Chapter Three
The family and couple she had sat with at one of the larger tables were entertaining, and she enjoyed herself immensely.
Madelyn was laughing at the joke one of the people at the table said, and caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Her smile fell when her gaze caught Garrett’s as he stood in the dining room doorway. The heat in his eyes startled her enough that she turned her head and looked over her shoulder to see who he was looking at. The only person next to her was a sixty-year-old man.
When she turned back, she saw a flare of amusement before a shield came down, and then all she saw was the mistrust she’d seen the first time.
She turned her head away and concentrated on her food, but the knot in her stomach prevented her from taking more than a few bites.
****
Garrett watched as she ignored him and pushed the remaining food around on her plate.
He had just come through the doorway to the dining room when he’d been struck by Madelyn’s laugh and the bright, happy flush that covered her face. His first inclination was to laugh with her and keep her laughing because it was such a joyful sound. Instead, he’d shown her the mistrustful bastard side of his personality, which wiped the smile off her face and made it impossible for her to eat any more dinner.
He gritted his teeth at the situation and could have kicked himself for making her uncomfortable. He knew he should leave, but everything about her pulled at him. She was the first woman in years he felt anything for, and his insecurities wouldn’t let him do anything but push her away.
His and his brother’s ex-wife had done more damage than he’d first thought. It had been six years since she took off, and he still felt bitterness—much more than his brother suffered for some reason.
In Madelyn, he saw the beauty, but his mistrustful side kept trying to find the woman who would use him for her own gain.
****
Madelyn felt the long drive she’d taken to the lodge that day start to pull her down, and she decided to go to bed early. She stood, excused herself, and lifted her plate to take into the kitchen.
The older woman’s head snapped up when the swinging door opened, and she came through carrying her plate and cup.
“I’m sorry, but where would you like the dishes?”
“Over by the sink would be fine.”
Madelyn turned after setting the dishes down.
“It was a wonderful meal. Thank you.” She didn’t take offense to the woman’s gruff manner. She was used to that with her mother-in-law.
Madelyn turned back toward the door that led out into the hallway and stopped when she saw Garrett standing in the doorway. She couldn’t help but notice how wide his shoulders were and that his head nearly touched the top of the door.
She wiped the expression off her face, straightened her spine, and walked toward him. She gritted her teeth when he didn’t move out of the way enough for her to move past.
“Excuse me,” she said softly without looking into his face.
****
He moved to the side very slowly, not taking his eyes off her.
“Thank you.” She moved past him and down the hallway.
“What was that all about?” Pearl asked.
Garrett’s gaze followed Madelyn as she scurried down the hallway.
“I’m not sure.”
“You’ve never acted like that.”
“I know,” he said.
Pearl shook her head, hmphed, and turned back to the counter. “Knuckleheaded men,” she whispered under her breath.
Garrett wished he knew the answer to why the woman unsettled him so much. Yes, he was attracted to her, he had been from the first moment he saw her, but it was a feeling that went deeper that made him try to build a wall between them.
He couldn’t wait until Trey got back the next day. He really needed to talk to his brother and figure it out before it drove him crazy.
On the one hand, he was amazed that a woman could make him feel again, and on the other, he felt like a cornered animal and tried to protect himself against the heartbreak he’d been through years before.
Abby, he and his brother’s ex-wife, had taught him how truly devious a woman could be. He’d trusted her. He hadn’t minded that she took trips into the city to shop for a few days. He and his brother were usually busy, but she seemed happy to go alone.
It had broken something crucial in him when he found out she’d been having affairs. It wasn’t just about trust or jealousy. It was the fact he could misread someone he thought he knew, one he loved, or thought he did.
Not long after the divorce, Trey told him he thought they hadn’t loved Abby the way they should have. They had settled on a woman they were both attracted to because they were desperate to start a family. Even if it was the three of them, the men wanted a woman between them in bed every night—whenever they wanted. Instead, they ended up with a lying, cheating, stealing, manipulative woman.
The only good thing they had done was to make her sign a prenup before the wedding. Their parents had demanded it. He wondered if they hadn’t already known Abby for what she was. He knew part of it was the lodge, which had been in the family for three generations, and they didn’t want to take the chance that anyone outside the family could take it from them.
Something else that astonished him was his parents, who weren’t surprised by Abby’s deceptions. They never came out and said it, but he and his brother finally realized neither parent ever liked their wife. In fact, no one at the lodge had. Only after she left were they told how badly she treated everyone. She treated them like they were all servants there to carry out her orders.
He was glad she was out of their lives, but he’d learned a harsh lesson. People were very rarely what they seemed. It was something he wouldn’t soon forget.