The Price of Passion (Texas Cattleman's Club: Rags to Riches 1)

She’d been holding herself together ever since leaving Burt Wheeler’s place. She’d smiled through lunch with Gracie, then made a few more donation stops before dropping her friend off at her home. It was only then she’d given her emotions full rein. Only then that she allowed herself to really think about what Burt had said.

Julie. Pregnant.

She looked up at the man standing in front of her and accepted that she’d been wrong about Cam fifteen years ago. She’d believed he’d never leave. And he had. She had believed he loved her—but he’d apparently been sleeping with Julie, too.

“Beth?” His voice was low, almost intimate, and that was what pushed her into blurting out the truth.

“Burt told me Julie was pregnant when the two of you ran away.”

God. Fresh pain welled up and stung her eyes with tears she absolutely refused to shed. He’d betrayed her even more completely than she’d once believed. Just thinking about it now made her want to block everything from her mind so the pain would stop.

But she couldn’t do that. She had to know. Staring up at Cam, she waited for him to say something. Anything. But his features were cold and hard. His dark brown eyes were shadowy places where the truth lay hidden.

Yet he didn’t deny it. How could he?

Beth’s heart ached more with every silent second that ticked past. As she watched him, she saw his eyes fill with sympathy. Regret. That told her everything she needed to kn

ow.

Shaking her head, she turned away from him until he finally spoke.

“I’m sorry, Beth. I should have thought that Burt would say something.”

“Oh, God.” She turned to him again and slapped one hand to her chest to try to ease the pain of her heart being squeezed by a giant cold fist. “Julie was pregnant.”

“Yes.”

One word. Clipped. No explanation. Then again, she ranted internally, how could there be? How could he possibly explain getting another girl pregnant while he was Beth’s boyfriend?

“Thank you for that, anyway,” she muttered.

“What?”

“For not denying it. For not lying to me. Again. My God, what an idiot I was.” She choked out a laugh. “No wonder my father wanted to break us up. He knew I wasn’t able to see you for who you really were.”

“You did see me.”

“Not then. But I do now.”

“Damn it, Beth...” Cam stood there, hands at his sides, looking into her eyes as if willing her to give him a chance to explain. But what could he say? And why should she listen?

“No. There’s nothing you can say that makes this all right,” she murmured.

“I’m not going to try to explain. You wouldn’t believe me anyway,” he said, and irritation was clear in his tone. “Your mind is set on one thing, and you don’t want to see the other side.”

“What possible other side is there?” she demanded.

He scrubbed one hand across his jaw and shook his head grimly. “You’re too emotional about this to hear me out.”

Beth’s eyes went wide and she actually felt her jaw drop. “Seriously?” she asked, stunned. “I’m too emotional? So I’m the bad guy here?”

“Who said there has to be a bad guy?” His demand rang out in the otherwise still room and seemed to hang in the air.

Beth stared at him as if she’d never seen him before. And maybe she hadn’t. Not really. As a kid, she’d seen him through rainbows and flowers. Since he’d come back home, she’d seen him through the fog of memory and maybe it was only now that she was seeing Camden for who he actually was. It broke her heart.

“One of us cheated on the other one,” Beth said, and gave herself points for keeping a check on the rage inside. “One of us got someone pregnant.” She whirled around, took three quick steps toward the stone fireplace on the far wall, then spun back again to face him. “There is no other side to this, Cam. I was your girlfriend and the girl you married was pregnant.”

A single tear escaped and Beth swiped it away hurriedly, hoping to hell he hadn’t seen it. She wasn’t going to give him her tears again. God knew she’d cried oceans of them all those years ago.