Wow. “Did you have a good relationship with your father?”
My hand is resting on the table and his fingers weave through mine. “My father was a legend, but he was a distant father. And he had a weakness. He was a genius, like my mother was, but in a different way. In a more introverted way. Then again, everyone was an introvert compared to my mother. She lived out loud. It was a case of opposites attract with them. He loved her madly and unconditionally. No matter how bad things got or what it cost him, he loved her with everything he had. And when he lost her, it destroyed him.”
“I’m sorry. I can sort of understand what that would have been like. I never knew my mother, or what my father was like before she died. But I do know my father was never the same after he lost her. It was a painfully slow process of falling apart. He just couldn’t handle living without her.” I almost don’t say it but it slips out anyway. “Iwasn’t enough for him.”
Dallas’s head tilts and he gives me a look. “Don’t you dare.”
“Dare what?” But I know what he means.
“Your father’s grief and inability to do right by you because of it isn’t your fault. We’ve discussed this. I could blame myself for my parents’ downfalls but that would be a complete waste of time. BecauseI’mnot what drove them. It was their own crazy lives and their obsession for each other that drove them. It had nothing to do with me. My brothers and I were just off-shoots of it. Starting now, you’re going to stop blaming yourself for your father’s behavior. It’s time for you to start focusing on what’s going on insideyourheart, not his. Okay?”
Wow. Is that what I’ve been doing? Now that he spells it out that way, I can see that maybe it is. “Okay.”
“Good.”
“Are you close to your brothers?” I can’t imagine having brothers.
“Yes. We’re all a year or less apart. Once our parents decided to have kids they were all in, apparently. It was the only time in her life my mother took time off from acting. From the age of ten, she made a movie a year, except for those four years, she made a baby a year. Then she left us with nannies and went back to her true passion.”
“Wow. What are your brothers like?”
“Apollo got my mother’s talent, her movie star looks and her complete inability to experience any form of self-doubt.”
“That must be a nice way to go through life.”
“It has its pitfalls. He has no filters. His ego operates at full throttle.” His quiet smile at the thought is so sexy it raises allthe tiny hairs on my body. “But he’s a good person to go to for advice. He’s always straight-up and a hundred percent honest.”
“What about the one in Montana?”
“Rhett. He’s out there now dealing with the new ranch manager, who happens to be twenty-three, a woman and, according to Rhett, is in the process of ‘rearranging all his systems.’”
“You mean … he’s inlovewith her?”
“He’s definitely in lust. I’m waiting for updates.”
I laugh. “I hope it goes well for him. And her.”
Dallas grins at me. “Yeah, let’s hope so.”
“And the other one?”
“Boone. He’s the youngest. Still in the process of sowing his wild oats.”
“Oh. So he’s a player.”
“He’s twenty-six, very charming and … popular, with everyone he meets. His heart is pure gold.”
“And what about you?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. What are you actually like, underneath all …this.” I wave my hand over him, at the obviousness of the drop-dead gorgeous package he inhabits. “What makes Dallas Wilder tick?”
He’s quiet for a moment. A real moment, as he considers my question.
“Honestly?” He tops up my glass then his own. “I’m a workaholic who’s built an empire. But when I look up the empire exists inside a total vacuum. An absolutely wasteland. I have no life outside work. None. No—” he gestures at me, at thecandles, the wider world, at me again. “Nothing. I’m alone most of the time and I’ve never taken a day off in my life.”
“Ever?”
