I smiled. “They’re in my office.”
Another pause. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Lydia knew that. She made it seem like she knew there was more to the story than I did. So, I don’t think she’d be all that surprised once we admit we’re doing this.”
“Because I kept your artwork?”
She turned her head slightly toward me, an amused smile on her face. “Well, they were pretty bad. I know my mother threw some of them out over the years.”
In Elizabeth’s defense, there wasn’t a lot of room left anywhere. She needed to make some room for the new pieces Della gifted her parents. “I kept them because they made me happy. Even if I didn’t know what the hell they were supposed to be half the time. I’d gone through a lot of rough patches that you helped me get through back then. Imagine what we’ll get through now.”
“All because of my pictures?” The disbelief in her tone was limited, awe taking over the faint inquiry.
“All because of you,” I answered honestly. She wiggled closer and picked at her food again, picking up a piece of bacon and, as I knew she would, threw it to the dog. “Wish you’d stop doing that.”
“I wish you’d stop telling me that like it’ll change. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you feeding him scraps when you think I’m not looking.”
Grinning, I pecked her cheek. “The damn dog is spoiled.”
All she did was hum out a reply and continue eating, until every piece was gone while I peppered kisses over the back of her head, her temple, her jaw, anywhere I could reach.
Eventually, she asked, “What happened the night you came here and kissed me for the first time? You said you were angry with somebody my father knew.”
I hadn’t thought about that in a while because I’d had the real thing right in front of me. I didn’t need to jack off to thoughts of that night like I had too many times to count. “It was shortly after the first time Richard Pratt had come to my office and started insisting we become partners. Interactive Marketing was doing well. We’d gotten new investors after a few others had dropped when the scandal made the news. Pratt made it sound like he could make others drop, which would have been a huge financial loss for IM and me.
“I started drinking in my office after Abigail left for the day. Drank myself stupid, honestly, letting that jackass’s words get to me. I believed him. And, after a while, people were pulling away from IM with their money. Looking back now, it wouldn’t surprise me if Pratt told them to. Gave them money in order to take the loss that partnering with me meant. He wanted in to do God knows what. It wasn’t like I had big operations like some of the other businesses he took control of.”
“And you came to me?”
I wanted to ask, where else would I go? I didn’t though. “Yeah, sweetheart, I came to you. Even then I knew what I wanted but told myself I didn’t deserve it. Convinced myself the world would be against us because it wasn’t right I claimed you when you and your father were going through hell. It wasn’t the right time.”
She shook her head. “Would it have ever been? If my father didn’t…if he hadn’t been killed, would you have even done anything with me? You always fought it.”
“I wanted to believe there was somebody better out there for you,” I admitted, sighing over how much time I’d lost by being an ass. Whenever I got pissed at the idea of Della falling for somebody, I told myself I had no right. It didn’t stop me from turning green and smoking, drinking, or trying to fuck it out. But I didn’t want another woman. I’d wanted Della.
“I don’t want anyone else, Theo.”
“I know that.” I kissed her cheek. “I’m glad. Probably wouldn’t end well. I’d chase them off like that asshole who kept asking you to study for that history class you took last year. The douchebag with the dyed hair.”
She gasped. “Ray? I thought he stood me up when I finally agreed to meet with him at the Hut!”
I knew she did. She’d called me complaining and I offered to hang out with her to get her mind off it. I’d bought her favorite drink from a local café, ordered us dinner, and told her we could watch whatever she wanted.
I hadn’t felt bad at all.
“You kind of suck, Theo.” She didn’t sound upset, more amused than anything. “Ray. Huh. I wasn’t going out with him. I was helping him study.”
I eyed her. “That wasn’t what he wanted, and I knew it. Couldn’t let him try making a move. And don’t get me started on Pretty Boy. Watching him flirt with you makes me want to vomit and throat punch him.”
Now she was laughing. “Ren knows I’m not interested, and he isn’t into me. We’re friends and nothing will ever change that.”
I hugged her into me. “I wouldn’t ask you to change that. Nobody that truly loves you would ask you to stop being part of other people’s lives for them.”
She was quiet for a moment. “I know.”
“I know you do.”
I knew where Sophie was from the strong scent of her expensive perfume that drifted from the parlor. She was talking with somebody on the phone when she saw me, her brows lifting when I stopped at the doorway.
She hung up a moment later, dropping the phone onto a small plant table. “You’re the last person I expect to see in my home, especially when Adele isn’t here.”
“You know—” I walked toward the window that overlooked the extensive garden I knew she didn’t keep up herself, “—she prefers being called Della. Don’t you think it’s time you started calling her that?”
“Her name is Adele. Why on earth would I call her something different? Especially something as childish as Della.”
Patience, I reminded myself. “She’s meeting with a professor of hers. Figured now would be a good time to talk.”
Sophie sat at her usual spot by the opposite window that rested beside her pianoforte. For somebody who pushed Della so hard to learn, she never played herself. I knew she could, had seen it a time or two, but all it did was collect dust. “I don’t see what we could possibly have to talk about.”
That amused me. “Take your pick. It could be about the ten thousand dollars you offered Nicholas McAllister to make the article disappear and get the hell out of the city before Richard Pratt could turn on him, or it could be about the money you threw around different law agencies that your husband wasn’t associated with in case things got bad in the media. I’m sure he loved that when word got back to him.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” was her defense instantly. Not that I expected any different.
“Luckily for you, I don’t give a fuck what you do with your money. Or, in this case, your husband’s money. Have at it. I’m here to talk to you about Della.”
She straightened. “What about her?” Her eyes studied mine a little too carefully as I walked from the window to the seat across from her. Something clouded her vision. “Jesus. You finally did it, didn’t you?”
“Excuse me?”
Sophie pulled a cigarette out of a box that she’d always kept in the crevice of the seat cushion, using the lighter from the small table beside her and lighting it up. “Lydia always told me there’d come a day when you went through with it. I told her that she was crazy. There was no way you’d do such an idiotic thing as go after your only true friend’s daughter. Especially with the age difference and circumstance.”