Page 65 of Dangerous Secret

“I don’t have any friends. You can be my first.”

Did he not go to preschool where he would meet children his age? “I’d be honored to be your first friend.”

“My mommy used to be my friend, but Daddy said she left because she doesn’t love us anymore. Why doesn’t she love me? I’d be a good boy if she came back.”

He hated Pressley more with each new revelation fromboth Harlow and her son. “You know what? I don’t believe that for a minute. I think your mommy loves you very much, and I promise you, it’s not your fault she’s not here.”

“Do you know my mommy?”

“No, but if I ever see her, I’ll tell her how much you miss her.” He hated lying to this lonely child with the sad eyes. “You better go on up to your room so you don’t get in trouble.”

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“You sure can.”

He leaned close to Grayson. “I don’t like Ava,” he whispered. “She’s mean to me.”

What the hell to say to that? He couldn’t risk agreeing and having Tyler repeat that, but he couldn’t not say something. “Can you keep a secret, too?”

Tyler nodded.

“You have to promise not to tell anyone, not even your father.”

“Okay.”

He was taking a big risk, but his gut said Tyler could keep secrets, and he had to give the boy something to believe in. “I think you’re going to see your mommy again real soon, but it’s really important that stays our secret.”

“When?”

“I can’t tell you exactly when, just know right here in your heart—” he tapped Tyler’s chest “—that she loves you and you’ll see her again.”

“I love her, too.”

“She knows that, my little man. Now, go on before you get in trouble.”

“Okay.”

Grayson returned to the kitchen with the hope that he’d given Tyler something to hold on to. This was a conversation he wouldn’t tell Harlow about because it would break her heart to know that her son thought she had left because she didn’t love him.

Ava was on the barstool that Tyler had been sitting on, and when he retook his seat, she gave him a sultry smile. “You don’t look like a Richie.”

“What do I look like?”

She shifted to face him, and her gaze traveled over him. “Like a Maverick…or maybe Cruz. No, Ryker. Yeah, Richie just doesn’t do it for me, so I’m going to call you Ryker. That’s close enough to Richie.”

The woman was ridiculous. Standing off to the side, out of her line of sight, Anders rolled his eyes. Grayson wanted to roll his, too. “That’s an interesting name, but it’s not mine.”

“Consider it your nickname. Everyone has one of those.”

“Is that so? What’s yours?”

“Why don’t you give me one?”

He made a show of checking her out. “I think I’ll call you Trouble.”

Anders snorted.

There was nothing to be learned here, at least not today, and he’d had enough of Miss Trouble. “Thanks for lunch, Anders. It was good.”

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