having one of his bad days—he’d woken up stiff and achy that morning, his back muscles in spasms—but he was still perfectly capable of putting in a couple of hours at her place.

He’d given their service-swapping arrangement a couple more weeks, but every time he thought about ending it, he found himself making excuses to prolong it. He’d tried to convince himself that he’d grown spoiled to having his house cleaned and his laundry done. He’d thought of all the repairs still waiting to be done on Annie’s house, and he’d told himself he was being noble and generous to help her out.

But the truth was, he thought as he studied the sticking window casing, he had needed this more than Annie did. From his initial evaluation of her house to the prioritizing and implementing of repairs, he had secretly relished the sense of purpose he’d found since he’d begun this project. For two mornings a week, he’d had a reason to get out of bed. Something to do besides sit alone in his house and brood about the loss of his dreams. Dreams he had shattered himself through his own recklessness.

Scowling, he gripped the window handles in both hands and jerked upward. Pain body-slammed him from behind, making him stagger and then go down to his knees. Breaking into a sick sweat, he tried to stand—only to be brought down again.

Maybe he would just stay right where he was for a little while, he thought grimly, lowering himself carefully to the floor and letting the waves of pain wash over him.

ANNIE USUALLY CLEANED another house on Friday after leaving Trent’s place, but because her client had canceled that day, she found herself with several free hours. She made a stop by Honoria’s only music store, placed an order for some piano-teaching supplies, then headed home for what she anticipated would be a rare few hours of leisure.

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