Do Opposites Attract? (17 page)

Brianna gazed at the harsh, rugged face she had come to love. She wanted to beg him to let her get to know him. To tell her about his past, open up to her. Sadly anger shimmered round him like a shield, one she didn’t dare try and penetrate. This was his dangerous side back in action. She had a feeling Henry had been lucky to escape with a single punch. The best thing she could do was keep quiet and hope the drive home would calm him down.

As Mitch drove, the white-hot anger continued to fester inside him. It was only a lifetime of learning how to handle his temper and hide his emotions that gave him the necessary calm to drive Brianna home. Catherine. It had been a long time since he’d heard her name, over fifteen years. And it still hurt.

As he neared Brianna’s house, he glanced in her direction. Her face was pale, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the road ahead. His heart squeezed. He had become terrifyingly attached to her, as he feared he would. Over the years, since Catherine, he’d sometimes wondered if he was actually capable of caring for anybody. At least now, looking at Brianna, he knew he was. It was small comfort. Deep in his heart he’d been living an illusion, a fantasy that, despite everything he’d told himself to the contrary, there was a chance for them both. A chance for a future together. That had just blown up in his face.

He pulled up outside her house and turned off the engine.

‘Are you coming in?’ she asked quietly.

He shook his head, fearing if he allowed himself to speak he would give in to the temptation to say yes.

‘I see,’ she replied coolly, her beautiful eyes brimming with tears she was clearly determined not to allow to fall. ‘Is that not tonight, thanks, or not ever again, because it sounds a lot like the latter?’

Mitch let out a deep sigh. He hated this part, the part when he had to say goodbye. God knows, he’d gone through the routine enough times, though with Brianna he’d come closer than ever to thinking of a future with both of them in it. This time it was going to hurt like hell. ‘Brianna, you and I both know it’s time for us to go our separate ways. We had fun, like we said we would. But now it’s over.’

‘Why? Are you really going to let the words of a spoilt, immature twit come between us?’

Mitch almost smiled. He couldn’t have described Henry better himself. ‘His methods are crass, but you can’t deny the truth behind them. We don’t belong together, Brianna. We don’t fit. It’s not just our backgrounds, though that alone would be enough. It’s also what we want out of life. I warned you right at the start, I’m not cut out for relationships. You want marriage, a family. I’m not capable of giving you that. It’s time for us to call it a day before we get in too deep and one of us gets hurt.’

Brianna let out a bitter laugh. ‘It’s too late for that. I love you.’ Her voice grew softer and was on the verge of breaking. ‘I’ve damn well fallen head over heels in love with you.’

He felt as if a hand had opened up his chest and clutched at his heart. How could she love him? She didn’t even know him. If she knew the truth about him, where he’d come from, she wouldn’t love him. ‘Then you’re a fool,’ he replied, his tone deliberately harsh.

Brianna recoiled, but not for long. Soon her eyes flashed back at him. ‘No, Mitch. If you’re turning down what we have between us, then you’re the fool.’

He couldn’t disagree with her quietly spoken words. He was a fool, because he’d never find someone quite like Brianna ever again. But wasn’t it better for her to think of him as a fool, than to know the truth about him? He’d grown up in an environment where the only relationship between a man and a woman had been about sex and money. What did he know about love? And he sure as hell couldn’t accept her love, when he wasn’t sure how much he could love back. He cared for her. He knew that. Cared so much it hurt. But was it love? Jesus, he didn’t know what that meant.

He watched as Brianna climbed out of the car, her head held high. She was one classy lady, which only served to remind him of their differences. Still barefoot, her sandals hanging from her fingers, she walked away from him with her spine straight and her demeanour dignified. She never once looked back.

He waited for her to step inside before speeding off, screeching the tyres in his determination to get away. He ignored the pain he felt in his chest. After all, he’d known all along this would happen. And it was fine. He was fine. He was meant to be alone. Relationships weren’t for him. Brianna might think she loved him, but she didn’t. Couldn’t in fact. Because there was so much about him she didn’t know.

As soon as she shut the door, Brianna ran to her bedroom and flung herself onto her bed. There she did the only thing she was capable of. She cried her heart out. Great wailing sobs she couldn’t control. At some point she must have crawled inside the bed, but she wasn’t aware of it. The tears just wouldn’t stop flowing. Now she understood why they called it a broken heart. It really felt as if her heart had smashed into lots of tiny pieces.

The next morning, though the tears had finally dried up, a dark cloud of despondency hung over her, sticking to her wherever she went. It was there during her shower, still there when she got dressed, and weighed heavily on her now as she answered the door.

‘Oh, my darling, you look awful.’ Her mother stood back and gave her the sort of once-over that only mothers can do.

