IT ONLY TOOK two hours to come up with a story. Byron could thank Yolanda for that. She kept them on task and cut short any potential nuclear meltdowns between Zoe and his father. He had to give her credit. She was great when it came to figuring out a plan and avoiding distractions. That was one of the reasons he’d known they’d be great together. She took his abstract ideas and helped form them into a coherent plan. He should be bursting with pride and confidence about the future they’d build.
Except you almost kissed Zoe.
He hadn’t been able to get that thought out of his mind. Not only had he almost kissed her, he’d spilled his feelings like he’d swallowed some truth serum, too. He couldn’t believe he’d done that! He could barely look Zoe in the eye. The last thing he needed on top of everything else was for Zoe to think he wanted to sleep with her. Doing anything with Zoe would complicate the situation. He’d promised Yolanda there was nothing to worry about between him and Zoe. His life already a jumble of complications, he didn’t need to add anything more.
“Why don’t we take a break,” Yolanda said. “I’m getting hungry, and I’m sure Zoe is tired after driving all the way to Jackson Falls this morning.”
They’d just come to a truce of sorts. The story they told would be a version of the truth. Zoe and Byron had been young and in love. Byron asked Zoe to marry him, but she’d believed they were too young. After she’d left, she found out she was pregnant and chose not to tell Byron so he wouldn’t feel obligated to marry her. Now someone had found out the truth and tried to blackmail Byron for something he didn’t know. Close enough so they didn’t have to remember too many parts and not bad enough to make everyone hate Zoe. They just had to wait for Zoe to talk things over with Lilah and agree to the plan.
“I could get out of here for a few minutes,” Zoe said, her voice tired.
Guilt ran through Byron. This meeting could have waited. He shouldn’t have gone immediately from her arrival to this. “I’ll order food. Zoe, Feel free to walk the grounds. If you want to rest, I can have one of the guest bedrooms ready for you.”
She shook her head. “Walking the grounds for a few minutes will do me some good.”
Yolanda stood. “I’ll go with you, so you won’t get lost.”
Byron stiffened, but stopped himself from disagreeing. He’d been about to offer to show Zoe around. Yolanda taking her was better. He’d already proven being alone with Zoe wasn’t the smartest thing for him to do. Yolanda, as intuitive as she was, may have picked up on that.
Dominic agreed to pick up whatever food Byron ordered. Roy cut out to handle phone calls. Byron asked Grant to stay behind. Their earlier conversation wasn’t over.
“I suppose you asked me to stick around so you can tell me how horrible of a father I am for sending Zoe away all those years ago,” Grant said, sounding bored.
Grant walked over to the drink tray and poured whiskey into two glasses. He held up one glass in Byron’s direction. Byron walked over and took the glass.
“I don’t think you’re a terrible father,” Byron said, not bothering to hide his annoyance. “I do believe you’re so busy thinking you know what’s best for everyone in the family that you don’t stop to think all the consequences through.”
Grant took a sip of his drink. “I thought through the consequences. I figured one day if you found out I’d tell you the same thing I would have told you back then. Zoe is a nice girl—”
“Woman.”
Grant sighed. “Nice woman, but she isn’t the woman for you. I get the appeal. You’ve always wanted to do what’s right and she was in a bad situation. That can cloud your judgment and make you overlook a lot of other things.”
“Other things like what?” Byron asked in a tight voice.
Grant shifted his stance and stood straight. “Things like the fact that she never chose you. She was with someone else. Got pregnant by someone else. Was in love with someone else. It didn’t matter how much of an asshole that man might be. She chose him. Not you.”
Byron’s jaw stiffened. Grant was good at using the truth to gut someone like a fish. A truth Byron couldn’t deny.
Grant continued in his direct tone. “If she would have wanted you, then she would have left him for you or accepted your foolish proposal instead of letting me and your mom convince her to leave. Get mad at me all you want, but that doesn’t make anything I said less true. It’s why I never thought she was good enough for you.” He grabbed Byron’s shoulder. “You’re a Robidoux. My son. You didn’t have to settle for being her second best.”
Byron pulled away and downed the whiskey in the glass. The smooth alcohol masked the burn of bitterness caused by his father’s words. As much as he might want to argue or bring up all the things that made the situation between him and Zoe different—the way they used to talk late in the night, how they paired well together on projects, the many times they flirted with just enough truth in their voices to hint of what could be—none of that changed the fact that after each of those encounters she went back to Kendell.
“You should have trusted me.” Byron searched for lingering anger with his parents’ intervention, but only found resentment for the foolish kid he’d been.
“We trusted you to act like a young man who thought he was in love would act.”
“Whose idea was it to send Zoe away? Yours or Mom’s?”
Grant lifted the glass to his lips. He took a small sip, his brows knitting together, his eyes avoiding Byron’s. “Mine.”
Byron closed his eyes and shook his head. “You’re lying.”
“I don’t have a reason to lie to you.”
“If you weren’t lying, you’d look me in the eye with your admission. It was Mom’s idea, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t want you to think badly about your mother,” Grant said sincerely. “She was a great woman. All she ever wanted was to give you kids a better life.”
“Did she pay Zoe to go away?” Byron asked hesitantly.
Byron knew his mother had been a great woman, but he also knew she’d been just as stubborn and ruthless as Grant. She’d taught him the importance of giving back to the community, how a charming personality got a lot more than an arrogant one, and how to cut your enemies with a touch so soft they didn’t realize how far you’d sliced until they bled out on the floor. She’d been beautiful, bold and brilliant, which meant she wouldn’t have hesitated to write a check to make Zoe disappear.
