Westmoreland's Way - Brenda Jackson [39]
Pam could make it easy on herself and place the blame on the three of them by claiming they were the ones who’d scared him off, and that Dillon had been fully aware of their little matchmaking schemes at dinner and preferred to have no part of it. But telling her sisters that would not be the truth. Dillon had said on more than one occasion that he enjoyed her sisters’ company and that they reminded him of his female cousins back in Denver. He had taken their shenanigans in stride and hadn’t seemed bothered in the least.
“Pammie?”
Nadia’s soft voice pulled her back to the moment and she glanced across the table. Before Pam could open her mouth to answer, Paige spoke up in a disheartened tone. “He doesn’t like us any more than Fletcher does, does he?”
Pam was taken aback by her sister’s assumption. “That’s not true. Dillon really likes the three of you and enjoys dining with us, but he has our great-grandfather’s journal and has been doing a lot of reading over the past couple of days. You must not forget the reason he came to town in the first place.”
She took in a deep breath before continuing. “And as for Fletcher, you girls are wrong about him. He does like you.”
“Then why is he planning to send us away after the two of you get married?” Nadia asked with a belligerent look on her face.
Pam was surprised by her sister’s question. “Where on earth did you get such an utterly absurd idea? Fletcher is not planning to send you away after we get married.”
Nadia’s frown deepened and a worried look lit her eyes. “He is, too. He told Gwyneth Robards’s father that he is, and her father told her mother, and Gwyneth overheard them talking and she told me.”
Pam frowned. Gwyneth Robards was Nadia’s best friend. Her father, Warren Robards, owned a slew of sporting goods stores across the state. He and Fletcher were good friends. Pam was not one to believe in gossip. She wished Nadia wouldn’t do so, either. “Nadia, there’s no way Fletcher would have said something like that.”
“So, are you saying Gwyneth’s father lied?”
Pam frowned. “What I’m saying is that Gwyneth apparently misunderstood what she heard from her parents’ conversation. Again, there’s no way Fletcher could have said that.”
What she didn’t add was that he knew why she was marrying him—to save her family home, to secure a future for her sisters and to keep the family together. Even if they were to lose their home, her sisters would return to California with her or they all would remain in Gamble and make do.
“Getting back to Dillon, Pam,” Jill said. “I don’t care how much reading he has to do, he has to stop and eat sometime. Did you invite him to dinner the last three nights?”
Pam nervously bit down on her bottom lip. She hadn’t invited Dillon to dinner the first night because they had planned their secret meeting that night at the academy. And she hadn’t invited him the past two nights because she had needed time to get herself together after their night of passion.
“No,” she finally said. “Like I said, Dillon has a lot to read. He said as much the last time he was here.”
“So you will invite him back?”
Pam’s stomach knotted. Again, three pairs of eyes focused on her. “Yes, I’d invite him back but it’s up to him whether he would come. Like I said, there’s a reason why he came to Gamble and it’s not to keep us entertained.”
As if satisfied with her answer, her sisters resumed eating their dinner and the conversations then revolved around what had happened at school that day. She was glad their interests had shifted to other things, although hers remained on Dillon. Every time she thought about that night and all the things they’d done and shared, she would get all flushed inside, her body aching for a repeat. There was no doubt in her mind that if she were to see