Kentucky Groom (8 page)

It didn’t matter that she could see the similarity to Jay in his father’s eyes or recognize the tinge of red mixed in the white of his father’s hair. All that mattered was the sense of betrayal that ate at her the way acid ate the face of a penny.

Jay’s father inclined his head cordially. “We’re about to have dinner. Will you and Jay join us, Miss?”

“It’s
Mrs.
Mercer.” Carrie quickly filled in the blank. Jay had not told his father her name.

“Ah,
Mrs.
Mercer.” His father nodded as if understanding some deep, dark secret.

“We were just going back to our seats.” Jay began to pull her away.

“Well, happy to meet you, Mrs. Mercer. Maybe we’ll meet again soon.” The words Jay’s father spoke fell over them like a shadow.

“Yes, maybe we will,” Jay answered for them, tugging once more on her hand.

Carrie allowed herself to be drawn away, then shuffled down the steps and into her seat. Picking up her program, she gripped it for support.

Jay was nervous. She could tell by the way he ran his hand through his hair and sent sharp glances her way. Carrie couldn’t say a word. She couldn’t vent the anger and hurt that was beginning to boil inside her like a rumbling volcano. These revelations were too fresh. She had to readjust her perspective—her view of the man beside her.

Slowly, her fingers curled around the pages of the program as the impact of the revelation began to sink in. Jay Preston was the son of Carter Preston, a multi-millionaire. Jay was not a penniless groom. He was filthy rich like his father. She should have known the truth, because of his appearance at summer camp that year. He was Carter’s son and probably had ridden expensive champions all his life. He must have laughed at her devotion to a cheap pony.

Besides, the story he had told her about being at odds with his father appeared to be blatantly untrue. Why would the man stand before them smiling, asking them to dinner, if he had severed his relationship with his son? More importantly, why had Jay lied to her pretending to be Mary Wilder’s groom? Anger surged through her, cramping her stomach. Mary had hinted about Jay not being so down on his luck. She’d known the truth. That betrayal chaffed too.

His whole charade of being a groom had been an ugly game. Carrie’s heart seemed to stop. She had been the playing piece shoved across the game board. She let out a slow breath. If Jay had lied about his background, what else had he lied about? His love?

“I want to go home.” Carrie’s voice sounded like dead weight.

Jay looked down at Carrie. He knew what was coming and he feared it. Of all the dumb luck to run into his father. He wanted to kick the old man and his flashy blond wife all the way back to California.

“I want to go home,” she repeated.

“Okay, let’s go.”

She walked ahead of him up the stairs. He caught up with her at the head of the stairs and tried to take her hand.

Carrie jerked away from his attempted contact. “I’m finished playing games.”

Damn. He couldn’t talk to her as she purposely marched from the crowded horse show facility. He was out of control, and reduced to the groveling idiot he’d always been around Carter. Or at least that’s how he felt in the wake of Carrie’s anger. He could sense the chill that had settled over her by the tenseness in her shoulders and the grim line of her mouth. Heck, the way she walked, as if trying to flee him, was indication enough.

They reached his Mustang. He unlocked the door and Carrie shouldered past him into the seat. Jay shut the door and took a cleansing breath. As he walked around the back of the car, he glanced up at the twinkling stars, tiny flickers of light in the vast summer sky. When he reached the driver’s side, Jay took hold of the door handle and stood quietly a moment. He would not bow and scrape to Carrie. His days of abasing himself were over when he had left Preston Computers. Maybe Carrie would understand when he explained himself.

Resolved, he slipped into the car where the atmosphere was decidedly chilly. Jay put the key into the ignition and then placed both his hands firmly on the stirring wheel.

“My father and I had disagreed. He’d disowned me. That is why I’m in Kentucky,” he said.

“You were having a cozy conversation just now. It seems your father has had a change of heart.” Carrie’s tone was blistering. She stared straight ahead.

“Yes, it seems so.”

“You lied to me.”

“No I didn’t.”

Carrie turned on him, her eyes blazing. “Oh, don’t give me that. You misrepresented yourself.”

“No, I didn’t. When I came to Kentucky, I had no family, and I needed a job. Mary was kind enough to give me one.”

