Page 26 of Reluctantly Yours

For that matter, neither did my mother.It was one thing we had agreed upon, Dad and me.Making sure she never knew what he did.How deeply, thoroughly, and unforgivably he had betrayed me.There were still times I wondered if it wasn’t his way of getting back at me for throwing his job offer in his face years ago.Not that it mattered.The result was the same.He had broken our family irreparably.There was no going back.

Which meant looking like an asshole in moments like this, when the sight of Mom's disappointed face was a knife to my chest.It was a sacrifice I would have to make.Telling her the truth would be so much worse.I wouldn’t crush her that way.

Her disappointment would have been bad enough.It was Sofia who turned to me, crestfallen.“But I want to see Nana’s house.You never took me there.”

I stared across the table at my mother, who I loved but at the moment would have happily thrown out on her ass for putting me in this position.She knew damn well what my answer would be, so she showed up in person and got Sofia on her side.

“It’s all I want for my birthday,” she insisted.“Just that.Dinner at home with you and Sofia.And you can bring Penny,” she added, smiling at the girl who was so nervous she barely moved.Only her eyes darted back and forth like she was watching a tennis match.

“No.”It came out of me like a shotgun blast.“That’s not going to happen.”Penny’s face fell, but I would have to make it up to her.It wasn’t personal.It had nothing to do with how I felt about her.

Or maybe it did because the idea of introducing her to him nauseated me.She was too good.He didn’t deserve to breathe the same air she did.

It was a silent standoff between Mom and me, gazing at each other, both of us expressing a thousand words without speaking a single one.

“Please,” Mom whispered.“I only want us to be together again for one night.He’s never met her,” she added like I needed to be reminded.Like that wasn’t deliberate.

Sofia tugged my sleeve.“Can we go, Daddy?I’ll be good, I promise.”

“That’s not what bothers me, sweetie.”She sat to my right at the square kitchen table.I reached out and ran a hand over her curls.“I know you would be.”

“Then how come we can’t go?”

“You know what?”Penny pushed back from the table, wearing one of her patented, beaming smiles.“Let’s go up to your art studio and find your new painting so we can bring it down and show your Nana.I know she would like to see it.”

“I would love to,” Mom assured them.

Thank God for Penny and the short attention span of a four-year-old.Sofia was out of her chair in the blink of an eye, tossing her napkin onto the chair before scurrying out of the room.“I’ll be right back, Nana!”she called out as she ran.Penny shot me a single, panicked look as she followed.

That left the two of us.I could drop the act I only kept up for Sofia’s sake, but Mom got the first word in.“I’m so happy to see you opening up again after all that ugliness,” she murmured, obviously referring to my ruined marriage.Because why would she not twist the poker she’d skewered through my chest?

“It’s not like that at all,” I quickly corrected.“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”Though the reminder of my past couldn’t have come at a better time.I couldn’t afford to tie my future to Penny or any woman.It was purely physical, no matter how comfortable we got with each other.“Stop trying to distract me,” I murmured, shaking my head.“When you know damn well I’m furious with you for using your granddaughter against me.”

“Why do you think that’s what this is about?”she asked.“All right, so my methods might be a little sneaky.”

“I could think of a few other words to describe them,” I muttered under my breath.

“But Travis.Think about it.I’m a grandmother whose granddaughter has never stepped foot in her house.Your father has never met her.”

“Which I’m sure breaks his heart,” I retorted.

She rarely scowled, but my attitude inspired one.“You don’t know how he feels because you refuse to speak to him.”

Shifting on the chair, I replied, “I have my reasons.”

Please, please, stop pushing me.I’m doing this for you.

“Those reasons have fueled three years of a cold war?”she countered.“Can’t you let it go for one night after nursing your grudge for so long?All I want is a single dinner in my home with my son and my granddaughter.It’s my only wish.I don't think it’s too much to ask, Travis.”

“I’ll do anything else you want.Not this.”

“Sweetheart.”She pushed her plate aside and folded her hands on the table.Her seven-carat diamond sparkled brilliantly.“I’m not going to be here forever.I don’t ask you for anything.When you told me Sofia would never step foot in my house, I was hurt, but I accepted it.I know better than to try to change your mind when you’ve made it up.”

“Yet here you sit, doing exactly that,” I pointed out.

“Which I suppose means this is very important to me.None of us has unlimited birthdays.”

A chill went down my spine at her choice of words.“Are you trying to tell me something?”I asked, thinking about Lex and his father.Alexander Landry had kept his cancer diagnosis secret at first, though by all reports, he was doing very well.But it was a wake-up call of sorts.There was no such thing as forever.

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