Page 73 of Sweet Passions at Bayside
She gave him a chaste kiss and said, “I’m going to the ladies’ room. Don’t find a new girlfriend while I’m gone.”
He tugged her against him again, feeling happier than he could ever remember being. “No one could ever replace you. Do you know where it is? You have to go out of the ballroom and down the hall. Want me to walk you there?”
“No. I want you to dance with your mom. I know where it is. I saw it on our way in.”
“Okay. Don’t take too long.” Despite her fancy dress and the formalness of the event, he gave her butt a pat, and she walked away smiling.
Dean approached his mother and extended his hand. “May I have this dance?”
“Thank you.” His mother placed her delicate hand in his.
She moved gracefully in his arms. “I forgot how well you danced.”
“I used to go dancing quite often with your father,” she said, smiling.
“Before Grandpa died.”
“Yes, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.” She was quiet for a moment before saying, “I like Emery. She’s got spunk.”
“That she does.”
“You look at her like you can’t breathe without her,” she said with the intuitive tone he remembered from his youth.
“Do I?” He knew he did, but this wasn’t a conversation he’d been prepared for, even if he liked knowing she’d noticed.
“She’s good for you. I can tell.” She glanced at his serious-faced father, who was still deep in conversation with the two other men. “But she’ll try your father’s patience, and we all know he’ll try hers.” Bringing her attention back to Dean, her expression turned serious. “Don’t let that dissuade you. Follow your heart, baby. It’ll never lead you astray.”
He couldn’t imagine letting his father dissuade him from anything, other than further confirming that he did not belong in the medical field.
After their dance, two of his mother’s closest friends, Elsa Longhorn and Aimee LaRue, the wives of his father’s business partners, appeared by her side.
“Dean, it’s so wonderful to see you,” Elsa said.
He hugged her briefly. Elsa had always been good to him, and unlike his father, she understood that he and Diana were simply not meant to be together.
“It’s nice to see you, too.” Having practically grown up with these women, Dean also embraced Aimee. “You ladies look beautiful tonight.”
“You are a charmer,” Elsa said. “And Diana tells me your date is as lovely in person as she looks.”
Dean looked in the direction of the ladies’ room, missing Emery already. “She is. Thank you. How is Diana?”
“She’s doing well,” Elsa said thoughtfully. “She had to leave early. Harvey, her new boyfriend, is an up-and-coming obstetrician, and you know how that goes. When the babies are ready to enter the world, they’ll wait for nothing.”
The women spirited away his mother, who left him with a kiss, a pat on the cheek, and a promise to call him in the coming days. Dean gazed out the windows into the darkness. He was glad his mother had close friends, and he wondered if she was happy.
He caught sight of his father’s reflection in the glass as he stepped up beside him. The muscles in Dean’s neck pulled tight as he turned to face the man who had once left their family, and had returned a loving, attentive father. He wondered where that man had gone. As he studied his father’s face, noticing crevices etched across his forehead, the loosened jowls that came with age, and his ever-sharp blue eyes, Dean wished he knew what had changed when he’d gone away to college and they’d lost his grandfather. How many stars had to have misaligned for his father to have turned into a bitter, angry man—the very reflection of Dean’s grandfather, whom his father more often than not had abhorred.
“I think tonight’s event has gone well, don’t you?” His father sipped his drink and slid one hand into his trouser pocket, his steady gaze holding Dean’s.
Dean nodded, struggling to quell the familiar battle waging inside of him. He wanted to walk away and never look back as badly as he wanted to tell his father exactly what he really thought of him. But respect and loyalty went a long way, and normally Dean was careful not to do or say anything that could cause a rift big enough to hurt his mother. Jett had taken care of that all on his own. But tonight Dean had been chewing on the way his father had mistreated Emery, and he wasn’t about to let that go.
“I do think the event has gone rather well. But in the future, please treat Emery with the same level of respect you expect from others.”
His father’s glass stopped halfway to his mouth. He lowered it slowly, his brows lifting slightly. “You sure you want to do this now?”
Dean drew his shoulders back. “It seems appropriate, given that you practically laughed at her career. She’s a brilliant, kind woman, and more importantly, she’smygirlfriend.”
A long, drawn-out sigh left his father’s lips. He glanced out the window, the extended silence clawing at Dean’s nerves. His fingers curled and flexed as his father slowly brought his attention back to him.
