“Did she die?” she asked gently.
His chin lifted. “Maybe she did,” he replied. “What difference does it make?”
“None, I guess.” She studied his lean face, seeing new lines in it. His blond hair had a trace of silver, just barely visible, at his ears. “Dawson, you’re going gray,” she said softly.
“I’m thirty-five,” he reminded her.
“Thirty-six in September,” she added without thinking.
His eyes flashed. He was remembering, as she was, the birthdays when he’d gone out on the town with a succession of beautiful women each year. Once Barrie had tried to give him a present. It was nothing much, just a small silver mouse that she’d saved to buy for him. He’d looked at the present with disdain, and then he’d tossed it to the woman he was taking out that night, to let her enthuse over it. Barrie had never seen it again. She thought he’d probably given it to his date, because it was obvious that it meant nothing to him. His reaction had hurt her more than anything in her life ever did.
“The little cruelties are the worst, aren’t they?” he asked, as if he could see the memory, and the pain, in her mind. “They add up over the years.”
She turned away. “Everyone goes through them,” she said indifferently.
“You had more than most,” he said bitterly. “I gave you hell every day of your young life.”
“How are we going to Sheridan?” she asked, trying to divert him.
He let out a long breath. “I brought the Learjet down with me.”
“It’s overcast.”
“I’m instrument rated. You know that. Are you afraid to fly with me?”
She turned. “No.”
His eyes, for an instant, were haunted. “At least there’s something about me that doesn’t frighten you,” he said heavily. “Go and pack, then. I’ll be back for you in two hours.”
He went out the door this time, leaving her to ponder on that last statement. But she couldn’t make any sense of it, although she spent her packing time trying to.
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