“When?” His eyes turned glacial.
“Sunday afternoon.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to tell you in person, not on the phone while you were on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.”
Beckett’s jaw tightened. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
I relayed the encounter at the park with Xan as best as I could remember, trying not to leave anything out.
“He didn’t touch you?”
“He just apologized and swore he was innocent.”
Beckett’s eyes flashed. “And you believed him?”
“Beckett, you don’t understand…”
“I understand fine.” His eyes shot daggers at me. “That douchebag drugged you, and you want to forgive him.”
“I believe him. He was very sincere. He waited all day for me in the park because I wouldn’t answer his calls.”
Beckett’s eyes widened almost comically. “He waited for you?”
My anger surged. It wasn’t Beckett who’d been drugged—it was me. And it was up to me to forgive, not him. “Why shouldn’t I believe him? Whether or not you want to admit it, Xan had no motive to drug me.”
Beckett’s entire body went still, and his eyes turned smoky with anger. “I can’t believe you are saying this right now. I can’t believe we are even talking about that creep with the man bun, or that you’re defending him.”
Anger bubbled over inside me, spreading like spilled ink that couldn’t be re-bottled. “It’s my choice.”
Beckett said nothing for a long time. He looked out at the rows of trees, his stare so cold it could give the branches goose bumps.
“I just thought you should know,” I said. “I don’t know what’s going on with us, but whatever it is, it can’t start with lies.”
“Talking about him drives me crazy.”
I brushed my lips against his. “Then we shouldn’t talk about him anymore.”
Chapter 22
We talked about everything else. Our conversation hardly stopped on the twenty-minute ride. I found out about Beckett’s favorite things: what food he liked, what movies he watched over and over, and what books he couldn’t live without.
We didn’t stop talking until the sleigh came to a stop in front of a red-and-white barn draped in twinkling lights. A handful of cars were parked in a grassy lot, but other than that, we were alone.
“We’re eating in a barn?” I asked.
Beckett hopped down from the sleigh and held his arms up for me. “Trust me?”
The last time I’d trusted a man, he’d broken my heart. Trust wasn’t something I offered freely. But this was just dinner.Dinner in a barn. My lip curled at the irony. Beckett wore thousand-dollar suits, but he’d taken me to eat in a place that had once housed cows.
Still not sure if I trusted him, I braced my hands on Beckett’s wide shoulders and let him swing me to the ground. He tucked my hand in his as the sleigh pulled away. “You hesitated a little too long for my liking,” he said, walking me to the front door. “You have the power to upend my life, but you don’t trust my choice of dining establishments?”
Beckett’s voice sliced me to the core. I knew more about him than almost anyone, and I’d given him nothing in return.
He squeezed my hand. “I’m teasing you, Princess.”
I glanced up and saw the dimple popping in his cheek.
