as she shook her head. “I haven’t always done the right thing where you’re concerned, either. Last week—” She frowned and began to pace.
Dell walked toward her, blocking her progress. He tilted his head, trying to see her expression, hidden as she refused to look at him. “What happened last week?” he asked.
Crossing her arms, Regina blew out a deep breath. “I was shooting a wedding when one of the guests, an older woman named Adele Tidings, noticed my name tag. She wanted to know if I was related to you, and once she knew that we were married, she wondered why she hadn’t seen me around when she’d been at several functions lately which you had attended, alone. I realized how awful the truth would sound, and I didn’t know what to say, so I just…lied. I told her that I’d been horribly ill for a long time.”
“Regina, Adele is nice but nosy. She had no business asking you personal questions. Don’t worry about it.” But Regina shook her head.
“No, you and I both know that I wasn’t sick. You helped me out when we wed, but I never even considered accompanying you to any of your social functions, even though I knew they were a part of your business. I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain.”
“We didn’t make a bargain, Regina. We got married for good if unconventional reasons, and this year hasn’t been your happiest. You have nothing to apologize for.”
But the look in her eyes told him that she wasn’t buying his argument.
“You never mentioned anything,” she said, “but this article was written because there’s a rumor that you’ve been approached to open a new store in Chicago. I assume it’s true that one of your wealthiest customers is petitioning you to expand into her area and that she’s started a campaign with her friends to entice you into moving. They’re willing to wine you and dine you, to provide you with free advertising and do whatever it takes, but you’ve resisted even though it’s a great opportunity. The city of Chicago would consider it a coup to get you, and the article says that people at the highest levels are wondering why you haven’t at least looked into the matter.”
Dell blew out a breath. “People often wonder about things that don’t concern them.”
“They’re saying it’s because your wife has a business in Boston and you don’t want to upset her with a move.”
She looked so deliciously miffed that Dell almost wanted to laugh.
“Maybe I should remind them that I have a business headquartered in Boston and a fine old family home. Perhaps I simply don’t want to expand to the Midwest.”
She frowned, her nose wrinkling in that cute way it had. “Is that why?”
It wasn’t. He loved Chicago and he had been thinking of expanding there for a while, but it would have been unconscionable to desert his new and fragile bride in her hour of need while he left town for the long periods of time that would be necessary to embark on such a venture. The gossips were right, at least partly right. No matter the circumstances, O’Ryans took care of their families and they took care of the family name. Leaving a wife alone so soon after they had wed would have stirred up more gossip than breaking it off with Elise had.
“I’m just pointing out that there’s often more than one reason for doing or not doing something,” he said, evading the question. “And I don’t want you to worry about this. I’ll handle it.”
Regina stood suddenly and took a step toward him. “When I was ten and you were six, we didn’t know each other, but like everyone else in the area, I knew who you were. One day I was walking past this house and your father was explaining to you why an O’Ryan couldn’t run around barefoot in the summer the way the rest of us did. You had this longing look in your eyes and, not realizing that we lived in vastly different worlds, I felt sorry for you. I think I just saw a fleeting glimpse of that same look. The gossips are right. You’d like to pursue the Chicago connection, but you feel responsible for me. Well, no more. I don’t want to continue our marriage, Dell.”
Dell had been opening his mouth to dismiss her arguments, but that last sentence caught him by surprise. As if someone had unexpectedly punched him square in the chest with a jab that was sharp and surprisingly painful. He blinked. “Excuse me?”
Then her words caught up to him. “Why?” he asked.
A sad smile lifted her lips. Her brown eyes looked equally sad as she held out her hands, then let them fall to her sides. “We married for the wrong reasons, ones that seemed important at the time. Partly it was because you wanted to protect me. And I—” She shook her head. “I was scared and lost and it was too easy to say yes, to want to be protected. I appreciate all you’ve done for me, all you’ve given up. You can’t know how grateful I am. But I’m not lost anymore, and I’m not the type of woman who was made to be protected. Dell, we don’t have a thing in common.”
“We have a marriage in common.” He didn’t know why he was arguing. They were completely different kinds of people.
Regina laughed, a soft, pretty sound. “You know that’s not enough. You’re old money, good family, following the rules, doing what’s required, what’s right, while I’m a bit of a wild and fluffy mess and always have been.”
He opened his mouth. She put up her palm to stop him.
“You don’t need to defend me. I spent a lifetime trying to be what my parents expected and then finally realized that I was different. What’s more, I’m good at being different, and I like the fact that I’ve finally accepted my creativity and my tendency to be unpredictable, but I don’t fit into your world at all. I may be four years older than you, but you’ve always been the grown-up while I’ll always be…I don’t know. Me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you.”
“You’re right. There isn’t, but I’m not right for you, and—”
“I’m not right for you,” he said, completing her sentence.
Dismay crept into her expression. “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m not looking for romance. I don’t even want it anymore, so you’re not interfering with my love life.”
“I’m just interfering with your life?”
“No!” Her voice was a bit too vehement, Dell couldn’t help thinking, and he did smile then, even though he didn’t feel at all like smiling.
“Liar. Being an O’Ryan probably isn’t fun if you’re not used to it.”
She looked down at the magazine she still held. “People judge you, and I’m not helping your standing.”
“Regina, I’m not worried.” At least not about that. There had been good reasons why Regina hadn’t appeared at his side this year. But theirs had not been an ordinary marriage. It certainly hadn’t been what either of them would have chosen. And it hadn’t been rewarding.
A pained look came into her eyes. “Every day women come into the shop. They’re happy. They’re marrying because it’s what they want above all else, and that’s as it should be, but it’s not us. Admit it, Dell. This isn’t working out. We’re not a real couple. We don’t even touch.”
She muttered the last part, and Dell’s senses began to sizzle. “We could touch,” he told her, even though he had
