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“He’s been keeping his distance.” Maddox made a show of scanning the room, then leaned in close as if he intended to tell me a secret. “I suspect he still needs a little more time to cool off.”
“Try a lot more time,” I said. “Or forever.”
He sipped his wine. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that your mother was a champion grudge-holder. But Henry? Not so much.” Maddox’s expression turned solemn; it was an odd look for him. “Paige, I want to apologize to you for overstepping my bounds last summer. I never thought I’d get a chance to meet you. When you turned out to be lovelier than I could’ve envisioned, I let myself get carried away. I hope this doesn’t mean you and I can’t be friends someday.”
“It’s going to take more than a glass of wine and an apology to make us anything resembling friends.”
“I’m aware of that,” he said. “But, once upon a time, your folks meant a lot to me. We were a family. As much as we drive each other crazy, we’ll always be family.”
I opened my mouth to protest, then shut it when I remembered that Maddox was in fact related to me in a roundabout way. He was my half-brother’s biological father. If my young parents had been in a position to keep the child, that boy would have been raised as my brother.
“By the way,” he said. “You may be pleased to hear that I convinced a judge to unseal my son’s adoption records.”
That caught my attention. “What, how?”
“Judges make good friends, too.” He pulled a business card from his coat pocket and offered it to me. I took it with trembling fingers. Printed on the front was Maddox’s own information. On the back, written in black ink, was a name, phone number, and email address.
“Have you contacted him?” I asked.
“Not yet. To be honest, I think I’m a little scared to. But it’s nice to know the option exists.”
I reread the stranger’s information, engraving the words onto my memory. I went to hand the card back, but Maddox wouldn’t take it.
“That’s for you, sweetheart. You don’t have to open that door if you’d rather it stayed shut, but I thought you should have it just in case.”
I wrapped my fingers around the piece of cardboard.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” He smirked. I began to wonder if Maddox was even capable of wearing a smile that didn’t double as a threat. “I suppose I’ll take my leave before your daddy decides to break my nose and ruin some more of my Armani.”
Maddox raised his glass to someone behind me and then stepped away. I turned to find my father making his way over to me. My preferred style for him would always be scruffy and paint-splattered, but damn, the man could rock a three-piece suit. He pulled me into a hug that prompted someone close to us to whisper about how precious we looked.
“Sorry, I was upstairs when you got here. I really wanted to be there when you saw the exhibit.”
“That’s okay.” I hugged him tighter. “It’s incredible.”
“Was Maddox bothering you?” He drew back to look at me, his gaze narrow.
“No more than usual. But this time he came bearing gifts.”
I showed him the business card.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“My half-brother’s contact information.”
He turned the card over and swiped his thumb across the man’s name. A sweet sadness watered his eyes enough to make them glint as he handed the card back to me. “What do you think you’ll do with it?”
“I don’t know. Probably just hold on to it for now.” I tucked the card into the front of my dress, next to my heart. That felt like the right place for it.
My father pulled me into a side hug and kept his arm around me as we circled the room. We lingered beside the three-dimensional rendering of me as a very young child. I leaned my head on his shoulder.
“I can’t believe Mom thought these were anything less than beautiful,” I said.
“She saw what she was hardened to see.” He kissed my temple. “You know, I invited your mother to tonight’s show.”
I balked. “You’re kidding.”
