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“And I’m sorry for pushing you away when I should have said something sooner. I just didn’t want to be a disappointment.”
“You’re not letting me down by living the life you want for yourself.” He brings me in for a warm, secure hug that damn near makes me cry before releasing me. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper. What you’re trying to do for your friends is admirable, and I’m glad you came to me.”
I offer a small smile. “Guess you’ll have to find someone to go to that convention with, huh?”
“Nah. I’ll just cancel. It would have been boring, anyway.”
I gawk at him. “You don’t really mean that.”
“Yeah… You’re right, I don’t.” He smiles to himself. “I’m such a nerd.”
“Not at all. I love that about you. That you’re so smart and driven. You actually inspired me to do something huge last night,” I say before telling him about my conversation with Ellen.
He nods. “That’s my girl.”
We take a lap around the property, and my heart aches at distant memories of Logan being forced to run for hours.
Dad must be thinking about him, too, because he says, “Can’t say I’m surprised you and Logan found your way back to each other. You were damn near inseparable that summer.”
My pulse leaps to hear him speak so candidly about us. “Guess we weren’t as sneaky as we thought.”
His chuckle is warm and rumbly. “Hardly.”
“I was afraid to tell you about him. I know things ended badly between you and Silas, but Logan’s different—” I pause. “At least, I thought he was.”
“What happened?”
Talking with him like an old friend instead of a father, I give him the details of the last few weeks and what happened at the charity event.
“I love him, but last night, he chose Silas over me, and I don’t know what else I can do to make him see that he’s being used.”
My father’s expression softens. “It sounds to me like he’s afraid, so he defaulted to placating Silas to keep the peace because that’s what he knows is safe.” He kicks clumps of dirt out of our path, contemplating what to say next in that way of his. “All Silas ever cared about was money. It ruled every thought, reaction, and decision he ever made.”
“Shocker, nothing’s changed.”
Dad stops before turning to face me. “You don’t have to convince me that Logan isn’t like Silas because I already know. Just as I know that once the dust settles, and he sees how serious you are about standing your ground, he’s going to realize you’re the only option.”
I feel empty and spent from the rollercoaster of emotions I can’t seem to get off of, but a tiny flame of hope perks up in my heart.
“Give him some time to reconcile his feelings for you and Silas. He’ll come around.”
I certainly hope so. Because whether he’s with me or against me, I’m standing by Dorthea and Ricardo, no matter the cost.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Logan
Trepidation grips me like a vise, and I’m suffocating in a storm of emotions, torn between the woman I love and the obligations that threaten to tear us apart.
And I hate that a day later, her words are still clanging around in my skull, shouting at me that she’s right, no matter how badly I wish she weren’t.
If I were to ask my dad if he was pursuing the rest of Seaside, the chances of him freely offering me the information would be slim to none. He keeps his plans sealed tight until it benefits him to expose them. It’s just how he’s wired, and before now, I accepted that.
But not any longer. One way or another, I’m determined to find some answers.
“Fuckin’ hate the ocean,” Declan complains, clinging to the built-in bookcase inside the office on my father’s yacht. “And I still don’t know what the hell we’re looking for.”
The boat rocks with the wind that’s carrying in a late night storm. Thunder rumbles in the distance, adding to my need to speed up this break-in.
