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“Well, he always comes late, and Theo and Iris have had no reason to know who enters the property at night. Their rooms are in this part of the building, away from the entrance, on the second floor.
“On the rare occasion he drops by, Eian goes directly to the rooms that face the street, right above the car entrance because neither Iris nor Theo ever go there, there’s literally no reason why they would. It’s where Connor, Zeke, and Matt have their rooms as well as Paty, our housekeeper.
“She knows the room belongs to someone but not to who, and I’m keeping it that way forever. Not because I don’t trust her—I mean, the woman knows more about me than probably my children and my mother—but for her safety.”
“I get not telling her, but don’t you think…” he snaps his mouth shut with an audible click as if stopping himself from saying any more.
“What?”
“Nothing, forget it. We just started dating, I’m not gonna offer any parenting advice.”
“Well you’re the first person to ever make me want to date, so I obviously want to know what you think.”
“I—,” he sits up and turns to look at me, placing a knee on the cushion between us, “I’m guessing you didn’t tell them because keeping secrets when you’re young isn’t easy. Mostly because you may not understand the gravity of them, especially in this case, but they’re adults now. Well, Iris is seventeen, but she’d understand. I’m not suggesting you stop being so cautious with the secret, it would probably blow up a lot of lives if it got out, but if Eian can come here without anyone knowing then they could meet their uncle. You obviously love him,” he shrugs, “they’d probably like him, too.”
“Oh, I bet they’d love him. Eian is the only person I know who loves sweets more than Mike, and I bet Iris would just love to ask him a million questions about the mob.”
“See? Why haven’t you told them?”
“It’s too dangerous.” I avert my gaze. I can’t bring myself to look him in the eye. It’s not like what I said is a lie, but it’s also not the whole truth.
“Wow, less than an hour dating and you already lied to me,meeeh,” he makes a striking sound, “that’s the only one you get, Harrison. I don’t like lies.”
“I’ve had to lie all my life, Tris. It’s a habit I can’t simply break overnight.”
“Okay, I get it, but you can take a break from that habit, at least with me.” He takes my hand and reaches to cup my cheek with the other. “Whatever happens between us, you don’t owe me anything and I’ve signed an NDA, it’s fine for you not to trust me yet, but we have that safety net, right? You can tell me.”
“I didn’t lie, not really,” he looks at me incredulously, “I mean it, it’s too dangerous, but also, our parents turned us into liars. They didn’t give me or Eian a choice. I won’t make my children lie for me. Ever.”
“Oh, Harrison.” I guess he’s satisfied with me baring my heart out to him because he straddles my lap and wraps his arms around me.
TEN
Tristan
“So… this isn’t fake anymore?”Iris asks then takes a huge bite out of her cream cheese bagel.
“I mean, it is for the press,” Harrison says in a tone just as easy as hers.
“Right, but there’s no press inside the house, Dad.”
“I’m aware.” He smirks at her.
“You’re holding hands and cuddling on the bench over breakfast, cut the crap already,” she exclaims, exasperated now.
“Well we might be dating now, but we still have to actually do all the fake dating things for your board,” I say, trying not to squirm under Iris’ scrutinizing gaze.
“Yes, they called a meeting for Monday, that’ll be fun.” He rolls his eyes in that cute as fuck way, then turns to look at Iris. “I know what you’re doing,” he tells her calmly.
“I’m not doing anything.” She straightens from her slouch and opens her eyes wider.
“You’re trying to ask a lot of questions, so I don’t ask why you look like you barely slept.”
Iris averts her gaze and says nothing. After taking the last bite of his bagel, Harrison reaches over and lays his hand, palm up, on the table. Neither of them speak and Harrison keeps patiently waiting, not rushing her, but when she places her hand in his, they both sigh.
“I didn’t sleep,” she says as she looks at him again. “But I don’t want to talk about it, yet.” Harrison visibly tenses. “Nothing bad happened, Dad, at least no one hurt me physically, I was never in danger.” That seems to placate him enough to nod and let go of her hand. “Now, let’s talk about me finally having some concrete proof that youarea philanderer.”
“Jesus, Iris. This is the first person I’ve slept with who you’ve met and I’m dating him!” Harrison throws his arms in the air and Iris laughs again.
