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He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, and for the first time, I see his age wearing on him. Dad has spent a lot of years at the helm of Blue Lake Assets. Maybe this stunt is the straw that broke the camel’s back?
“I don’t know,” he mutters. “This is your mess. I’m inclined to let you fix it, except that you’ve dragged Blue Lake and the family into it too.”
I bite back a snarky comment that technically, he dragged the family in by forcing the dinner. If he’d stayed out like I’d asked, this would be my issue alone.
“I can fix it, though right now, there’s nothing to fix if you think about it.” He looks at me doubtfully, and I explain my thinking. “Dinner was fine, and Elena believes Luna is my wife. She likes us and is open to using Blue Lake for portfolio management. I’ll meet with Elena and her current finance guy, and we’ll go from there. There’s no need to do anything. I feel bad about it because she seems like a nice lady, and maybe I didn’t need to do all of this, but at the time, it seemed like a way in. For now, it is what it is.”
“Seriously? You think continuing this charade is the way to go?”
“You think telling her I lied is better?” I counter. “Then it would have all been for nothing.”
Dad pushes up from the chair, and I have a split second of wondering if we’re about to take this outside again. Thankfully, he paces to the window and stares out at the garden instead. He’s got his thinking face on, and that’s never a good thing.
“Look, I’m sorry. It all got out of hand so quickly.” I’m trying to talk him down and stop whatever mental journey he’s going on because it can’t bode well for me.
Still gazing out the window, he declares, “You’ll tell Elena the truth. If it costs us the deal, so be it.”
“What?” I balk. “I can’t do that!”
He whirls, glaring at me. “You can, and you will. Even if it succeeded, it’ll be found out eventually, and it’ll be worse. Or did you plan a fake divorce too?”
He makes it sound ridiculous, and maybe I haven’t thought that far ahead yet, but there’s no need to be rash about deciding right now, today. But Dad’s already settled . . .
“This whole lie is always a bomb waiting to explode in the middle of the relationship you’re trying to build with Elena. I won’t have our reputation sullied. It’s not how we operate. Can I trust you to fix your fuck up? Or do I need to do it for you?”
I shoot to my feet, facing him angrily. He’s tying my hands. And however this plays out, I’ve changed his opinion of me for the worse, exactly the opposite of what I was desperately trying to do.
Tightly, I bite out, “I’ll handle it.”
I don’t know why I go to Luna’s. She doesn’t want to see me, but there’s no one else who’ll understand, and she did tell me good luck with everything, so maybe she will want to know what’s happened. It’s an excuse and I know it, but it doesn’t stop me from knocking on her door.
“Carter?” She opens the door with her brow already furrowed in confusion at seeing me. “What are you doing here?”
She’s wearing baggy purple sweats with a smattering of stars along the left leg. A quick glance and I see the wording says Rewrite The Stars. Her cropped T-shirt hangs off one shoulder, and I’m reminded of the first time I came to her door for simple tutoring. It seems so long ago.
“Greatest Showman?” I say, pointing at her leg.
She smooths her hand over the print before adjusting the waistband, pulling it up. I think she’s trying to hide, but it only serves to accentuate the swooping curve of her hip beneath her smaller waist.
“Yeah.”
I walk past her without waiting for an invitation, knowing she won’t stop me. “We should talk.”
“Carter . . . I don’t think . . .” she stammers.
I sit down on her couch, her words—or attempt at them—not swaying me in the slightest. “At least listen, please.”
“Fine.” She closes the door and comes over to the couch, but she sits as far away from me as possible. “What?”
“I talked to my dad today.” That gets her attention, though she doesn’t ask questions. “He’s angry, of course, and worried about what happens moving forward. If we’re found out, what the consequences will be, or if we don’t say anything and Elena chooses Blue Lake, there's a perpetual risk of her finding out.”
“That makes sense.” She shrugs, not seeming particularly concerned either way.
“Which would also affect whether she’d be interested in showcasing Thomas’s collection at the museum,” I remind her.
