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Um. Okay?

“You see, my wife has grown strangely attached to you.”

Where exactly was he going with this?

His hands rejoined, long fingers lacing one-by-one. “She has hinted that she’s not cultivating the relationship of a new friend, but of something much closer than that.”

My sun-warmed skin turned clammy, and I considered hiding my eyes behind my hands like a toddler. Instead, I found my voice. “I don’t understand.”

“Oh, come now,” he said in a jesting tone. “You’re a smart girl. I think you do understand. In fact, I think you are more than just friendly with my son, and have been for years.”

My entire brain skidded to a stop, and an idiotic “What?” fell out of my mouth.

“I know you snuck around as teenagers, and I’m certain it was no coincidence that the moment you turn up back in this town, you’re at his doorstep, begging for a handout.”

Cold gray eyes bored into me, and I opened my mouth twice before words emerged. “There are so many things wrong with what you just said that I don’t even know where to start.”

His eyebrow lifted, and he looked so much like Camden in that moment that my heart squeezed.

“I am not romantically involved with Camden,” I said. “I didn’t sneak around with him in high school”—much—“though I did catch him sneaking around with other girls.” I scowled at those memories. “The man uses school libraries like they’re his bedroom. And I didn’t come begging for a handout. I was approached to fill a position. Your son and I are just coworkers.”

He laughed once. “Years I’ve watched him try to hide you—his dirty little secret. Sticking with cross-country, though swimming would have served him better. Staring at you across ballrooms. Commissioning your friend to build our family’s furniture. Designing swill to peddle under your name. Encouraging your classless marketing ideas. Pandering to you.”

My blood froze, and my thoughts dispersed as light does through a prism, rainbows of Really? and That can’t be and No, but really? arcing through my head. “I think you’ve got it wrong, Mr. Shepherd.”

His stare held me captive in the worst way, and a humorless smile stretched across his mouth. “My wife is indeed a remarkable woman, Miss Honeycutt, and though it has taken me years to admit it, she is never wrong about anything.”

“Well.” I injected a bit of venom into my voice. “She’s wrong about this. Perhaps she was misled, or—I’m not sure—but there is nothing between Cam and me.”

He remained silent, his ceaseless gaze seeing straight into my soul. “We’ll see.”

All this for a dressing-down at a city council meeting? This guy was a master at grudge-holding.

“Are we done?”

“No. Just one more thing,” he said softly, his polite southern manners at odds with the toxic words that spewed from his mouth. “Despite what people say, we both know you’re no sweetheart. I see through this good girl charade you put on. It’s nothing but a pathetic attempt to whore your way down easy street. My family worked hard for what we have, and I’ll be damned if I let someone like you marry into it. You will never be a Shepherd. You’re not worthy of the name. And if my son doesn’t take off his blinders and forsakes his name for you, I’ve ensured that you won’t see a single dime. You won’t get rich with my money, Miss Honeycutt, so I suggest you cut your losses now.”

His speech served as a confirmation, a vacuum, sucking all the air from my lungs.

There it was, laid bare, the ugly truth these rich folks had always thought, but never had the courage to speak aloud. She’s fun to play with, but she’ll never be one of us. The words may as well have been knives for how sharply they cut. My self-esteem, my dignity, my very soul, all of them fell, struck down with fatal wounds, and I gaped at the pain of it, at the sheer amount of blood.

Strangely, my heart slowed. I thought back to the handful of meaningful memories of Camden. Sprinting around the outdoor track. Dancing in a darkened room. Arguing over who was smarter. A single, scalding kiss.

None of it amounted to a romantic relationship. It didn’t even come close.

I thought of that moment after he kissed me, that look in his eye I’d always thought was shame, but perhaps was something closer to panic. His father had called, and Cam came running like he always did, leaving me with only three words.

He can’t know.

The ever-obedient son.

No matter how much I wished it, Camden Shepherd had never wanted me enough to pursue me. Was it the disapproval of his father? The stigma of partnering outside his social class? The potential loss of his inheritance? Whatever it was, nothing would change it now.

My hands clenched. “It’s impressive the steps you’ll take to protect your material wealth, Mr. Shepherd. Not just icing out a potential daughter-in-law, but threatening your own son. That’s…dedication, I must say.”

“I think⁠—”

I threw a hand up, stopping him. “You will refrain from insulting me further. I have never had a relationship with your son, and despite what you may think, he doesn’t pander to me. He has no feelings for me beyond friendship.”