Page 21 of The Tryst

“This place has grown a bit since you left.” She looks around at the nearly filled restaurant. “And yet it’s still the same old Shelbyville where nothing has changed.”

“Some things have changed,” I say, looking at her pointedly over my water glass rim. “Like the Mardraggons and the Blackburns are actually friends.”

I’m not intentionally forestalling when I’ll inevitably need to answer for my actions, but I am genuinely curious to learn more of these developments.

Kat snorts. “I would not say our families are even remotely close to being friends, but Gabe and I sure have made a bridge of sorts.”

“You told me all about how you two connected at dinner the other night but what’s the full story on Ethan and Alaine Mardraggon?”

“No real story between them. Just a drunken one-night stand, but Alaine got pregnant, went back to France and had Ethan’s daughter in secret.”

Trey had mentioned as much and that Alaine had died of cancer. “How did he find out?”

“An attorney showed up at the farm after Alaine died about three and a half months ago. She left instructions that Ethan was to be told of his daughter’s existence and that she wanted him to raise her.”

There’s no stopping my jaw from dropping. I knew Alaine Mardraggon but not all that well. I’m not shocked Ethan slept with her because alcohol causes people to do stupid things, but I’m stunned he lost all that time with his daughter. “Sylvie looks like she’s around ten or eleven,” I guess, trying to add up the time that was missed.

“Just turned ten.”

A sharp twinge catches me in the center of my chest, sorrow for the little girl. “Jesus… that had to be so hard for her. Ethan too, I’m sure, but that poor little girl… losing her mom and going to a strange family.”

Kat’s eyes flash with ire. “Not just any family. She was going to the Blackburns and the Mardraggons had been filling her head with hate. At least Lionel and Rosemund were. Sylvie was a pistol when she came to us, but it was actually Marcie who got her to give us a chance.”

A discussion ensues about Marcie and I’m told all about Ethan falling hard for the sassy redhead I met at dinner the other night. And now, they’re a ready-made family with Sylvie.

“How are the Mardraggons handling this new dynamic with Ethan having custody?”

Kat shakes her head, lips turned up in a dry smirk. “You haven’t even heard the craziest part yet. Alaine left a trust, which included her French winery, to Sylvie, but there was a clause thatsaid if she died before she turned twenty-one, it would revert to Lionel and Rosemund. Lionel didn’t like that and wasn’t ready to give up that wealth or let his granddaughter be raised by Blackburns. So he tried to poison her.”

I’d been sipping my water as she said that last part and I immediately spew some of it, the rest going down into my lungs upon a sharp inhale. I cough and hack trying to get it up and grab my napkin to wipe my leaking eyes.

When I regain my composure, I focus on Kat with blurry eyes. “He tried to kill his own granddaughter?”

Mouth flattened in disgust, she nods. “And would have gotten away with it too but Gabe found evidence pointing to his dad and turned him into the police. He’s been charged with attempted murder and is on house arrest now.”

“No wonder you love the guy,” I murmur.

“That’s definitely a factor,” she chirps with a grin. “But he’s cut ties with his parents. Rosemund wasn’t involved but she’s sticking by Lionel. Gabe ousted his dad from the Mardraggon board of directors and now he’s running the company.”

“Just… wow.” My head swims with the major changes that have happened in just the past few months.

Kat nods, her expression thoughtful. “It’s been a lot, but we’re stronger for it.”

“And I still can’t get over you and Gabe.” I stir my water with my straw. “Secret romance in college, huh?”

Kat snickers, her eyes twinkling. “Could you imagine what my family would have done had they known Gabe and I were seeing each other?”

Oh, I have some idea. Probably the same shock and possibly condemnation if they’d found out about me and Trey eleven years ago. It’s not lost on me that Kat and I had clandestine first loves that fell apart. The only difference is that she had a second chance with Gabe that worked out.

I want nothing to do with Trey.

Well, that’s not exactly true. I let him give me two orgasms this morning, so that’s something.

I’m more than eaten up with curiosity though. “You didn’t say why you two broke up originally.”

Kat’s expression shutters slightly but she shrugs it off. “He wouldn’t let us tell our families. Didn’t have the courage. And then when one of his cousins was bullying me, he let it happen. I broke it off with him even though he wanted to keep seeing me.”

I nod in understanding. I know all about betrayal. “And yet you forgave him for it?”

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