“About who I am.”
Pallas returned to her seat and grabbed a cookie. “What does that even mean? You’re an alien? You have antenna and a tail?”
“I’m a princess.”
Pallas froze, the Oreo partway to her mouth. She stared at Bethany, then put down the cookie. “A what?”
“Princess. My father is the king of El Bahar. My mom met him when I was nine and we moved there so she could teach at the American school. They got married and when my biological father died, Malik adopted me. I’m really Princess Bethany of El Bahar.”
“Wow. That’s so cool.” Pallas picked up the cookie again. “No offense, but you don’t act like a princess at all. You’re so like a normal person.”
“Thanks.” Bethany felt some of her tension ease. “I’m sorry I lied to you and everyone. There are a lot of reasons.”
Pallas waved her hand. “You don’t have to explain it to me. Of course you wouldn’t want everyone to know. That must be a drag. As Beth Smith you got to be yourself. No one fawned, you didn’t have to guess if we liked you, you could burp in public.”
Despite everything, Bethany laughed. “Exactly.” Her humor faded. “Your brother doesn’t see it that way. He feels betrayed.”
Pallas rolled her eyes. “Then he needs to get over it. I mean, come on. It makes perfect sense.”
Not to Cade, Bethany thought. He would only see that she lied about who she was. He would feel that she tricked him, mostly likely for sport. He would judge her by Lynette.
“Thank you for understanding,” Bethany said. “I wanted you to know the truth. I hope we can stay in touch.”
“That sounds like you’re leaving.”
“I am.”
“What? Why? I thought you were happy here.”
“I don’t belong.” Bethany shook her head. “Sorry. I need to be honest. I love it here, but Cade doesn’t want me and at the risk of sounding too much like a pathetic coed, without him, there’s no point in staying.”
Pallas narrowed her gaze. “Okay, I’ll accept all the rest of it, but not that. You are both too involved for you to just walk away. Have you told him how you feel?”
Bethany didn’t bother wondering how Pallas had guessed. When it came to love, everyone was smarter than her.
“He won’t care.”
“You don’t know that. Bethany, I’m serious. You have to tell him. If you don’t, you’re going to regret it for the rest of your life. Cade’s one of the good guys. He’s worth fighting for.”
On the drive back to the ranch, Bethany couldn’t stop thinking about what her friend had said. That Cade was worth fighting for. She turned the idea over and over in her head, wondering if she’d ever had to fight for anything before.
So much had been handed to her. So much simply given by virtue of who her mother had married. When there had been trouble at her boarding school, she’d run home. The same in college. Had she ever once stood her ground?
She found Cade at his office in the stable. He didn’t look happy to see her, but she didn’t care. What she had to say couldn’t wait for him to be in a better mood.
She carefully closed the door behind her, then sat at his desk across from him.
“I’m sorry,” she began. “I think you can understand why I did what I did, but you can’t get past it. It brings up too much hurt from your past. I agree that there were so many times when I could have told you who I was and a bunch of times I should have told you the truth. I was wrong. I guess I’ve always let circumstances dictate who I was and what was going to happen. I never made any of the hard decisions myself. I’ve drifted, which is ridiculous. Poor little rich girl with too many options. I want to be different. I want to change.”
She took a breath. She was going to have to lay it all on the line and hope that Cade would give her a second chance.
“I know you’re hurt and angry. At the end of the day, whatever my reason, I lied. I take responsibility for that and I ask for your forgiveness. I hope you’ll consider giving me a second chance because what we have together is good and special, and as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t happen all that often.”
Now came the hard part, she told herself.
“I’ve fallen in love with you,” she told him. “With you and this town and I hope you’re feeling, if not the same, then maybe you can see yourself...”
Her voice trailed off. Instead of softening, Cade’s expression hardened. His eyes became icy and his mouth formed a straight line.
“Don’t,” he told her. “It’s not going to work, Bethany. You should have stopped with the apology. That I might have believed. But this crap—it’s not gonna happen.”
“It’s not crap,” she whispered, feeling heat on her cheeks. “It’s not. I love you. Why would I lie about my feelings? How does telling you the truth make this crap?”
“It just is. Sell it somewhere else. I’m not buying it for a second.”
And that was it, she thought numbly. The end of what could have been. Being brave was highly overrated.
“Okay.” She brushed the tears from her cheeks. “I guess this is goodbye.”
“I guess it is.”
There was so much else she wanted to say but what was the point? She walked out of his office and went to the stable to see Rida one last time before going to the airport. Once she was home, she would figure out what to do next. And how to stop being in love with Cade.
CHAPTER NINE
RIDA CANTERED DOWN the trail but Cade could tell his heart wasn’t in it. Bethany had been gone for nearly a week and Rida continued to miss her. The stallion had allowed Cade to ride him for the past three days without putting up any kind of a fight. Cade suspected that was more about being lonely than because of Cade’s training skills.
Together they turned back to the barn. Rida knew the way and kept to the main path. When they reached the stable, he looked around, as if searching for someone. Then his head lowered slightly and he walked to the paddock.
Cade walked him to cool him off, then groomed him and checked for injuries before turning him out into the pasture. He would put him in his stall after he’d had a chance to relax in the sun.
Harry jumped up on the railing and walked over to get his head rub, then meowed for Rida. The horse trotted over and stood close so the cat could rub against his face. Rida looked at Cade, as if asking him to fix the problem.
“I can’t, big guy,” he told the horse. “I’m sorry.”
Rida didn’t look convinced.
Cade thought about pointing out he was suffering, too. That he missed everything about Bethany, but there was no point. Not only wouldn’t the horse understand, if he could appreciate the sentiment, he would most likely tell Cade to take care of business. It wasn’t as if Rida could text or call.
Cade knew he couldn’t, either. He had all the reasons and he was determined. In time, he would forget her. Only that hadn’t happened yet.
Cade headed for his office, then stopped when he recognized his sister’s car by the back of the house. He saw her sitting on the porch and went to join her.