‘You sure know how to cheer a girl up,’ Brianna replied dryly, letting her in. ‘I take it the gossip grapevine is working well and you’ve already heard about what happened at the party.’

‘Well, Abigail did phone me this morning to say Henry had been grabbed by the throat and then punched,’ her mother told her as she took a seat opposite Brianna in the living room. ‘Apparently he was lucky his jaw wasn’t broken, but there’s an awful bruise coming up. What on earth did Mitch think he was playing at?’

‘I don’t think he was doing much thinking,’ Brianna acknowledged sadly, hugging at a cushion. ‘He’d been called a con artist, Mum. One who tricks women out of their fortunes.’

Her mother bristled. ‘Whatever Henry might have said, there is never any excuse for violence. From what I hear, Mitch could have killed him.’

Brianna thought back to the look on Mitch’s face as he’d lunged at Henry. Cold, menacing, dangerous. ‘If he’d wanted to kill him, Mum, he would have.’

‘And you admire that?’

‘I admire people who stick up for themselves. What I don’t admire are people who go around deliberately trying to humiliate others. You weren’t there, Mum. You didn’t see how Henry provoked him. Trust me, Henry got off lightly. Mitch made sure he had a soft landing in the pool.’ She sighed. ‘And if you’re going to say in your next breath that it isn’t how gentlemen behave, then don’t bother. True gentlemen don’t behave like Henry, either.’

Her mother had the grace to agree. ‘It wasn’t nice of Henry, you’re right. But he was looking out for you. You are worth a lot of money. That would be quite an incentive, in many men’s eyes.’

‘Well, you don’t have to worry any more, either of you. Do you know why? Because the man who is clearly only after me for my money, has dumped me.’ The stupid tears began to fall again, tears she thought she’d run out of.

‘Oh, darling, I am sorry.’ Her mother moved to sit next to her and gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze.

‘Don’t be a hypocrite, Mum. You’re not sorry at all. Mitch was good enough to work for your charity, but never good enough to date your daughter, was he?’

‘It doesn’t have anything to do with being good enough,’ her mother replied sharply. ‘But it’s not easy being in a relationship where the two parties feel unequal. Especially when it’s the man who feels inadequate next to the woman.’ She gazed at her daughter. ‘I know you’re hurting darling, but you’re young. Mitch has done the right thing by you. In time you’ll see that.’

‘No I won’t. All I’ll see is a man too damned scared to allow himself to fall in love.’ She looked down at where her mum was holding her hand. ‘It doesn’t all add up. He’s a strong, confident man. Why would he let someone like Henry undermine him?’

‘Probably because Mitch can’t handle your wealth, darling. It’s a lot to ask a man to take on. Those that don’t see it as an opportunity for sudden richness can find it a massive dent to their pride. We might live in a modern era, but it’s still more socially acceptable for a woman to marry a rich man, than the other way round.’

Brianna sighed. ‘You’re probably right. It was always a bone of contention between us.’ Then she threw her arms around her mother’s neck. ‘God, I wish I’d been born poor.’

While Brianna was being comforted by her mother, Mitch was on his own, praying for the phone to ring. He didn’t want to wish a disaster on anybody, but right now he needed something to take him away from his solitude. Why was it he couldn’t look at his kitchen without imagining Brianna there, burning the bacon? Couldn’t even sit on his own sofa without picturing her curled up on it. And his bed. Christ, his bed even smelt of her. It was driving him crazy. More than ever before in his life, he needed to work. That focused him like nothing else, allowed no time to think. Then, when he returned home, he would be fine. There wouldn’t be anybody waiting at the airport for him, but he’d quickly get used to that again. Used to the way things had always been.

With a gesture of sheer frustration, Mitch grabbed the wetsuit from the living room floor and began to pull it on. The sea had always been a great solace. A place he could lose himself, for a while. He would spend his day windsurfing, and trying to forget the time he went with Brianna.

In the office a few days later, Brianna hesitantly picked up the phone. She had never had to do this. Never had to contact an ex-lover. In previous relationships she had said goodbye and never looked back. This was different, on two levels. Firstly, Mitch had been the one saying goodbye. Secondly, they worked for the same organisation. Not seeing each other again wasn’t an option, unless one of them left. She couldn’t see Mitch leaving. Neither was she prepared to take that route. Not when work was the only thing keeping her sane. Taking in a deep breath, she dialled his number.

‘McBride.’ At the sound of his deep, clipped voice, her heart lurched.

‘Mitch, it’s Brianna.’ She hesitated. What did you say to an ex-lover? ‘How are you?’ she asked formally.

‘Well, thank you,’ came the clearly amused reply. ‘And you?’

‘Damn you, Mitch,’ she replied crossly. ‘You can stop your mockery. I’m feeling my way here. I don’t know the etiquette for greeting an ex-lover.’

