“She told you the names of all of her clients?”
For a few seconds, she didn’t respond. He sensed her going through the new information in her head, sifting it, trying to make sense of it all.
“No,” she admi
tted after a moment. “But some of them, she did. I’m sure she would have mentioned you.” She stepped toward him, her focus on him absolute. “Is that all it was between you and Caddy? Professional?” she asked him shakily.
He hesitated. It was hard to define what his relationship with Arcadia Green had been. It’d been special, that much was certain. He’d never had a relationship with a woman as unique as the one he’d had with Arcadia.
“No. It wasn’t just professional. I considered her a friend.” He threw up his hands in a helpless gesture. “Jesus, this is bizarre,” he said, looking around the cozy, attractive home, seeing it through different eyes than he had just moments ago. This was where Arcadia had grown up? Right here, in this very house . . . with Eleanor? It was too incredible to absorb.
He recalled his shock when he’d heard about Arcadia passing away months ago. Impossible to imagine: that vibrant, funny, smart woman gone forever.
Whatever pain he’d experienced, Eleanor had felt a thousand-fold, he realized, staring at her rigid, pale face. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t attend her funeral,” he told her quietly. “I was on a trip to China at the time. By the time I got home, she was gone. Her funeral was over. I hadn’t even realized she was sick—”
“You mentioned when we first met that you were examining your life because you’d lost some important people in your life unexpectedly. Was Caddy one of them?”
He didn’t reply for a moment, just staring into Eleanor’s golden green eyes. A weird, swooping sensation went through him. Just this morning, he’d felt so close to her. He’d hoped they’d only grow closer, still. Last night, he’d finally put a name to this new, incredible thing that was happening between them. Inside him.
He’d fallen for her. Hard.
But suddenly, it was like she was flying away from him, even though she stood right there in front of him. It couldn’t be clearer that he’d just unknowingly backed into a giant hornet’s nest. He couldn’t fathom in those seconds how to put things right.
“Eleanor, let’s sit down,” he insisted, nodding toward the couch.
“Just answer me, Trey.
He saw no escape. “Yes,” he said. “Your sister’s death hit me hard. She was . . . very special.”
“Were you two lovers?”
He halted in the process of reaching for her when he absorbed her question. Her whisper clung in the air between them.
“Never mind. You don’t have to answer,” she said stiffly. She walked past him.
“Eleanor, wait,” he called. It was all a mistake. She’d misunderstood. He’d be able to make this right. “Eleanor, the answer is no. I wasn’t involved that way with Arcadia . . . Caddy.”
She turned abruptly. His stomach dropped. Tears swam in her eyes. She looked devastated.
“We were attracted to each other in the beginning.” Panic swelled in him when her eyes widened and a tear skipped down her cheek. “It was just an initial attraction, Eleanor, when we first met,” he hurried to explain. “That’s all. I swear, it never went anywhere. We got to know each other through working together. We respected each other too much to go down that path. She had as much luck with men as I did women. You must realize that about her? We didn’t want to screw things up between us. We made a pact to just be friends and to only see each other at work.”
“You and Caddy were friends. And you were attracted to each other.”
“It sounds bad when you say it like that. I’m just trying to be honest. I mean . . .” He waved at the photo on the table helplessly. “Your sister. I had no idea.”
“I think you’d better go,” she said.
It felt like he’d been shoved. “No. I’m not leaving. This is just a misunderstanding.”
She shook her head so adamantly that several tears skipped down her cheeks. “It’s not a misunderstanding. This whole thing . . . Us.” She waved between them, looking dazed. “It isn’t right. I should have known there was something strange about you wanting me.”
“There’s nothing strange about me wanting you,” he growled fiercely. He stalked toward her, determined to set things straight right that second. She staggered back, flinching. He halted, stunned to the core by the expression on her face. She looked betrayed.
“What are you talking about? How can the fact that you’re Arcadia Green’s sister have anything to do with us?”
“You’re attracted to me because you thought I was like Caddy. But I’m not. Not really. Don’t you get it? I’m not an established exhibitionist or a voyeur. I’ve never done a striptease for anyone in my life until that night I did it for you in the window. I’ve been acting all bold and sexy and confident, wearing Caddy’s clothes, living in her condo . . . trying to be someone you would be attracted to. And you believed in the performance. But it’s all been based on a lie.”
“What?” Eleanor’s condo had been Arcadia’s? “I never knew Arcadia lived in the building next to me,” he stated firmly. “You see, Eleanor? That should go to show you that our relationship was completely confined to work. I had no idea.”