Page 49 of Denying Davis
And then it hit me. I was more than sorry. I was mortified. I was twenty-six and that man made me feel as though I was a common whore who tricked his grandson into sleeping with him.
What is his deal?
Maybe Senior and Junior were cut from the same judgmental, arrogant cloth. I wanted to be anywhere else in the world but there. I glanced at Mr. Armstrong, who stood a few dozen feet behind Davis with his arms crossed and a stony, blank expression across his face.
“I’ll sort this out and talk to you later, okay? Please don’t let him upset you.”
“Upset me? Davis, you’re kidding, aren’t you?”
“He doesn’t understand—”
“Understand what?”Because I’m completely lost here.
“He doesn’t get it. He really doesn’t.” Davis shook his head a little. “But I’m going to make him understand. I promise.”
“Understand what, exactly?” Then a realization twisted my stomach. “You didn’t officially nullify the contract my mom signed with him, did you? It’s still intact, isn’t it?”
His face fell. “It is.”
I studied his grandfather, who stared right back at us, waiting for me to leave. “I knew it,” I said with the heaviness of realization. “I knew it.”
“No wait, please.” Davis kept his tone quiet but gestured in the space between us. “Let me fix this. I can. I will. Don’t let this affect what we have.”
“And what’s that?”
“Something new. Something I want to hold on to.” He glanced at his grandfather then back at me. “I should have told him about this. About you. I made a mistake, and I know that.”
Yes, you did.
“I need to go.”
“I’m going to fix this,” he pleaded. “I promise.”
I wavered for a second, considering the implication of his words. Yes, he sounded sincere. He looked it too. But then I thought about my mom again. “I have to go, Davis.”
I also knew I wouldn’t cash the check. It wasn’t my style. And after the night we’d shared, I didn’t want to take the money. I didn’t want to be indebted to him. It didn’t feel right and would complicate things far too much. Instead of elaborating on that point, I unlocked my car door.
“Maybe I’ll see you later, Davis,” I finally managed.
“Yes, you will,” he replied.
I was never more uncertain of anything in my life.
In many ways, this woman was out of my league, and she couldn’t have picked a better way to show it. She was more than I deserved, and moments after she drove out of the driveway, I turned to my grandfather, determined to convey that to him.
“There’s no excuse for the way that you treated her. No excuse for just barging into the bungalow like that. I don’t care what youthinkyou know,” I said, finally letting some of the anger I’d felt build inside me unleash. I was seething. Screw breeding. Propriety. How my grandfather wanted me to act. This was Sam we were talking about, not some plastic princess I’d just met off the street. “That was bullshit. Plain and simple.”
“Watch your language,” he replied. “You’re on very shaky ground, even if you don’t know it.”
“I don’t see how. You’re the one who should be apologizing, not me.”
“Shortsightedness.” My grandfather let out a heave of exasperation. “That’s your biggest problem. You’re so blinded by your…lust, you can’t see the truth.”
“What in the world are you talking about?”
He sighed again. “Gregory, if you don’t mind excusing us for a moment, I’d like to talk to my grandson alone.”
“Of course,” Gregory murmured. “I’ll be in the main house if you need anything.” My grandfather’s longtime attorney gave us both a curt nod and walked away toward the main house.
