Silver Linings

against a wall. “You can stop expecting me to give up my career and my friends and everything else back in Seattle to move out here to the edge of the world to make a home for you.”
    “But, babe—”
    “ Stop calling me babe ! If you really want me, Hugh Abbott, then you can give up your business and your lifestyle and your friends and move to Seattle.”
    Hugh's mouth fell open as he stared at her in stunned amazement.
    Mattie realized with a sense of shocking satisfaction that it was the first time she had ever seen Hugh Abbott caught completely by surprise. She sat back in her seat, folding her arms protectively under her breasts, and studied him through cool, narrowed eyes.
    “Are you nuts, Mattie? Me leave St. Gabe? With everything I've got going here?”
    “Yes, that does put a different slant on the subject, doesn't it?” she noted sweetly. “Rather like asking me to leave Seattle.”
    Hugh closed his mouth. His big hand tightened ferociously around the steering wheel. “Is this some kind of game, Mattie? Because I don't like games.”
    “It's no game. I told you, I'm tired of being second best. Just once, just once , mind you, I want to know I'm first. I want to be wanted for myself, not as a fill-in for Ariel. Just once I want to finish in front. And if I can't be first, I don't want to even enter the damned race this time.”
    Hugh was silent for a long time, his hooded eyes never leaving her set face. “I don't believe this,” he finally said.
    “Believe it, Hugh.”
    “You want me to give up Abbott Charters? Forget the house I was going to build for us? Live in a damned city and go to gallery openings and drink espresso?”
    She smiled grimly. “It is a lot to ask, isn't it? Just as much as you're asking of me.”
    “But I've got a business to run.”
    “So do I.”
    “How the hell am I supposed to get Abbott Charters on its feet from Seattle?”
    “How the hell am I supposed to run Sharpe Reaction from St. Gabriel?”
    “It's not the same thing,” Hugh shot back. “Damn it, Mattie, when you move out here, I'll take care of you.”
    “If you come to Seattle, I'll take care of you. I make enough to support both of us.”
    “I'm not going to let you make me into some god-damned kept man,” he said through gritted teeth.
    “Well, I don't want to be a kept woman.”
    “Babe, be reasonable. You were willing enough to move out here a year ago. You begged me to take you with me when I left Seattle.”
    “That,” said Mattie, beginning to feel like a broken record, “was last year.”
    “Shit.” Hugh sat back in his seat and wrenched the key in the Jeep's ignition. The engine started with a roar.
    Mattie closed her eyes tightly, but she could not stop the tears from trickling down her cheeks. Angrily she brushed at them with the back of her hand.
    “Mattie? Are you crying?”
    “No. I won't let you make me cry a second time, Hugh. I will never let you make me cry again.”
    There was silence from the other side of the Jeep. And then Hugh said quietly, “All right. We'll try it.”
    She blinked away more moisture. “Try what?”
    “I'll try proving to you that you're first. I'll go back to Seattle with you. I can go on working for Charlotte, so you won't be supporting me. We'll see how it goes.”
    Mattie jerked her head around to stare at his hard profile. “You don't mean that.”
    He shrugged. “I never say things I don't mean.”
    “You can't come with me to Seattle. You'd hate living there.”
    “I've lived a lot of places that were a lot worse.”
    “Hugh, this is crazy.”
    “Yeah. I agree. But I can't think of any other way to prove I want you more than I wanted Ariel. And that's what this is really all about, isn't it? Proof? You'll get your proof, Mattie.”
    She heard the grim determination in his rough-edged voice and she shuddered. “I don't believe you'll really pack up and come back to Seattle with me.”
    “You sure don't trust me very much, do you, babe?”
    “Frankly, no. You're hatching some kind of scheme. I can tell.”
    “I'm going back to Seattle with you. Let's leave it at that, okay?”
    “No,” Mattie said defiantly. “I won't leave it at that. While we're on the subject, I think I should tell you that there will be no repeat of last night's little incident.”
    “I agree. I don't want you wearing that little red job out in public, anyway.”
    “I'm not talking about the dress,” she yelled, “I'm talking about us! Sleeping