"In the years before you cut back, were you focused on the nitty-gritty? Like financials and insurance?"
His father waved a hand. "That always was your uncle Russ's forte, not mine. In time it'll go to J.T. I preferred the hands-on dealings and once I slowed down there, I focused more on golf." He smiled at his words and swallowed a gulp of his drink. He regarded his son and his expression sobered. "What's going on, Ryan?"
As succinctly as possible, Ryan began to explain everything he'd discovered about Uncle Russ.
"Impossible," Mark said.
"Unfortunately, it's true," Uncle Russ said as he entered the room and joined them. "I wanted to be here when you heard everything, and I assumed Ryan would tell you tonight."
"I can't believe you sent my daughter away. That you made money off of our family's tragedy and our business." Mark raised his voice to his brother in a way Ryan hadn't heard in years.
"It was a long time ago," Ryan said to his father, expressing some of the things he'd come to terms with over the last week. "And I do believe Uncle Russ thought he was bailing Faith out."
"You're defending him?" Mark yelled.
Uncle Russ placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Don't. You'll wake the women." He turned to Ryan. "But that's a good question. Why are you defending me?"
Ryan drew a deep breath. "You've always been there for me. I can't forget that. Plus I know you, and I have a hard time believing your intentions were all bad. I'm not saying I'm over it or that it won't take time to rebuild trust, but…" He shrugged. "Life's too short to waste time hating or holding grudges. Faith taught me that."
His uncle extended his hand and Ryan took it, going so far as to pull him closer and pat him on the back.
"I'll leave it to the two of you to deal with the business and the past," Ryan said to his father and his uncle and started for the door. He hadn't been involved in the family business before and he wasn't about to start now.
"Ryan?" his uncle called to him.
He glanced over his shoulder. "Yes?"
"I suggest you attend to your future."
Ryan didn't need to ask his uncle what he meant.
Chapter Fifteen
ZOE LET HERSELF into her parents' house around 3:00 a.m. and quietly placed her keys on the console by the front door. She slipped off her shoes so she wouldn't wake anyone and silently headed toward the stairs.
"Did you ever hear the expression, too busy to think?"
At the sound of an unexpected voice, Zoe jerked around and shrieked aloud. "Mom! Jeez, I didn't expect anyone to be up at this hour. You scared me to death." She placed her hand over her rapidly beating heart.
"What were you doing out so late?" Elena asked, rising from the couch. She stepped forward, nearly tripping on her kimono before catching herself and hiking up the sides of the flowing garment with her hands.
Zoe shook her head, but knew better than to comment on Elena's clothing. "Why don't you sit, Mom?"
Elena complied.
"I was working covering security at a show tonight." Zoe's company, now officially named All-Hours Security Specialists, was up and running and doing extremely well for a fledgling business. "Since when do you keep tabs on me?" Zoe joined her mother on the couch and settled in beside her.
"I just worry about you."
Zoe leaned her head on her mom's shoulders as if she were a little girl again. "And I love that you care." She curled her legs beneath her, allowing exhaustion to take over. "But you know I work long hours and you know not to worry. So why wait up for me now?"
She stroked Zoe's hair with gentle hands. "Because your heart is hurting. That's what I'm so concerned about."
Zoe shook her head, her denial automatic. But she knew she was lying. She'd been home from Boston for two weeks and she hadn't been able to forget anything about Ryan and their time together. She remembered what his lips felt like kissing hers and how his very presence reached her on a deep, intimate level.
"Baah. You miss him." Her mother had always been able to read her well.
She could no longer lie to herself, nor did she want to. "Of course I do, but that doesn't make us right for each other." She bit down on the inside of her cheek, but her words were even more painful.
"What does this right for each other mean?" her mother asked, all the while running her hand over her daughter's hair with soothing strokes. "Do you love him?"
Zoe forced a nod. "But that doesn't change that we live miles apart or that our backgrounds are completely opposite."
"So? Does he eat with his hands or does he use a fork?"
Zoe laughed. "Too many forks, actually. Mom— "
"Does he respect your feelings and who you are as an individual?"
Zoe nodded, knowing her mother would feel her reply even if she couldn't put it to words.
"Has he tried to change you?" Elena pushed on.
"No," she whispered, her words making a mockery and a lie of everything she feared.
"I see," her mother said. "You are right to distrust him and think things won't work. Ryan Baldwin is an awful, awful man."
"Mom!" Zoe said, laughing once more. Her mother knew just how to twist a point in order to make her own, and she'd just cornered Zoe with her own words.
And Elena wasn't finished yet. "On top of everything, you're willing to trust him with our Samantha." She paused on purpose. "And yet you refuse to trust him with your own heart. Why not, my beautiful daughter?"
Zoe sighed and closed her eyes. How could she explain her deepest fears? "Ryan may act one way now, he may promise all the right things and say he loves all my 'unique' qualities. He may even believe all these things, but eventually we'd clash on issues. Important issues."
Her mother waved her hand dismissively. "All married couples argue. After all, common wisdom says opposites attract, no?"
"Opposites divorce, too," Zoe reminded her.
"Baah. You're grasping at reasons to run away from him because you're scared."
"Of?" Zoe asked, affronted her mother would think such a thing.
"Of love." Her mother's voice dropped, her sadness and disappointment obvious. "Didn't your father and I set a good example?" she asked.
Zoe swallowed hard, reaching for Elena's hand and holding on tight. "Of course you and Dad set the best example, but you're both so…so…intense."
There was that word again, Zoe thought. Intense. Extreme. She on one end of the spectrum, Ryan on the other, only their passion uniting them.