husband or a boyfriend, he would get me off the property so fast my head would spin. It was tempting. I’d never been one to hide my sexuality, but I couldn’t have him throwing me out and leaving Trey unprotected. If the person who was writing those letters was close enough to follow him to the club, we had a problem. So I settled for saying, “No, sir, there’s no one at home waiting for me.”
We stopped in the kitchen to get something to eat, and while we put some baked goods in a bag, Rebecca walked in. “Daddy said there was another letter.”
“There was. You need to be careful. I’m fairly sure the letters are about me, but just in case, I want you to pay attention to your surroundings and don’t go anywhere by yourself.”
“It’s not like Mother lets me out of her sight anyway. I swear I think she’s terrified I’ll turn into a runaway bride.”
“Well, you know what I think about that subject. You should come spend some time out in the pool house this afternoon. We’re just hanging out watching television and reading.”
“I can’t today. I have to go for a dress fitting this afternoon. But we can do something tomorrow.” She grabbed a muffin off the tray. “And if I don’t lay off of these muffins, my dress won’t fit.”
I watched him watch her go. He opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it. He shook his head and let out a small sigh. Then he turned to me. “Did you get enough food?”
“Yeah, I’m good. You?”
“Yes, let’s go back to the pool house where good coffee awaits us.”
He hadn’t been kidding about the coffee. The first thing he did when we got back was fix us both a cup. When they were ready, we sat down at the bar to eat. Neither of us talked at first. but after a few bites, he put down his muffin and shoved it away. “Do you think he followed me to the club?”
“I don’t know. I can’t figure out how he would’ve known you were meeting Ash to go.”
“Unless he’s watching the house.”
“Unless he’s watching the house,” I agreed. He didn’t respond right away, just sat and gazed out the windows at the river. Then he stood, walked over, and closed the blinds.
“If he was watching you from out there, he couldn’t have made it over here in time to follow you to the club,” I pointed out.
“I know. I was just feeling exposed, I guess. Did you know my room upstairs in the main house faces the river? I grew up in this house, and I spent many a moment sitting in that window daydreaming about sailing away. Even before I knew”—he paused and then made his decision—“before I knew I was gay.”
“I saw the sailboat out there and wondered if you could sail.”
“I can. Unfortunately, I was just never brave enough to actually sail off into the sunset. I thought I was for a while when I was at college. I didn’t think I would ever come back here.”
“So, why did you?” I’d wondered that more than once in the time I’d been here.
“I don’t know. I told myself it was for Rebecca, and to a degree it was. She doesn’t need to marry some guy the Senator picked because he wants her to. Have you met Corey?”
“No, all I know about him is what was in a short bio Felix sent over.”
“Well, he’s just like my father. Religious, controlling, and has very set rules for what he thinks the role of women is. Rebecca didn’t go off to college. She hasn’t seen anything. As far as she knows, the way my mother and father live is normal.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you saw much either considering where you went to school.”
“And I probably wouldn’t have. Except I had Ash.” A real smile lit up his face then, not the fake one for the public but the one that made me want to know the real Trey Coben.
“Were you two ever—”
“Me and Ash? Oh, goodness, no. But he’d lived a different life than I had. I’d been sent there to further my education, of course, but also with the ulterior motive of being the perfect example of how a young man raised in a godly home would behave. Living, breathing evidence to stand as an example of my father’s good leadership, and to help sell my mother’s books. Ash’s parents sent him