“Everything’s complicated. For everyone. All the time. Who cares? I mean, Andrew went along with that ridiculous liewithout losing a step. Foryou. Would it be so insane to ask him out?”
Isaac gazed at his son. “He’s your friend, and a good man, but I’ve never understood. Why do you want us together so badly?”
“Because you like each other,” Dalton shrugged, “but you’re letting stupid things keep you apart. Just like you and Mom.”
A swell of anguish bubbled up from the pit of Isaac’s stomach. “Dalton…”
“She told me she left not because she didn’t like you, but because she was afraid you couldn’t make it work when your lives were heading different directions. She said she had no regrets, but that she wished she’d at least given you the chance to decide if you could become something more, like you’re doing now. I couldn’t stand the thought of watching the same thing happen again, not when I know what you’re really afraid of.”
“And what is that?”
Dalton’s smile was soft and sweet as he said, “That you’ll fail. That you’ll let me down. I think you’re afraid you’ll let Andrew down too, now that you really know each other and are starting to realize that maybe something could work between you two.
“I don’t care if you screw up sometimes, Dad. Nobody can be perfect and good all the time. Not me. Not you. Not Andrew. I just want you to think better of yourself, to be as good at that as you are at everything else. If that includes being with Andrew, well… I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather have watching out for you than a good friend. You deserve that.”
Once again, Isaac didn’t know what to say, so he grabbed Dalton’s shoulder and pulled him against him tight. He was always going to worry about Dalton—and worry that someday he’d disappoint him. Maybe that was all that was keeping him from asking more from Andrew too.
“I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too.”
ANDREW
CandacehadbeenhoundingAndrew all morning—and most of yesterday—that he needed to ditch Ford on the Avalon case and mend bridges immediately to keep the contract, but he knew what she didn’t: if all went well catching the thief and it really was someone from Ford’s firm, Andrew’s relationship with Vallancourt would be solid.
And Ford would likely lose all his clients.
Winning that way was not how Andrew wanted this to go. A couple weeks earlier, he would have been celebrating. Now, he just felt nauseous.
His phone going off in his pocket interrupted his pace on his way to the newsstand. If the thief was following Ford’s old code, then the classifieds ad would be under Merchandise.
Fumbling to answer the call as he reached the corner, Andrew saw that Candace had grown tired of him evading her texts. “I’m just getting a paper. I’m on my way to the office now,” he said by way of greeting.
“I should hope so,” she answered. “Now is the time to act. The thief getting away again doesn’t make us look very good. You need to throw Ford under the bus before it’s made public, before he can throw you under the bus first.”
“He’s not going to do that. We’re working through things with Vallancourt.”
“Andrew, please don’t set yourself up to eat those words later. Dalton and a nice family dinner do not mean Ford’s changed. Do you remember how hard he was to catch as a criminal? Literally everything he’s doing around you, everything that’s been going on, could be part of a ploy and you just can’t see it.”
Andrew tucked himself in the corner where the edge of the newsstand met the building it stood in front of. For one ugly moment he wondered if she could be right and that everything had been a ruse, even down to the man Andrew punched in that underground club, and Ford simply had accomplices.
Then he felt ridiculous for even entertaining the idea.
“Not this time. Forget Avalon for right now. We have other clients. Let’s focus on them. It’s going to be okay, Candace. My judgment isn’t always as bad as it was with Liv.”
Candace sighed, but signed off with wary, “I hope you’re right.”
“That wasn’t very nice.”
Andrew’s attention darted up, and he nearly dropped his phone.
Olivia.Smiling again, just there, always there, without any shred of remorse.
If they weren’t in public, Andrew honestly might have punched her like that man the other night, but she’d only make a story out of that too.
“Hear me out—”
He pushed from the wall of the building with such force and angry intent, she cut off, maybe thought hewouldhit her, but he steeled himself and said, “Ford was right about you. You don’t even know what honest work looks like anymore. To think, someone I was with for almost two years has less integrity than an ex-criminal I used to hate.
