The elevator doors opened in the garage. He had to convince her to ride with him, since he was finally getting somewhere. “I’ll drive,” he offered quickly. Before he could change his mind he added, “If we get there early enough, I’ll grill us some steaks. You can see the house... Throw the ball for Mikey.” What was he doing?
Her brown eyes met his, a rapid-fire shift of emotions crossing her face. A crease formed between her eyebrows then disappeared.
“You think about it,” he interrupted. “I’ll drive.”
“Okay,” she answered, following him to his truck.
He tried to shrug off the hurt her of her hesitation. Eye on the prize. He waited until he’d started the truck before asking, “What happened with Bianca’s other engagements?”
Cady seemed to deflate in her seat. “You’re going to overreact.”
He glanced at her. “I am?”
“You don’t understand her family,” Cady explained. “How important her grandmother is. How they were raised.”
“Why don’t we start with what happened?” Patton asked, his stomach churning.
“You know Bibi’s grandmother is a matchmaker?” Cady asked, not waiting for him to answer. “Well, for one thing, GG didn’t match Bibi with any of the others.”
“Any as in how many?”
But Cady didn’t say anything.
He glanced at her. “Cady?”
“You were engaged. It did
n’t work out but that doesn’t make you a bad person,” she argued. “You thought you were in love with her when you proposed, though, didn’t you?”
“I never said Bianca was a bad person,” he murmured, hoping to dodge her last question. Had he loved Ellie? Yes, he’d loved her. But had he been in love with her? Did seeing her make him happy? Had being with her filled some void? Had he thought about her when they were apart? Or ached for her the way he ached for Cady? He swallowed. “What does this have to do with anything?”
“It means people make mistakes, even all-knowing police officers like you.”
“Cady, you’re twisting things around. My engagement to Ellie is different. Yes, I cared about her, but she broke it off before I could do it,” he explained. “There were extenuating circumstances—”
“Such as?” Cady prodded.
“Russ died. My father had a heart attack. I was too busy to think about Ellie or our engagement. But Russ’s death, my getting shot, my dad almost dying...was too much for her. I didn’t blame her for ending it—I understood. Hell, I agreed with her.”
Cady grew silent. He glanced her way to see her staring at him. “What?”
She shook her head, opening and closing her mouth. She sighed then said, “What about Bianca’s extenuating circumstances?”
“You never answered my first question,” he countered. “How many times has she been engaged?”
“Why does it matter?” she snapped.
He looked at her. “It shouldn’t. So why aren’t you telling me?”
“Three,” she murmured.
“She’s been engaged three times? And she broke it off with all of them because her grandmother didn’t have the dream? The matchmaking thing?”
“No, Patton, there was more—”
“I sure as hell hope there is. Otherwise... Three times? We’d better be talking about some serious extenuating circumstances.”
He saw Cady’s eyes close, saw the furrow that creased her brow. “There are. You need to calm down and listen. I know it sounds—”