Katherine Garbera - The Rebel Tycoon Returns

She felt tears stir in her eyes and she bit her lower lip. Her body wasn’t going to get any better. This was how she’d always look. She glanced back at her face and for a moment almost resented the fact that her face was back to “normal” because the rest of her wasn’t. Not even inside was she the same woman she used to be.

She didn’t dwell on the fact that the date was with Christopher Richardson. He’d been her first love and she wasn’t sure she’d ever really gotten over him. She’d been young and impetuous when they’d met and he’d been forbidden fruit. She’d wanted him because her father hadn’t wanted her to have him. It wasn’t lost on her that she’d used him and now she was going to have to apologize. The girl she’d been pre-accident would have handled it with her normal panache, but Macy wasn’t that woman anymore and she suddenly dreaded the coming evening.

Macy had driven herself to the Texas Cattleman’s Club because she was meeting Abby later to move the flamingos. But also because she didn’t want to be too dependent on Chris getting her home. The dining room was traditional Texas with lots of big heavy dark wood pieces and portraits of the founding members on the walls.

She went to the bar area and ordered a glass of Chardonnay while she waited for Chris. She hated being alone in a public place. It didn’t matter that she’d grown up coming to this club. She felt so exposed because of her accident.

She felt as if everyone was watching her and whispering behind her back. She knew it was her imagination. But Royal was a town that was given to gossip and she hated to be fodder for it. When she’d been younger—before her accident—she’d tried to do daring things to make people notice her, but now she just longed to be invisible.

“Macy?”

She glanced toward the end of the bar where her father stood with one of his business partners. Her dad was one of the old guard at the club. But he was fighting to remain loyal after the scandal involving Sebastian Hunter a few years ago. His friend’s embezzlement had shaken him. Sebastian had tried to sabotage the very club he’d been a member of.

“Hello, Dad,” she said, turning to give him a kiss when he approached.

He lifted her chin and she knew he was looking for the scar that used to run the length of the left side of her face. Her dad had been the first one to see her after the accident. Her fiancé, Benjamin, didn’t think he could handle seeing her that way. So her father had come in and held her hand and told her that she was still his princess.

“Beautiful,” he said. He kissed her forehead.

She blinked back tears. “Thanks, Daddy.”

He handed her a handkerchief. Then pulled her close for a hug. She hid her face in his shoulder the way she used to when she was little and didn’t want to face something.

“What are you doing up here, Mace? Did I forget a dinner date for tonight?” Harrison asked.

“Actually, no. I’m meeting someone,” she said. She had no idea how he’d take the news that she was having dinner with Chris. So she decided to keep his name to herself. Chris had certainly changed since high school, but tonight she wanted the fairy tale. She’d felt like the Beast locked away for so long. Now she wanted to feel attractive and to enjoy being out on a date with a good-looking guy. She and Chris Richardson had always made a stunning couple.

“That’s good. I wanted to take you out to celebrate the removal of the last bandages, but you know how it is with work. I don’t keep banker’s hours.” She and her dad had been alone since her mother had died when Macy was a toddler. They celebrated things in their own way and on their own time. She knew he’d make it up to her.

“You never have,” she said. Macy was very aware of how hard her father worked. He owned one of the largest construction companies in Texas. And flew from Royal to other parts of the state most weeks. He also had his weekly poker game in Midland and a twice-yearly fishing trip with his college buddies.

The waiter called his name and he hesitated. “Do you want me to wait with you?”

She smiled at him. “No, I’m fine. Go on. I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow.”

He hugged her quickly and then walked away. She turned back to the bar just as her wine arrived. She took a sip before glancing around the bar. Chris waved at her as he walked toward her.

“Sorry if I kept you waiting,” Chris said. “I’ll have a Lone Star beer,” he told the bartender.

“Right away, sir,” the man said.

“You didn’t. I was a little early. Since the accident I … I drive a little more slowly,” she said. There really wasn’t any part of her life that hadn’t been affected by it.

“You will have to tell me more about what happened. Mom knew some of the details,” he said. “Let’s grab a booth while we wait to be seated for dinner.”

She nodded and he led the way to one of the small intimate booths in the corner. Macy slid in and then waited while Chris did the same. He sat directly across from her and put his elbows on the table.

“So what happened? Mom said you’d been burned,” he said.

She shrugged. “No one’s really ever asked me about it before, because it was on the news.”

“Not in Dallas,” he said. “But then most of the stuff that happens here doesn’t make the headlines there.”

“I don’t know what to say except my car was hit by a long-haul trucker and that it was a mangled mess … all the rescuers said I was lucky to be alive.”

She held her hands loosely together, taking off the ring on her right hand and playing with it before putting it back on. She didn’t like to talk about the accident. To be honest, she remembered so little of it.

“I’m glad that you are such a lucky woman, Macy,” he said.

The bartender arrived with his beer. She studied him as he took a swallow from it. He hadn’t changed at all since high school—well, that wasn’t really true. He’d matured into his features; if anything, he was better looking today than he had been back then.

He arched one eyebrow at her and she flushed. “The years have been good to you,” she said, trying to find the words to ask him to forgive the immature girl she’d been.

“I can’t complain,” he said. “I’ve been working hard building my company, but I play hard too.”

“You mentioned that you are here for business.”

“That’s right. I’m doing consulting work for the expansion of the buildings here on the grounds.”

Macy tipped her head to the side and studied him. “Who asked you to do that?”

“Brad Price. We went to college together.”

“You went to UT Austin?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I thought you were going to get the hell out of Texas,” she said.

“Plans changed. I graduated at the top of our class … so it was cheaper for me to go to a Texas state university.”

“I forgot about that. Beauty and brains,” she said.

“Ah, no, you were always the beauty,” he said.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. That other girl she’d been was as foreign to her now as the thought of living anywhere other than Royal. “I was a little intolerable back then.”

“Not at all. You were pretty and confident. Every boy in school wanted you.”

“Not anymore,” she said. “And there was only one boy I wanted.”

“You had me, if that’s what you meant. Why aren’t you confident now?”

She realized that she was feeling a little bit funky tonight. Almost blue. She wasn’t about to say out loud that she was no longer pretty. Not to Chris. Especially when she realized that he might want a little revenge against her for the way she’d treated him back then.