She cleared her throat, and the noise sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet room. “Don’t you have a business you should be running?” she asked.
He shrugged. “The business can get along without me for a while. I’ve hired competent foremen to supervise while I take some personal time off.”
Foremen. Apparently his fledging construction company had grown since she’d left. There’d been only Gabe and one foreman then. Since Blake was apparently on Gabe’s payroll, as well, the company must be turning a profit.
Page wasn’t surprised that his business had been successful. Gabe could accomplish anything if he put his mind to it.
That thought, of course, only made her more nervous.
She moistened her lips and tried to think of something else to say. She considered asking about his family, but she didn’t want to bring them up now. She’d grown very fond of his mother and sister during the few months she’d known them. Talking about them would only open her up to emotions she couldn’t risk showing.
She sipped her coffee and looked at him through her lashes. Her gaze lingered on his left cheek. She remembered the single dimple there that at one time had almost melted her insides every time he’d smiled. She hadn’t seen it since he’d found her again.
He looked tired, she thought, studying the dark circles under his eyes, the weary lines around his unsmiling mouth.
“How long has it been since you’ve had a full night’s sleep?” she asked, hardly aware that she’d spoken aloud.
“Two and a half years.”
She winced at the blunt reply and looked down at her coffee. She couldn’t blame him for the occasional bitter barb.
She didn’t blame him for anything, really. In his eyes, she deserved his anger, his resentment, his scorn. She just wished he weren’t so darned stubborn. What was it going to take for her to be able to push him completely away from her? What was he hoping to gain by holding her here this way?
“What is it you want from me, Gabe?” she demanded impatiently, setting her mug aside.
“I told you what I want,” he replied, apparently unperturbed by her fierce tone. “Answers.”
“I’ve given you answers. You didn’t like them.”
“I didn’t believe them,” he corrected her. “I want the truth.”
She looked at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
“And once you’ve decided I’ve told the truth—then what? You’ll just let me go? Forget about me?”
He took another sip of his coffee. “That depends on what you tell me,” he said finally.
“I don’t love you,” she said, making her tone as cold and blunt as possible.
He didn’t react to her statement, except for what might have been a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. “That’s not the answer I’m interested in right now.”
“It’s all you need to know.”
“What are you running from, Page?”
His steady persistence was like water dripping on stone. And she wasn’t feeling like the strongest of stones at the moment.
“You,” she snapped. “I’ve been running from you.”
“You didn’t even know I was looking for you until a few days ago.”
He had a point there. She really hadn’t expected him to pursue her this relentlessly. Any other man probably would have written her off a long time ago.
But Gabe Conroy wasn’t just any man. She’d known that when she married him.
When she’d fallen head over heels in love with him.
She shrugged and managed to speak carelessly. “I figured you would look for me. An ego like yours doesn’t take rejection well. You can’t imagine that any woman would be immune to your charms.”