‘What did you do with your other ex’s then?’

‘I never spoke to them again.’

He let out a soft laugh. ‘Ouch, so cruel. I suppose I should be flattered then.’

Annoyed by his apparent ease with the situation, Brianna turned frosty. ‘No. This is a work call. I’m making it because I have to, not because I want to.’

There was a pause. ‘Consider me put in my place. Fire away then. What do you want?’

‘I’ve been talking to the chief medic in the army about the possibility of a mutually agreeable liaison.’

‘You’ve been talking to Gerald?’ His voice rose dangerously with each word he uttered.

‘Yes,’ she replied coolly. ‘He speaks very highly of you.’

‘Where is this going, Brianna?’ Annoyance crackled over the line.

‘I discussed the possibility of you doing a few training sessions with the medical staff there. Nothing major, just a couple of times a year. Sharing your experiences might provide them with valuable insight on handling field-based trauma situations. In return it would give Medic SOS a high profile within the army. Hopefully, in the longer term, some of them may choose to join us in the future.’

The silence stretched across the phone wires. ‘And did you consider, for one minute, that it might have been polite to contact me first, before you started offering my services around?’

The words were slow, measured and deadly and uttered in exactly the right tone to put her back up. Anger was a good antidote to a broken heart. ‘I didn’t realise I had to go running to you every time I wanted to speak to somebody.’

‘You’re being deliberately obtuse. I want to know why you didn’t bother to talk to me first before contacting my old boss, and discussing my time.’

All at once the heat of her argument fell away, leaving her empty. She loved him. She missed him. Talking to him now was agony. ‘The truth is, I didn’t want to talk to you,’ she admitted, her voice wobbling slightly. ‘This is hard for me, Mitch. I figured if I contacted him first and he wasn’t interested, then I would be saved a conversation with you.’

There was a long, deep sigh on the other end of the phone. ‘Just your bad luck he liked the idea then.’ She could almost picture his wry smile. ‘Look, it’s a good initiative, Brianna. If I haven’t told you already, then I’ll do it now. You’re one smart cookie.’ A pause. ‘And if it helps any, this isn’t easy for me, either.’

Tears, unbidden, crept down her cheeks.
Why did you end it then?
she wanted to scream down the phone at him but she was in an office, surrounded by interested females. And anyway, it was old ground and she had to move on. He was a stubborn man. Once his mind was made up, there would be no changing it. ‘Good,’ was all she said, before asking Mitch to follow up with Gerald, and quickly ending the call.

The conversation with Mitch had churned up her feelings again. She knew she had to stop brooding about him, but she couldn’t. And when she pictured him, it was often right at the moment that Henry had shouted off about Catherine. Mitch had looked devastated. It kept preying on her mind. It hadn’t been the look of a man shamed by his actions. No, it had been the look of a man tortured. A man who had obviously cared about Catherine very deeply. Which meant nothing Henry had said made sense.

‘I can’t let this drop,’ she told Melanie later that evening as they shared a bottle of wine in her apartment. Part of Melanie’s
cheer up Brianna
strategy.

‘And meddling in Mitch’s past is going to get you back into his good books how, exactly?’

Trust a friend to be blunt. ‘I’m not meddling. Think of it this way, if he is a gold-digger …’ Melanie’s mouth gaped open. ‘No, of course I know he’s not, but
if
he was, if he had embezzled money out of a rich old lady. Well then, I’d have a right to know, wouldn’t I? He was my boyfriend.’

‘That’s some pretty warped logic, if you ask me.’

‘No, it’s not. It makes perfect sense. Us rich girls have to be very careful, you know.’

‘Hey, who am I to stop you? I’m just the sidekick. If you really believe this is the right thing to do, I’m right behind you. Wincing and rolling my eyes, maybe, but I’m here. I’ll even get you Simon’s number.’ She fished around in her handbag and pulled out her phone. ‘Here, go for it.’

Brianna took the phone, gulped, gulped again, then punched in the numbers. ‘Simon, it’s Brianna.’

‘Well, this is a nice surprise. What can I do for you?’

Melanie leaned in to listen, nodding reassuringly at Brianna.

‘I’m a bit embarrassed really,’ she began, acting the part of the dumb rich girl. ‘All that business last week with Mitch. I’m ashamed I was so easily conned by him. I wondered if you wouldn’t mind telling me what happened with your aunt. How Mitch managed to play her.’

‘Well, it was a long time ago,’ Simon replied slowly. ‘I remember Dad telling us his sister, who’s quite a bit older than him, had instructed the family solicitor to change her will and leave her house to a boy who’d been living with her. That was Mitch. Dad wasn’t happy. We were the original beneficiaries of the will, as Aunt Catherine had no children.’

‘What did your Dad do when he found out?’

