‘But you didn’t.’
He pushed his hand through his hair. ‘I tried to last night.’
She frowned in confusion. ‘When did you try?’
‘When I said I was secretly rich and famous.’
She scoffed. ‘That’s not… That’s like when people say they are secretly Batman or secretly a witch. No one takes that seriously. That’s not how you tell someone you’re a millionaire.’
‘How do you tell someone?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t know, but not like that.’
‘It’s not easy, believe me.’
‘Well when it was obvious I didn’t believe you, why didn’t you tell me you were telling the truth? Make me believe you.’
‘What, when you were going on about how much you hate rich people? Yeah, that felt like the perfect time.’
She realised why he’d been so adamant about some rich people being nice. She had to concede she had probably made it difficult for him to come out with the truth.
‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’
‘I didn’t know you before.’
‘You knew me well enough to sleep with me.’
‘That’s different.’
‘I’m sure it is, especially when it’s just sex. It doesn’t matter if you know the person or not.’
‘It wasn’t just sex.’
‘Wasn’t it? I trusted you completely to feel comfortable enough to sleep with you, but you didn’t trust me at all.’
‘I did. I do.’
‘So why didn’t you tell me before instead of making up the lies about the kitty?’
‘I didn’t lie as such. I didn’t lie when I said there was an anonymous donor. I just didn’t tell you the anonymous donor was me.’
‘So why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Because you wouldn’t have accepted the money and I wanted to help. I’ve been very lucky in my life, and I’m living my dream being able to do wood sculptures every day. I wanted to be able to do the same for you. And when would have been a good time to admit the truth? When you walked in on me naked? When I properly introduced myself a few hours later, “Hello, I’m Luke Donnelly and I’m a millionaire”? Everything has moved so quick for us. There just wasn’t a right time.’
‘You should have found the time.’
He sighed. ‘I should have and I’m sorry. But every single person in Lovegrove Bay knows who I am and how much money I have. It’s impossible to have any kind of friendship or relationship without wonderingwhether they like me for me or because of the size of my wallet – and ninety-nine percent of the time it’s the latter. That’s why I’m leaving because it’s just become unbearable. I wanted you to get to know me without any preconceptions.’
‘You were testing me?’
‘No, not at all.’
‘Yes, you were. You wanted to see how I’d act around you when I didn’t know you had any money. Well I guess I failed that test, I gave you a list the length of my arm of things I wanted to get for the gift shop. I’m just as bad as Polly and everyone else using you for your money.’
‘You didn’t know I was footing the bill and you offered to pay me back. No one has ever done that before.’
‘Well, everything is going to be sent back. I’ll package it all up and send it back today, including these stupid shelves.’