“She tried,” Grant admitted. “Zoe refused the money.”
The knot in Byron’s chest eased. He’d never thought Zoe had been interested in his family’s wealth. If anything, she’d seemed to accept his being rich as just another character trait and not something extraordinary. As if his having money was no different than someone else liking cereal for breakfast.
Byron pulled his thoughts from the past and met his dad’s eyes. He looked up to Grant more than anyone else in the world. Unlike his older sister Elaina, he didn’t want to fight their dad on everything, nor did he believe their dad was on a mission to run their lives the way India believed. Byron accepted his father for who he was: a smart businessman who would do anything to protect his company and family legacy. He wanted his dad to be proud of him.
“You don’t think I should go through with this, do you?” he asked.
Grant took another sip of his drink. “No. I don’t.”
“You aren’t fighting very hard to talk me out of it.”
“That’s because I don’t think I would be able to talk you out of it. That girl does something to you. I don’t like it, but hell, I know a little bit about not being able to get the wrong woman out of your system,” Grant said wryly.
Byron quirked a brow. His dad was currently engaged to his longtime mistress. As hard as it had been for Byron to accept the woman who’d taken his mother’s place years before she’d passed away—as hard as it still was—Byron hadn’t seen his father this happy in years. He considered pouring more whiskey but put the glass down instead. He needed a clear head from now until the end of the campaign.
“She’s not in my system. I promised to help her. Not helping her now could put her in danger.”
“Could.” Grant pointed a finger at Byron. “Not will. There are no guarantees. Things might have seemed bad years ago, but I promise you if that boy she used to date has spent thirteen years in prison he’s probably moved on from the girl who cheated on him in college.”
Byron shook his head and scoffed. “He’s had nothing but thirteen years to think about it.”
“Nonsense. He moved on just like you did. But if you want to help her, and if the public for some strange reason buys this misguided young love story you’ve concocted, then having a kid in the campaign might be a good thing.”
Byron heard the calculation in his dad’s voice. Already Grant was thinking of ways to spin this situation to their benefit. “We’re not using Lilah in the campaign.”
“The hell we aren’t. You dragged Zoe up here, you’re claiming Lilah as your own, you have to show the voters you’re making up for lost time with your daughter. The last thing we are going to do is have you put us through this only to have absentee father thrown in this.” Grant downed the rest of his drink.
“She doesn’t live here. She can’t be expected to participate in campaign stuff,” Byron argued even though the logic of what his father said couldn’t be denied.
His dad shrugged and checked his watch. “Figure it out. She can come up for weekend appearances. They can just stay here at the estate whenever we need them for something. I’ll go let Sandra know we’ll need two rooms ready for them.” He chuckled drily. “She can have India’s old room. I guess your sister will be moving in with her husband when she gets back.” Grant shook his head and walked toward the door. “Your mother would be cursing every one of you out if she were here to see this fiasco.”
Byron watched his father walk out in silence. How was he supposed to convince Zoe to come here more often? She didn’t want to be in the campaign. Now he had to persuade her somehow to accept a room in his family’s estate during the campaign. He’d barely gotten her to agree to this.
The door opened and Yolanda breezed in. Byron glanced over her shoulder. “Where is Zoe?”
“Oh, I left her with Elaina.”
Byron’s stomach dropped. “You what?” He walked toward the door. Elaina was an acquired taste on a good day. Zoe had never met her, and he could imagine the cold reception and thinly veiled insults his sister was potentially throwing Zoe’s way. She’d mocked him for being silly back in college when he’d first told her about Zoe and had been the first person to assume Zoe would try to blackmail him with a birth certificate with his name on it after he announced his Senate run.
Yolanda placed a hand on his arm and stopped him. “Where are you going?”
“To get Zoe away from Elaina.”
Her grip on his arm tightened. “No, you’re not. Zoe is a big girl and she can handle your sister.”
“Elaina doesn’t like her,” he said.
“I don’t like her,” Yolanda said easily. “But you trusted her with me.”
He frowned and eyed Yolanda. “You don’t like her? Why not?”
Yolanda stepped closer and brushed her hands across his shoulders. “Because I saw the way you looked at her when I walked in earlier. Oh, don’t bother to deny it.”
He wouldn’t deny it, but he also wasn’t going to admit to anything. “Yolanda, we were talking. Things got intense.”
“Just remember what I said, Byron.” Her eyes were steady as they stared into his. “Don’t sleep with her. Don’t mess this up. I love what we have. I don’t want to back out, but I need to know right now if you want to back out.”
His head drew back. “Why would I back out?”
“The public loves a second chance romance. Are you thinking of replacing me with her?”
As much as his body reacted to Zoe, and despite how much he’d wanted to press his lips to hers earlier, the thought of replacing Yolanda with her hadn’t crossed his mind. His dad was right. Zoe was in his system. He didn’t think straight when it came to her. Then and obviously not now. What he felt for her was not what legacies were built on. He was adding a new level to the Robidoux empire.
She never chose you. Never loved you.
He’d rather rip out his heart and put it in a blender than open himself to the pain of allowing himself to fall in love with Zoe again. Zoe had wanted his help. She’d never wanted him.
He slipped an arm around Yolanda’s waist and pulled her against him. “I don’t want out. You and me, we’re in this together.”