‘He knew Catherine must have been conned. After all, why else would an elderly woman leave money to an eighteen-year-old the rest of the family had never heard of? So he told the solicitor to stall on the changes and to send a letter to Mitch saying he wasn’t to contact Catherine again or they would call the police. It seems he’d already tricked her out of some money. They didn’t want her duped into giving anything more. Especially her home. That’s something that should go to family, not some chancer who came in off the streets.’

Brianna bit back all the ripe responses that immediately came to her mind. ‘It sounds like your aunt had a lucky escape,’ she murmured instead.

‘And so did you from the sound of things.’

‘Yes, it would appear so. What did Catherine think about all this?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never spoken to her about any of it.’

‘Simon, do you think Catherine would mind if I contacted her? I don’t want to upset her, but it might help both of us to talk about how we were taken in by this man.’

Beside her, Melanie stifled a gasp and gaped at her.

‘I’m sure my aunt wouldn’t mind,’ Simon replied, oblivious to Melanie’s muffled sounds of horror. ‘She’s a bit old now, but you’d never know to talk to her. She’s bright as a button. She’d probably enjoy the company.’

A minute later, Brianna was clutching Catherine’s phone number in her hand. The key to Mitch’s past.

‘Well, that was ridiculously easy.’ Melanie glanced down at the scribbled number. ‘But now you’ve got it, what the flipping heck are you going to do with it?’

‘I don’t know,’ Brianna admitted shakily. ‘God I need a drink.’ As she poured herself a glass of wine her hands trembled.

‘If you phone Catherine now, you really are meddling in stuff that’s not yours to meddle in,’ Melanie warned.

‘I know.’

‘And if Mitch ever finds out, he won’t just be angry, he’ll be apoplectic. From what I’ve seen, and what you’ve told me, the man guards his privacy as if it were the crown jewels. Invading it like this would be, well, tantamount to betrayal I guess.’

‘I know that, too.’ She took another large gulp of wine. ‘But what if there’s been some sort of misunderstanding? What if my interfering can help Mitch in some way? He did once mention a kind lady who’d taken him in and helped him go to university. If this is that lady, he might want to speak to her again.’

‘So why hasn’t he? He’s hardly the shy retiring type.’

‘Maybe they lost contact.’ She stood and snatched up the phone. ‘Bugger it. I’ve got this far, I might as well follow through with it now.’ Ignoring Melanie’s grimace, Brianna took another swig of wine, for Dutch courage, and dialled Catherine’s number.

‘Hello?’

‘Good evening, is that Catherine?’ Before the lady had a chance to reply, Brianna continued in a rush. ‘You don’t know me. I’m Brianna Worthington, and I’m a friend of Mitch McBride.’

There was silence on the end of the phone. It went on for so long Melanie mouthed at her to check Catherine was still there.

‘Yes, dear, I’m still here,’ the old lady confirmed. ‘Hearing Mitch’s name, it’s such a shock. I haven’t heard it for so many years.’

Brianna’s heart was pounding so much she could hear it. She hoped to God Catherine couldn’t hear it, too. ‘I wondered if you could spare me a few minutes to talk about him?’

‘Well, of course. Is he all right? He’s not in any trouble?’ The concern in her voice was clear, and Brianna felt a rush of relief. Whatever had happened, Catherine clearly didn’t still hate Mitch for it.

‘He’s fine, really. It’s quite a long story though. Would you mind if I came over, perhaps tomorrow evening, to talk to you in person?’

Next to her Melanie let out a strangled noise and mimed slitting her throat. Brianna ignored her and concentrated on Catherine’s reply and the warmth of her voice.

‘I wouldn’t mind at all, dear. In fact, I’d love to talk to you about Mitch. I always wondered what happened to him. He used to write so regularly, and then, out of the blue, his letters stopped coming, and I never heard from him again.’

Brianna’s still pounding heart skipped a beat. ‘Catherine, are you sure you didn’t ask your family to write to Mitch, instructing him you didn’t want him to contact you anymore?’

‘Why ever would I have done that? He was like a son to me. No, dear, I may be in my dotage, but I know for a fact I would never have wanted Mitch to stop seeing me. I assumed he got bored of writing to an old woman. That he’d found himself a new life and didn’t need a constant reminder of his old one.’

‘Catherine, I think there’s a lot we need to talk about,’ Brianna replied softly. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

Melanie waited for Brianna to take down Catherine’s address and put the phone down before clearing her throat. ‘So, you’re not meddling, but you’ve now arranged to visit a very important lady in Mitch’s past without his knowledge.’

Slowly Brianna leant forward and put her face in her hands. ‘It would appear that way, yes.’

‘God Brie, I hope you know what you’re doing.’

Hysterical laughter bubbled out of her. ‘Of course I don’t.’