Page 19 of The House on Prytania
He leaned toward me with serious eyes. “Give it your best shot. Whatever it takes to make you understand that I am truly sorry.”
“Sorry?” My voice rose. My first impulse was to give him what he was asking for, which reassured me that I still clung to at least a bit of self-respect.
He sat up, his palms facing me in a gesture of surrender. “I know. It’s a pathetic word. Not even barely adequate to describe how I feel.”
“Then why did you do it?” I wasn’t sure if that played into the game set up by Sunny and Sam, but I didn’t really care. If I was being forced to head down the path of revenge, I had to get something out of it just for myself. Like an answer.
He took a deep breath, as if trying to figure out where to start,and when he did start, his words surprised me. “You come from a nice, normal family.”
I wanted to interrupt to explain that there was nothing normal about a stepmother who could speak to the dead, but I needed him to continue.
“I don’t,” he said. “I mean, what sort of parents suddenly take off to the other side of the world and leave behind their kids to be raised by relatives? That’s not normal. I’ve seen them about five times in the last two decades, and only because they needed to sign some paperwork for the company or negotiate for more supplies for whatever part of the world they were headed for next.”
A snowy egret landed on the edge of the fountain and we watched its yellow feet goose-step around the perimeter, the bird ignoring us. I felt a moment of envy at its confidence.
He looked down at his hands again. “My great-grandfather Antoine Broussard passed down the story of how my grandaunt Jeanne had been murdered by Beau’s grandfather, Charles Ryan.” He held up his hand when he heard my intake of breath. “I now know that’s not true. I think my uncle truly believed it, which made it easier for me to go along with whatever he wanted me to do. And after I met you, it smoothed away some of the guilt I’d begun to feel.”
“So why didn’t you tell me when you realized what was going on?”
“Because I’m a jerk. Because my family...” He paused, then started again. “Since I last saw you, I’ve been doing research. About my great-grandfather Antoine. About some of the things he was rumored to have been involved in. Most of them are true. He was a really bad guy whose influence is still felt not only in the business he started, but also in my family.”
“Well, that’s one thing we can agree upon. So, why are you here? You said you’d stopped running in the park.”
“I did.” He looked down at his hands, now clasped between his knees. “But I wanted to see you. I’ve missed you. Even if you wouldn’t talk to me, I wanted to at least see you. To try to explain my actions. To make you understand my family.”
“So you know that Antoine killed his own daughter.”
He looked at me with surprise. “I only suspected. But you knew?”
“Let’s just say that Beau and I learned a lot about your family while trying to figure out who kept on breaking into my house.”
Michael had the decency to look chagrined. “I was told that my job was only to gain access, not to ask questions. I know how lame this sounds, but I only did what I was told.”
My phone buzzed in my hand, and I looked down at it to see another text from Beau.Well?
“Do you think we could...” Michael shrugged. “I don’t know—have dinner?”
When I didn’t respond, he said, “Well, that’s a relief. I was afraid you’d scream and run away.”
“I still might. Why do you think we should have dinner?”
“To talk. Maybe start over?”
At my look of incredulity, he rushed to explain. “I mean as friends. I don’t think that even you can deny that we have a connection. We were drawn to each other because we were both abandoned by our parents. The circumstances were different, but we wear similar bruises. And I really like you, Nola. A lot. And I thought you liked me, too. Despite everything, I was hoping there was still that.”
He looked at me expectantly. I held my breath so I wouldn’t say every vile thing I’d been calling him in my head ever since I’d discovered his duplicity. Because even now, I couldn’t completely erase the feelings I’d had for him. And that was why contemplating going out with him should have been an easynobut wasn’t. But, as I’d discovered the hard way over the last eight years, nothing was ever easy. Even revenge.
Michael tentatively took my hand, and when I didn’t pull back, he squeezed it. “I thought we could talk about what happened. Not to excuse what I did, but maybe so I could explain it in a way you could understand.”
I stared down at our clasped hands so he couldn’t look behind my eyes and see my head and heart playing keep-away with my conscience.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, and that I don’t deserve five minutes in your company, but I had to try. The worst you can say is no, right?”
I lifted my eyes, and he gave me the devastating grin that had once loosened my bones. “Actually, there are a lot of worse things I could say to you right now, but all of them would make me want to wash my mouth out with soap.” My phone buzzed in my hand again, but I didn’t look, knowing it was Beau, repeating his question.
Michael looked at me hopefully. “Then how about dinner this weekend? Do you like Commander’s?”
It was a rhetorical question. Everyone liked the iconic restaurant, but very few could get last-minute reservations. I pulled my hand away and stood. “I’ve got to go.”
