Hot Westmoreland Nights - Brenda Jackson [64]
And then he walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him.
Ramsey’s hands tightened on the steering wheel of his truck as he drew in a deep breath, not believing what had just taken place. What he had just walked away from. And just to think he’d intended to pour his heart out to Chloe, tell her how much he loved her, and all it had been for her was nothing more than a sinister plan to get him to pose on the cover of that damn magazine.
A part of him felt torn up inside, absolutely wrecked. Anger, the likes he’d never known before, was consuming him. He was driving with no particular destination in mind. It was Sunday, and most of his family had gone to church. Dillon and Pamela had left for the airport that morning to return to Gamble, and Callum and Zane had driven to see a rodeo in Oklahoma. Maybe it was for the best because he sure as hell didn’t feel like socializing with anyone right now.
He pulled over to the side of the road and hit his fist against the steering wheel. How could he have been so stupid to let his guard down? Why was he always the last to know anything about a woman’s trickery? It hadn’t been any different with Danielle. Although he’d been relieved she’d ended the wedding, the fact still remained that she had made a fool of him.
He pulled back into the road. He’d meant what he said. Chloe had better be gone by the time he got back. And he hoped like hell that he never saw her again.
“Here, drink this,” Lucia said, handing Chloe a cup of herbal tea. “It will help your headache.”
Chloe glanced up at her friend, not wanting to tell her it wasn’t her head that was hurting as much as her heart. “Thanks,” she said, accepting the cup of hot tea.
“And now you need to go take a shower and get into bed.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Lou, it’s the middle of the day.”
“Yes, but a nap might make you feel better.”
Chloe shrugged. “I doubt it.” She knew nothing would make her feel better unless Ramsey was to walk through that door and tell her that he believed her, that he knew she truly did love him, and that even though she had planned on making him indebted to her initially, she had discarded that plan once she’d fallen in love with him.
An hour later Chloe still sat curled up on Lucia’s sofa. Lucia had finally left to go have Sunday dinner with her parents. Chloe felt she needed this time alone to go back over and over in her mind what happened earlier that day at Ramsey’s house, and everything else that had transpired from the moment she’d driven onto his property over two weeks ago.
She thought of the angry words he had spoken to her before he’d left his home, ordering her to pack up and leave before he got back. A part of her had wanted to rebel and be there when he returned to have it out with him. But then there was nothing she could say that she hadn’t already said.
And he hadn’t believed her.
It had been a teary ride from Ramsey’s ranch all the way to Lucia’s home, and now she knew she couldn’t remain in Denver. It was clear as the nose on her face that there was nothing here for her anymore. But a part of her refused to run.
Chances were her and Ramsey’s paths would not cross anytime soon, so that would give her the time she needed to recover from a broken heart.
His men were watching him and Ramsey was well aware that they’d been watching him off and on for the past couple of weeks. Today he would do something he usually didn’t do. Ignore them.
And for good reason. They wanted something he could not deliver. They wanted Chloe back. Nellie had returned and although he’d had a talk with her before allowing her back in his kitchen, after one good week she was sliding back into her old ways. The men, like him, were comparing what they had now with what they’d had for two weeks.
A part of Ramsey wanted to shout at them, to tell them that although Chloe’s cooking skills were superb, she was not a cook. She had done it for fun. It had been all a part of her deliberate scheme to get him indebted to her.
His cell phone rang