“Mary,” Carrie spat. “She knew who you were. She didn’t tell me.”

“I asked her to keep my background confidential. She was just doing what I asked.”

Carrie sat back and threw up her hands. “That’s just great.”

Jay removed his hands from the wheel and shifted in the seat to focus on her. “Look, Carrie, I was trying to start fresh. I was sick and tired of my father and everything he represented. I wanted a simpler lifestyle.”

“Great,” she restated. “But did that give you the right to lie to me?”

“I didn’t lie.”

“You didn’t tell me the truth.”

“It wasn’t important.” He touched her arm.

Carrie flinched. “Not important? You completely hid one of the most important parts of your life and let me believe you were a stable groom.”

Jay drew back. “I
am
a stable groom, and I didn’t think my background mattered. I wanted someone to care about me for myself, not because I was the son of a wealthy man.”

“You hid your identity and tricked me and my daughter.”

“I just hid the fact that my father has money. I didn’t lie to you about who I am. You know the real me. You knew me from summer camp.” Jay felt his face growing hot. This was harder than he imagined. “What if you’d known about my father’s wealth? You’d have been just like the other women in my life who said they cared about me because of my father’s money.”

She considered him for a moment. “You don’t get it, do you?”

Jay’s gaze connected with hers for an instant. She wore a look of earnestness and hurt. He sighed. “What do you mean?”

“You’re so caught up in your selfish view of things that you don’t understand I can never trust you again. If you can lie to me about something as important as this, how will I know you haven’t lied to me about your love?”

Carrie’s indictment blew him away. Jay slid a hand through his hair. “You have to take my word for it.”

“Your word isn’t good enough anymore.” Carrie’s voice was like a knife in his back.

How would he convince her? How could he express the ache of love he felt for her all the time? He swallowed a knot of agony and wiped his damp palms on his khakis. Resigned, he turned on the ignition.

“I never wanted your gratitude,” he told her as he pulled out of the parking lot. “Just your love.”

She didn’t say anything. He drove onto the Lexington street and then turned right to head home. Damn. He’d made such a mess of things already that he’d better tell her the whole truth. He steeled himself against her coming fury.

“That’s why I didn’t tell you about Tate’s business.”

“What does Tate’s business have to do with this?”

“I bought it,” Jay admitted.

“You bought it?” Carrie practically shot out of her seat she was so angry. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I wanted to help you.” He glanced at her quickly and then returned his concentration to the roadway.

“Help me?”

“Yes, you told me you couldn’t keep Doolittle for Jesse if you didn’t sell the business,” he reminded her.

“But I didn’t expect you to buy it.”

“I know you didn’t, but I wanted to. I told you I loved you. I didn’t want to see you worried about money.”

“But I thought you didn’t have money.” Her statement was a challenge. “Remember, you didn’t even have money to pay the dinner bill.”

“But I did. It was just tied up in a California bank. I didn’t want to use it here in Kentucky. I wanted another way of life.” Jay’s hands tightened on the wheel.

“So, now you
have
money. Do you expect this sob story about being a poor little rich boy to change the fact you lied to me?”

“No, nothing can change the fact I didn’t tell you everything.” He refused to concede her point.

“You draw a fine line.”

“I suppose so, but you must admit if you’d known about the money, our relationship wouldn’t be the same. As it is, you’ve chosen to work on a relationship with me. By doing so, you put your trust in me when you had no assurance I’d improve my lot in life beyond that of a stable groom.”

“That’s not a fair assessment,” she stated.

“It is and the fact that I didn’t have money was affecting your decision at first. Now does the fact I may inherit millions make a difference?” Jay pressed his point.

“What makes a difference is that you lied to me.” Carrie’s statement was cool and precise.

“That’s your take on it.”

“And my opinion is what counts with me,” she said firmly.

“Even if it’s not true?”

“That’s what you believe. As it is, I can’t justify continuing our relationship.”

Jay didn’t want to quibble. He left the field of battle momentarily, his stomach churning from the disagreement. Turning left onto the Interstate, he accelerated and wished he could race away from his problems as quickly as the car traveled the darkened highway.

