Trading Secrets by Jayne Castle Page A

Chase was the one who had done this to him, Matt decided. Until she had appeared in his life he’d been doing a fairly good job of keeping everything under control. Just barely, perhaps, but under control. Now the immediate future looked as though somehow it didn’t belong to him. Rented, just like his white stucco villa on the hill.
    High overhead Sabrina, too, tried to account for an unfamiliar sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness. Maybe this was what it was like to live by your own rules. Would there be many instances of wistful regret?
    No, she told herself, there wouldn’t. For the simple reason that there weren’t many ex-Major Matt Augusts running around. She had really picked one hell of a way to celebrate her birthday.
    It was all very complicated, but one thing was for certain. She had made the right decision. Matt August was all wrong for her, even for a vacation affair. He was too military, too conservative, too autocratic, and too fascinating. She had done the right thing by staying in control of the situation.
    Hours later at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport she collected her bags and made her way out to the parking lot, where the Alfa Romeo waited with a coat of Texas dust on its sleek white surface. Moments later she sat behind the wheel and loosened the reins. The car plunged forward into the night as if it were the white stallion of her adolescent fantasies.
    Matt would probably have been amused.
    He would probably also have found it humorous three days later when the silver paint started flaking off the necklace he had warned her wasn’t really a bargain.
     
     

Chapter Four
    The phone rang at three in the morning. Calls that demanded a drastic change in your life always came at that hour of the morning, Matt decided as he lunged blindly across the bed to grab the receiver. He should have taken the thing off the hook. For some reason he had always assumed that the idiosyncrasies of the Mexican phone system would protect him from those kinds of calls.
    “If this is you, Coyne, I can give you my answer right now. It’s no. I never say yes to anything at this hour of the morning.”
    “Matt? This is Ginny. How can you stand to live in a place without a decent phone system? Do you realize how long I’ve been trying to get hold of you? Where have you been?”
    Matt closed his eyes and dropped back against the crumpled pillow. He considered the question and decided to answer.
    “Out.”
    There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line. Then Ginny drawled in weary disgust, “Same old Matt. Same old answer.”
    “What do you want, Ginny?”
    “Help,” she retorted succinctly.
    Matt didn’t move, but he was suddenly very wide awake. He stared intently at the shadows on the ceiling. “Is Brad all right?” he asked tautly.
    “No, he is not all right. He’s ruining my life, as a matter of fact. I’ve had it, Matt. You’re going to have to do something. He’s your son.” Ginny didn’t bother to hide the anger. “My God, is he your son. More so every day. I won’t let him ruin my marriage. I waited until the end of school, but I can’t wait any longer. Summer vacation starts tomorrow. You’ll have to come get him. Maybe a summer spent with you will let him see that his father is not some comic-book combination of General Patton and the Lone Ranger.”
    “The summer?” Matt sat up slowly, shoving aside the sheet. “You want me to take him for the summer? I thought you always said I’d be a bad influence on him.”
    “You’ve already influenced him,” Ginny muttered with suppressed violence. “So much so that I just can’t handle him anymore. He’s causing nothing but trouble between Paul and me, and I simply won’t let him ruin my life. I’ve tried to handle it in a normal, civilized fashion. God knows how many hours I’ve spent with school counselors and guidance people. I even tried to get him into group therapy, but—”
    “Therapy!”
    “Yes, therapy! What’s