“Your parents are nice. They love you very much, I could tell.”
He chuckled behind her. “And you handled my father perfectly. He respects someone who’ll look him in the eye.”
She put the chicken in the fridge and turned around. “So do I. I know he pushed you to be something you didn’t want....”
“If I’d hated it, I would have done something else. Really, Lizzie, it’s not that big a deal. I understand where he’s coming from.”
“I meant what I said, too. You should do what makes you happy. If it’s rodeo, it’s rodeo. If it’s working with horses, you should do that. I know you feel you have obligations, but that doesn’t have to come down to a dollar sign, you know?”
“Maybe it’s pride,” he suggested, and she noticed he was frowning a little.
“Why, because I make more than you? I don’t care about that. God, Chris. Don’t be such a snob.” She knew it sounded strange, considering she was the one who ran in different circles than he did, but pride could be a foolish thing to hang on to now and again.
“You don’t think people will say I latched on to you for your money?”
She frowned now as he zeroed in on what had been one of her greatest fears. “Who cares what people say?”
“Maybe I do. I know what it’s like to be with someone who wants you for what you can provide, and not for who you are. Granted, I didn’t have Baron prestige behind me but I had a good job and a good income and stability and Erica saw that as her ticket. And when I announced I was taking a year off, she wasn’t quite so interested.”
“I don’t see you that way.”
“Oh? So the fact that I’m practically living in your condo doesn’t look the least bit opportunistic?”
“No!” She was truly confused now. The one thing she’d liked about him from the start was that he hadn’t seemed to care that her last name was Baron. “Where the hell is all this coming from?” They still stood in the space between the kitchen and living room, faced off, not quite an argument but not a relaxed conversation either.
“I’m sorry.” He let out a huge breath. “I get crazy when I’m with my dad. He’s got very strong opinions about a man’s responsibilities.”
She went to him then, took his hands in hers. She probably shouldn’t have left him alone with his dad this afternoon. Chris had been quiet during dinner—not incredibly so, but enough that she’d noticed he was a bit subdued. What in the world had his father said to him that had dampened his mood so much?
“You know that I turned down Mark Baker when I was in college,” she began quietly. “That was my strong moment. I could see he was only really interested in me as a Baron. And while he’s not my favorite person, I know he’s very good at his job and we’ve moved past that awkward beginning. But what you don’t know is that I turned him down because I’d learned a hard lesson the year before.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’re sensitive because of your past experience, and so am I. I got my heart broken in college, Chris. My family isn’t stupid rich but we’re well enough off. I let myself get caught up in a relationship with a law student, fell in love. At the end of my third year he proposed and I was in heaven. And that was when it started. He started talking about the wedding guest list and the people he wanted to invite for their connections. I started fourth year and was trying to study and he was all about appearances together and being seen. Everything had to be just so. And then he started referring to us as the Texas power couple and I knew he was only half joking. He kept saying that with his ambition and Lizzie Baron on his arm, he’d be in congress by the time he was thirty-five.”
“Liz,” Chris said quietly. “That’s horrible.”
“I flat-out asked him if he really loved me. And he said he did, but it wasn’t in his eyes. I got his politician smile and charming assurances and I knew it wasn’t real. He broke my heart.”
“What did you do?”
“Broke off the engagement, much to my family’s relief. Focused on my studies and when word circulated that he’d been the one to break it off, I let it go. He wanted to come out of it smelling like a rose. I’d dodged a bullet. It didn’t really matter who’d done the kicking to the curb.”
“I’m sorry,” he offered weakly. “And then Mark came along?”
She smiled then. “Yeah. And I could see him coming a mile away. Fool me once... Anyway, my point is, if you were latching on to me for my name, I’d know it. And I don’t see that at all. I see someone who got caught up in something unexpected, who’s making the best of it, and being pretty wonderful when all is said and done. So no, it doesn’t bother me that our paychecks might not match. I couldn’t care less.”
She wasn’t sure what she expected after her little speech, but it wasn’t the glow in his eyes as he moved closer and put his hand on her face, caressing her cheekbone with his thumb.
“Do you know how extraordinary you are?” he murmured. “I think I’m the one who landed in clover here.”
“You say that until I’m big as a barn with swollen ankles and a disposition like a raging bull.”
“Am I still going to be here then, Liz?”
“Do you want to be?”
She held her breath, waiting for his answer. They’d said no plans. But he’d asked. And she’d asked the more important question. Because she didn’t want him to leave. She liked seeing him first thing in the morning. She was happy to be home with him at night, looking at real estate, having someone across the table from her as she ate dinner, to curl up to at night. It wasn’t just the sex, even though that was where they’d started. It was more. So much more.