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He turns his head to the housekeeper, who is hovering beside him. “Gladys, I think Angie has earned a lie in this morning. Will you take a tray up to her so she can have breakfast in bed?”
“Of course, sir.” The woman ducks her head and moves away, probably to the kitchen to fetch Angie’s tray.
“And Gladys….”
She pauses as Uncle Bill continues.
“No one is to disturb us in here.”
Shit. That’s… ominous. She nods again and disappears as Uncle Bill steps into the room, pulling the door closed behind him.
He doesn’t move to sit down, standing with his legs braced apart and his hands clasped behind his back.
“Take a seat, Timothy.” He nods at me, and I slowly step away from Ryan’s chair and move back to mine. Max drops into his chair, which he sprung out of when Uncle Bill appeared, and we all sit quietly, waiting for whatever lecture we’re about to get.
Finally, after what feels like an age, Uncle Bill speaks, his eyes sweeping the table as they meet each of our gazes.
“I don’t think that my message has been properly heard.” His eyes burn into Ryan’s, who looks a little shamefaced. “I thought that what I articulated to Tim would be passed on.”
I stiffen. I did fucking pass on his message. It’s notmyfault that Ryan has a chip on his shoulder the size of the Southern belle that got kicked out of his bed.
“So, let me make myself abundantly clear, here and now, so there can be no more misunderstandings. I consider Angela Shepherd family.”
The others shift uneasily in their seats, no doubt worried about what that means, since he only has five businesses to pass on, and Angie makes six. I’m not shifting uneasily. I’m frozen like a statue. I’m dead. He’s going to kill me for evenlookingat Angie. I’m so fucking dead. And weirdly, I don’t regret a second of it.
“There are things about my life that no one except Angela Shepherd knows.”
Well, that has the attention of the entire room. Even I’m no longer contemplating how badly I might have fucked things up by going after Angie.
“There are probably some things about my life that no one except Angela Shepherd willeverknow.”
I eye Uncle Bill curiously. Where is he going with this?
“For all intents and purposes,” he turns his eyes back to Ryan now, who shrinks a little under his gaze, “Angela Shepherd should be considered a daughter to me. And anyone who disrespects her is no family of mine.”
Ryan’s eyes drop to the table, and he nods jerkily. Message received. Satisfied, Uncle Bill’s eyes turn to me, burning deep into mine. I don’t need to be told to respect Angie, that’s not an issue for me. I lift my eyes to meet his, and the weight of everyone else’s eyes is on me too. Uncle Bill drums his fingers on the table, the only noise in the room. Where’s he going with this?
“With all that said, Tim… how long have you been sleeping with Angie?”
My eyes flutter closed. Fuck. You could hear a pin drop in the room and when I open my eyes, the other four are staring at me open-mouthed. Time to pay the piper.
“Two days, sir,” I reply quietly. David groans quietly as his head drops into his hands. Uncle Bill studies me silently for a long moment.
“Everyone else, get out.”
I’m frozen in my chair as they wordlessly comply, the only sounds being the scraping of their chairs and the door opening and closing.
Once we’re alone, Uncle Bill sighs and moves to sit in the chair across from me, where Max had been seated. He makes himself comfortable, resting his elbows on the table and steepling his fingers in front of his face.
“I always knew that having children wasn’t in the cards for me,” he says absently. Okay. This is not exactly how I imagined the conversation to be going. “I worked tirelessly to build up my businesses, and I knew my brothers would settle down and carry on the Westerhaven name. You could say I was a little obsessed with making money.”
I sit silently, observing him. I know all this. It’s well-known in the family.
“You were the first to be born.” Uncle Bill is speaking quietly now, an undercurrent of emotion in his voice that isneverusually there. “When I held you for the first time, I knew I didn’t need to find someone to settle for, just to have an heir, because I had you.”
I blink at the unexpected tears gathering in my eyes at his words. Holy fuck. Uncle Bill and I haveneverhad a personal conversation like this before. He doesn’tdopersonal. He tells us what to do and expects it to happen.
“Then the twins came along, and I had plenty of heirs, and then David and Ryan.” He taps his fingers against his mouth thoughtfully. “Five businesses, five heirs. It was a done deal.”
