Rene leaned over and kissed her. “I will tell you everything over dinner. Let me take my lovely ladies home. It’s been a long day.”
She wasn’t going to tell him about the rumors about his mom, but she wasn’t going to hide the fact that Charles had made a play. “It has. Charles is heading to the cabin tonight. I know that because he was waiting downstairs for me.”
Rene’s eyes went wide. “What did he do?”
“He offered me a hundred grand to divorce you.”
Rene seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “He’s not very smart. And he doesn’t know you at all. He should have brought you a puppy.”
She leaned into the hug he gave her. “You are much better at knowing what I want.”
His arms wrapped around her and he kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry he bothered you. I’ll make it up to you, though.”
She could bet exactly how he would do it.
chapter ten
One week later, Sylvie looked down at the massive heap of shopping bags that covered much of the floor of her bedroom.
Not that she slept in it anymore. No. She slept with Rene because he carried her to bed every single night. They had a nightcap, and then Rene hauled her into his arms and walked up to his big bed. He told her over and over again how much he wanted her.
She’d gone to Lila LaVigne’s clinic to get a prescription for birth control pills simply because she was worried Rene was going to go through every condom in Papillon, and then they would have to have a town hall, and she was not doing that.
“What do you think, Lady? Did your dad go completely overboard or what?” She put a hand on Lady’s head, the dog’s tail thumping on her bed. She hadn’t managed to find the time to go on her promised epic shopping trip. The storm had caused an enormous amount of work over the last week. Coupled with the meetings she already had in place, she’d found little time to do anything but work and eat and sleep. “How am I supposed to wear all these clothes?”
“I think Rene would call it covering all his bases,” a familiar voice said from the doorway.
Her mother-in-law stood there, looking at her with indulgent amusement on her face. Cricket wore a pretty pantsuit, her hair in a chic silver bob. She carried her purse, a small Birkin that likely cost what a lot of people in Papillon made in a year.
But then Sylvie was fairly certain once she opened the contents of all those bags, she would have enough designer wear to support a small country.
“He wants me to look good for the party.” Aunt Roberta would be here in Papillon soon, and Sylvie would have work to do. The upcoming celebrations and the board meeting that would take place at the end of the week were exactly what she’d been brought in to handle. Not handle, exactly. She was supposed to smile and assure everyone that their marriage was real.
It was starting to feel very real.
Cricket set her bag down and walked into the room. “No. He thinks you always look good. He’s trying to make sure you’ve got a bit of armor to deal with his relatives.”
The way she worded that struck Sylvie. “His relatives? Not yours?”
Cricket’s face lit up when Lady jumped off the bed and went straight for her. She knelt down and picked the puppy up, drawing her close with maternal affection before moving to the small sofa and settling in. “They are not my blood. Now, don’t think that blood is the only thing important in families, but most of the members of the Darois family believe in blood. By their reckoning, my family is in Dallas and Colorado. And I’m going to be honest, with the exception of some of the younger cousins, I don’t want any of them. But this little girl, oh, she can be a part of my family. Yes, she can. How is she doing with the medication?”
In the week since Rene had brought Lady home, Sylvie had spent time learning about the dog’s heart condition. It was easily treatable with diet and medication—both expensive, but not when one could swim in Scrooge McDuck–style pools of cash the way the Darois family could. “Her bloodwork was fine. The vet is thrilled with her progress. We have to watch her weight and bring her in for regular checkups.”
It was amazing the things money could cure. It might not equal love, but for Lady it meant she got to live a healthy life.
“I’m happy to hear that, and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to see Rene taking such an interest in her. When he told me what he’d done, I thought he would leave her to you most of the time. You or me. Now he’s got that dog with him every time he’s home. I caught him trying to teach her how to come down the stairs. He was flat on his belly with a scared dog.” She breathed what almost felt like a sigh of relief. “He’s going to be a good father someday.”
“You sound surprised.”
Cricket’s head shook. “No. No, of course not. His father was a good daddy, but he wasn’t as affectionate as I wish he’d been. He pushed Rene hard, and I will be honest, I worried that would affect how he viewed parenting. I worried he might not want children of his own.”
“That is not the problem.” She knew she was wading into deep waters, waters she should likely try to keep placid. But she’d been stewing for days on what Charles had told her about Cricket and Ross Darois. She hadn’t flat out asked Rene if he knew because she rather thought he did. Rene tended to know everything, and if he wasn’t ready to tell her that particular secret, then she could wait.
But there was the added problem of Louis, and that situation was getting more and more tense. He’d come for dinner two nights before, and there had been something quiet and watchful about Rene. He’d cut the evening off early, saying his mother needed rest. Cricket had argued, but when Rene pressed, she’d agreed and Louis had backed off.
The next morning Cricket had been her smiling self, but Sylvie didn’t buy it. There was a slight awkwardness between mother and son now.
“Do you want them? Children, I mean?” Cricket asked, her voice as nonchalant as the words that formed the question were serious.
“I do, but I definitely worry about what expectations will be on my kids.” It was a good way to start a conversation she needed to have. Maybe if she got Cricket’s perspective, she would be able to more easily speak to her husband about the situation. “Rene talks a lot about how he always knew he would have to take over the company.”
“Yes, he always knew he would have a job. He never had to worry about his financial security.”
“He also never had the chance to explore what he might have wanted to do with his life.”
“That’s the exchange, isn’t it?” Cricket gestured around the room. “Security and comfort versus freedom. There isn’t another word for it, is there? Rene did not have the freedom to truly find out what he wanted to do with his life. But he always seemed to look up to his father. He seemed to enjoy the responsibilities, until later on. I think it was a combination of things that happened that made his life feel like a cage. I often wonder if it would have been easier on him if Ross and I had been able to have more children.”