"Growing a heart is a good thing. Can I ask aquestion?"
His hand landed on her knee. "Sure,what?"
This was it. She swallowed. "What did you mean it when you called me yourgirlfriend?"
He didn'tmove. "What?"
"You called meyour girlfriend." She turned her body to face him more. This conversation was important. "We have only had two, well if you count today, three dates. Are wedating?"
His eyebrows lifted. "Aren'twe?"
The bet rang in her ears as important. The thought caused her body to stiffen. She'd get to that in aminute.
"Peter, our lives are very different. We probably won't mesh welltogether."
His hand stayed on her knee and squeezed it. For a moment, she thought he read her mind. "Whatbothersyou?"
She glanced at his leg. Last night he'd made her forget the entire universe. She crossedherarms.
"Colt didn't want to marry me because I didn't want to leave my job forafarm."
"Alice and Colt run a corporation worth three quarters of a billion dollars.He'd need to beclose."
His deep voice caught her attention, and she gazed at him. Her throat seemed to close on its own. She coughed out the choke his news seemed tocause.
"What? The farms weren't worth half that much ayearago."
He shrugged. "They now have access to better contracts andcontacts."
He didn't have to lay claim to helping Colt. She saw stars floating."You did that because of Colt and yoursister?"
He shook his head. "Alice married John, first. Alice and Colt are partners, and no one in my family will evergopoor."
Close to a billion dollars was hardly poor. The multimillion dollar farms Colt used to run had tripled in value in less than a year. Her entire body heated, and she glanced out the window at thebluebay.
"Youalmost make dumping me sound like a good financialinvestment."
His hand pressed against her knee. Sheswallowed.
"Belle..."
A loud high pitched voice of a woman echoed in the air and interrupted them. "Mitch! Where are mychildren?"
Peter's face wentwhite.
Peter and she both jumped to their feet. Peter's eyes circled, and he inhaled without exhaling. Then hesaid, "Excuse me," and rushed outthedoor.
Whoever was here clearly intended to argue with Peter's father. Belle stayed right on his heels and followed him down a hall toward the room theyentered.
An older woman with Peter's high cheekbones covered her lips. Her eyes misted as she stared at him. "Oh my God.Peter."
Peter crossed his arms and stared at the older woman. Hisface was white, and his hands were clenched. "Whatthe—"
Now wasn't the time to overreact. She reached up to his shoulder and massaged his arm to get him torelax.
He unclenched his hands as she asked, "What's going on? Whoisshe?"
His fingers touched the bottom of his lips. "Belle, that's mymother."
