Fate Actually (Moonstone Cove #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,57
and th-the sheeeh…” He slapped his palm on his cheek. “What’s the word I’m looking for?” He started to laugh. “What did Frank put in this wine, am I right?”
“Shenanigans?”
“Yes!” Ron laughed hard. “I tell you, that one listens about as well as Whit did.”
“Well, you’re smart,” Megan said. “I’m sure you’ll get your point across to her eventually. You just have to keep telling her…” Megan gestured toward Ron.
“You can’t buy too fast. That’s just… common… It’s common—”
“Sense.” Toni squeezed his arm. “It’s common sense. Obviously.”
“She acts like that one piece of land is the only place they could build a cave in that area and it’s just… it’s not the case. The geologist said so.”
“Really?” Toni nodded. “I mean, I don’t know about you, but I trust science, you know?”
“Yes.” He slapped his hands together, breaking their connection. “Exactly. Trust science.”
“I trust science too.” Megan looked past Ron and her eyes went wide. “My Lord, I need to pee. We should go, Toni.”
Toni had been reaching toward Ron again, trying to reconnect and get more information. “What?” She looked up.
“Toni, don’t…” Megan reached out, then pulled her hand back.
She looked past Ron and saw Henry standing a little distance away, watching the two of them flirt with Ron Withers.
Toni stood up, her eyes locked on Henry. “Oh. Hey.”
Shit. Shit! She’d been leaning into Ron, nearly in the man’s lap trying to get information from him. She could only imagine how it looked.
Henry was freshly showered and his dark hair was still damp. He wore a pair of fitted blue jeans and a crisp button-down shirt in a light grayish blue. There was a slight flush on the top of his cheekbones, and it wasn’t because of the heat. The heat didn’t bother Henry.
He was pissed. This was Henry quietly furious, and it was somehow far more devastating than the explosive feelings she’d grown up around.
“So…” He looked around at the party. “Guess I was a little late, huh?”
Toni opened her mouth. Closed it. She couldn’t speak. Her heart was in her throat. She’d never understood that saying before that moment, but it suddenly made sense.
She couldn’t speak if she tried.
Megan rose and stood next to her. “Henry, it’s not—”
“It’s fine.” He turned. “Whatever. I’m gonna go. I’ll see you later.”
He walked through the mass of people, past Jackie, Katherine, and Baxter, and down the driveway where his truck was probably parked.
And all Toni could think of was his excitement when she’d first invited him.
“Would you like to go with me to Sunday dinner at Frank’s ranch this weekend?”
“As your date?”
Yes.
Yes! She only wanted him.
“Antonia Luciana Dusi, I would like that very much.”
Toni started to run. “Henry!”
Chapter 19
She caught up with him as he reached his truck.
“Just don’t bother, okay?” He yanked his door open.
“Henry, it’s not what it looks like, okay? Jackie set it up. That guy’s name is Ron Withers, and he’s the accountant for—”
“You were all over him.” Henry slammed his door shut and spun toward her. “I mean… really? I can barely get you to acknowledge I’m alive when we’re in public, much less get you to do something crazy like hold my hand, but Jackie sets you up with some friend of hers and all of a sudden—”
“I was interrogating him, okay?” She looked around, making sure no one was in earshot. “He’s Fairfield’s accountant!”
Henry froze midrant. “Fairfield’s accountant?”
“Yes. Megan and I were trying to find out—”
“That does not explain why you had your hands all over him.”
“I was touching his arm.” Please don’t do this here. Please don’t do this here. “That’s hardly having my hands all over him.”
Henry stood and crossed his arms over his chest. “For you, that’s practically groping.”
“It wasn’t…” She let out a breath. Shit. “It’s just a thing that…”
Just tell him. It’s Henry. You know you want him. If he’s going to be part of your life, he needs to know what he’s in for.
“It’s called empathy.” She stared at the cab of his truck. “Can we go somewhere private to talk about this?”
“I know what empathy is, Toni. And it doesn’t require you getting touchy-feely with some guy to— What are you doing?”
Toni walked over, reached both hands up, and pressed her palms against his lightly stubbled jaw.
Shhhhhh. She pulled the anger out of him and she did it quickly, dramatically, and thoroughly. Toni sucked Henry’s anger up like an emotional vacuum, which left her sick to her stomach and really, really pissed off.