* * * *

Surviving the trip back to Louisville was the hardest thing Carrie had done since Tate’s death. She sat with her hands clasped on her lap, her eyes focused on the approaching headlights. The strained silence was heavy with Jay’s unspoken recriminations.

She had trusted the man. Trusted him enough to tell him about her finances and her fears for her child. Trusted him enough to open her heart and take a chance. He said he had his reasons for deceiving her. She had been a schoolteacher long enough to have heard excuses from her pupils, and she had known when to quit listening to them, to force the student to accept responsibility for his actions. Just as Jay now had to be accountable for his lie.

As they approached the city, the traffic grew heavier. Jay took the exit nearest her house. Carrie was relieved. Her ordeal would soon be over, at least this part of it. She wanted to be away from Jay, to have time to think. She wanted to curl into a little ball under the covers and sleep for twenty-four hours, shutting herself off from a world that had suddenly blown up in her face. Not that it would make her problem go away, but maybe it would ease the pressure that thudded behind her eyes. Her faith in him was so shaken that she knew it would take more than mere words to make her believe in him again.

Jay or any other man.

* * * *

Something was wrong. Carrie knew as soon as they turned the corner onto her street. It was not as if she saw or heard anything tangible. She sensed it like a dog senses the coming of a storm.

They pulled into her driveway. The front door was standing open. Inside she saw a strange glow as if strobe lights were flickering inside her living room.

“Oh, my God, Jay.”

Carrie jumped out of the car as it rolled to a stop. She didn’t need his strangled cry of “fire” to know what was in her heart. Together they ran to the porch where an intense heat and a shroud of smoke met them.

“Jesse!” Carrie screamed and started up the porch steps.

Jay grabbed her arm and swung her around. “You can’t go in there.”

She faced him, anger blocking the fear that threatened to override her sanity. “You can’t tell me what to do! My daughter’s in there!”

“Let’s go around the back. Maybe we can get in that way.”

They had just left the porch when the babysitter ran around the side of the house, her eyes swollen with tears and her face smudged with dirt.

Jay caught her in his arms. “Where’s Jesse?”

“We were making pop corn on the stove and then went back into the living room. We forgot about it until we heard the smoke alarm.” Words tumbled from her lips.

“Where’s Jesse?” Carrie shouted above the strange roar that was her burning house.

Jay glanced at Carrie and then back to the girl. “Did Jesse get out with you?”

“No,” the teenager said strangling back a sob. “She yelled something about getting a ribbon and ran upstairs.”

“My God.” Carrie jammed a fist into her mouth.

“I ran around the house, and she’s at her bedroom window. She’s too scared to jump.”

“Show me.” Jay released the babysitter. Over his shoulder he cried, “Carrie, call 911!”

They disappeared around the house.
911.
Why hadn’t she thought of that? Her heart pounding in her throat, Carrie ran to the car and fumbled through her purse for the cell phone. When she reached the emergency service, a voice on the other end told her the fire department was already on its way.

Thanking God, Carrie tossed the phone onto the seat and sprinted around the house. She heard the distant wail of a fire truck and prayed they would reach them in time. Red and orange flames darted from the open door and the rancid smell of smoke clogged the night air.

What she saw when she arrived behind her home halted Carrie in stark terror. The babysitter stood petrified beneath Jesse’s window while Jay slowly scaled the wrought iron trellis of morning glories that was anchored into the wooden shingles. Carrie swallowed hard and clutched her hands. That trellis was old—almost as old as the house. It was not meant to hold the weight of a man.

“Jay, be careful,” she called out to him.

He glanced down briefly and smiled—the sweet, sweet smile she had grown to love.

Carrie’s heart turned over as he began to climb again. She didn’t see Jesse, but the window was wide open. Already a trace of smoke had found its way out the opening.

Jay reached the window and Jesse’s head popped up. Carrie saw the tears streaming down her daughter’s soot-streaked face and the blue ribbon clutched in her hand. Jesse ducked under the raised window and climbed out to sit on the sill. Carrie watched as Jay braced himself to help Jesse turn around so that she could climb down the trellis. His body shielded hers as they began their descent, covering Jesse so completely that Carrie couldn’t see her beloved little girl.