Free Secrets by Brenda Joyce

stunned. And she was dismayed. Why was Slade so angry? Why would her visiting his home upset him so? She had thought him to be her friend. She looked up at his father. “What have I done?”
    Rick came around the table and patted her shoulder. “It’s not you. Trust me on that. You’re pretty and sweet and a man’d have to be blind not to see that. It’s me. We don’t get along. We never have. When I want something, he’s got to fight me. He’s always been that way. He’s always been a hardheaded rebel. Just like his mother.”
    Regina stared up at the older man. She heard the regret in his tone. And she heard more. She heard the love—the love he’d hidden so well in front of his son.

Chapter 5
    T hey left Templeton behind. A few miles from the small town was a dirt crossroads where they turned west, passing a crude white sign which read MIRAMAR in hand-painted black lettering. The three other signs directed traffic north to Paso Robles 5 miles, east to Fresno 112 miles, or south back to Templeton 2 miles. Once they turned, the railroad tracks, which ran north and south, soon disappeared from view. An endless sea of golden hills surrounded them. Dark pine-clad mountains hovered behind them. Hawks took wing above them, gliding high into the vividly blue sky. Regina would have been awed with the scenery had she not been stricken with tension.
    For Slade sat beside her on the front seat of an old-fashioned buggy pulled by two spirited bay mares. Her half a dozen trunks were piled in the backseat behind them. He had not said one word to her since he had arrived at her hotel room to load her luggage. Nor had he given her more than a cursory glance or two. He could not have made his displeasure with her more obvious.
    The sign directing them toward Miramar had not indicated how far away it was. Yet even if it were onlyminutes from them, she could not endure this kind of silence. “Your father is too generous,” she said softly in an attempt to make conversation.
    Slade said nothing.
    â€œI am very grateful to him.” She could not believe he would refuse to talk with her at all.
    â€œI’m sure you are.”
    His tone was civil, if unenthusiastic, and she breathed with relief. “He didn’t have to offer me his hospitality,” she offered.
    â€œThat’s right. Rick doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do.” This time he looked at her hard.
    â€œYou almost sound as if you’re warning me.”
    â€œMaybe I am.”
    â€œHe’s your father.”
    â€œDon’t I know it.”
    Regina opened her mouth to tell him that Rick loved him, then she shut it. She would be trespassing. That was a subject that was much too personal for her to broach.
    â€œI know you’re angry,” she said very softly. “I’m sorry.”
    He looked at her again. There was anger in his eyes, but not the uncontrolled blaze she’d seen in the hotel room that morning just before he’d strode out.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she repeated, dismayed. “Angering you is the last thing I would want to do, not after the way you saved me.”
    His grip tightened on the reins. “Stop talking like that. I didn’t save you. I found you and brought you to town, that’s all. If I hadn’t found you, someone else would have.”
    â€œWould they? Or would I have woken up, wandered until I dropped, maybe even died?”
    His glance skewered her. “I’m not asking for your gratitude.”
    â€œBut you already have it.”
    Slade stared straight ahead, out over the horses’ heads at the faded blue horizon. “Damn it,” he said very softly.
    Dismayed, Regina said impulsively, “Turn around. Take me back to Templeton. It’s all right. I’ll stay at the hotel until I feel better and then I’ll go to San Luis Obispo. I’m sure Susan would not turn me away in my