The man I’d met at the bar had been all of those things. Real and raw and honest in a way that had made me feel less alone. But then something about him had come alive. He’d relaxed, softened, spoken about his feelings in a way that showed he was trying to work through them but just didn’t know how.
And then he’d panicked and thrown it all away.
Friday’s family dinner was in three days. I’d see him again. Have to be in the same room, pretending everything was normal.
“Just be professional,” I told myself. “Polite. Distant.”
But I had a feeling it was going to be a lot harder than it sounded.
Chapter 7
LEIGH
Friday evening arrived too quickly.
I stood in front of the mirror in my room at Jasper’s house, changing my shirt for the third time and hating myself for caring what I wore.
It was just a family dinner. Casual. Nothing to stress about.
Except Dex would be there.
And I hadn’t seen him since Sunday, when he’d walked through that door and looked at me like I was his worst nightmare come true.
I finally settled on a simple blue blouse and jeans, nothing fancy but not too casual either. When I came downstairs, I foundJasper already waiting by the door while Mom was still getting ready upstairs.
“Caroline says she’ll be down in ten minutes,” he said with a small smile. “Which probably means twenty.”
“Sounds about right.”
An awkward silence settled between us. We’d been polite to each other all week, but we hadn’t really talked. Not the way family should talk. I was his daughter, but we were still strangers in so many ways.
“Want to sit outside while we wait?” he asked, gesturing toward the back of the house. “It’s a nice evening.”
“Sure.”
I followed him through the house to the back patio. French doors opened onto a beautiful stone terrace with comfortable outdoor furniture and a view of the sprawling backyard. The late afternoon sun cast everything in golden light, and I could hear birds in the trees.
Jasper settled into one of the chairs and gestured for me to take another. For a moment, we just sat there in comfortable silence.
“I used to hate sitting out here,” he said finally, his voice quiet. He was looking out at the yard, not at me. “Too many memories of trying to keep the peace. Of pretending everything was fine when it wasn’t. Regina used to host lunches here sometimes, and I’d spend the whole time waiting for something to go wrong.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stayed quiet.
“But now...” He looked around the patio, something like wonder on his face. “It feels like mine again. Like I can actually breathe out here. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It does.”
He turned to look at me then, really look at me. “I keep wanting to apologize. For not being there. For missing yourentire childhood. But Caroline made the right choice, keeping you away from all this.”
“Jasper…”
“If Regina had known about you...” He shook his head. “She would have used you. Hurt you. Just to hurt me. Or to control the boys. She was... she was very good at finding people’s weaknesses and exploiting them.”
The bitterness in his voice was tinged with something else. Relief, maybe. Or freedom.
“No one has really told me much about what happened with her. None of you really talk about her,” I said carefully.
“No. We don’t.” He leaned back in his chair. “Your brothers are good men despite me, not because of me. I failed them in so many ways, choosing her over them, letting her poison everything. But they’re trying to let me back in now. Giving me a chance I probably don’t deserve.”
