Page 12 of Payback
“I’m glad you came.”
I haven’t yet.She bit back the words, but the ones that popped out were nearly as bad. “I broke up with him.”
“You did?” He stepped in front of her, his eyes searching her face. “Why?”
“It was time.” She could tell Loran it wasn’t because of him, but she was a terrible liar. “The relationship had run its course, I guess.”
“It was doomed from the start, you know.”
She stepped around him, needing a little space to re-group. “What’s a girl gotta do to get a drink around here?”
He chuckled. “I’ve got a bottle of your favorite Chardonnay chilling. How does that sound?”
“Perfect.” This wasn’t like a first date. He knew her, what she liked and didn’t like. Her hot buttons. What to say to make her mad… or give up the fight. “Thanks.”
She followed him from the hallway, past the formal dining room to a kitchen at the rear of the house, just off the family room. “I love the reclaimed brick walls,” she said, admiring them in the kitchen and family room. “Was that you?”
“It was all me.” He opened the bottle of wine and poured a glass for her before reaching back into the fridge and extracting a beer for himself. “I’m afraid this place had fallen into disrepair when I bought it. The lady who lived here was ninety-four. She and her husband bought it the year they married, almost seventy years ago. When she lost him…” He handed her the glass while his eyes locked with hers. “She let it go.”
“I can understand that.”
“Can you?” He tipped his head while he studied her. “Can you imagine loving someone so much your will to live dies right along with them?”
It felt like a trick question. Of course she could imagine loving someone that much, but if she admitted as much he would only push her harder. “It would be hard for either of my parents to go on without each other.” She was deflecting and he let her as he followed her into the family room.
She sat down on the arm of one of two sienna leather sofas facing each other. Her gaze drifted to the heavy wood mantle fastened to the natural stone fireplace. There was half a dozen pictures of Loran with family and friends, but the one that held her attention was a photo of him with a woman who was clearly his mother.
“I never would have pegged you for a mama’s boy.”
He grinned as he sat down on the sofa she occupied. “I’d do anything for her and she knows it.”
It was hard for her to reconcile the skirt-chasing partier she knew him to be with a man who loved his mama as much as he claimed to. He’d spoken of her before, of course, but seeing a photo of them together, with Loran looking down into her smiling face as the camera captured a candid moment between them made it obvious.
“They say you can tell a lot about a man by the way he treats his mother.”
She watched him over the rim of her glass, wondering whether he’d try to impress her with stories about what a wonderful son he’d been since signing his multi-million dollar contract.
“I owe her everything. When my parents divorced she was our rock. My dad didn’t want any more to do with us, so she was stuck raising us by herself.”
“Can’t have been easy,” she said, wishing he wasn’t so hard to resist.
“It wasn’t.” He eased back on the sofa and glanced at the framed photos. “By then I was already obsessed with the idea of making it to the big leagues. It would have been easy for her to tell me that dream died when my dad walked out, but she didn’t.”
“No?” Bella knew it was dangerous, allowing herself to see him in this light, but she couldn’t help wanting to know more about him.
“No, she busted her ass to make it happen for me. It wasn’t easy. She had to work two jobs, but she still managed to get me to my games, camps, all the travel…” He shook his head. “I don’t know how she did it, but she never let me down.”
“Not like your dad did?” she said gently, knowing it must be a sore subject. He’d once told her his parents were divorced, but never went into detail about their split.
“My dad was always selfish.” He took a long pull from his beer. “I shouldn’t have been surprised when he walked out on us.”
“But you were?”
“I was surprised he wanted nothing more to do with us, sure. What kind of father cuts his kids out of his life? That’s messed up.” He looked up at her, his dark eyes filling with emotion. “Don’t you think?”
She wanted to wrap her arms around him, to stroke his hair, to tell him that had been his father’s loss. Instead she nodded, fighting back the anguish she felt on his behalf. “I do.”
“Makes me want to be a better father.” He cleared his throat. “When the time comes.”
