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Cody Larkin certainly looked like he had something on his mind, and he wasn’t leaving until he got what he wanted. Charles recognized that kind of quiet determination and respected it.
He looked at the two men sitting in front of his desk. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me. We’ll resume this tomorrow morning.” Charles waited for the men to gather their papers and walk out of his office.
Jessica was smart enough to close the office door before he began the conversation.
Summer knew him well enough to give him a chance to temper his anger and begin in his own time.
“Now,Granddaughter, why don’t you tell me what’s all hellfire important that you came into my office, unannounced, to break up a very important meeting?” He punctuated the statement by slamming his fist down on his desk. Not surprisingly, his ire didn’t even make Summer flinch.
She stalked closer to his desk, planted her hands on top of it, leaned over, and spoke directly at him. “You have always told me the unvarnished truth. You’d better do it now.”
Yep, he liked seeing Summer in command. He’d chosen his successor well.
“Did you know Mom kept my existence a secret from my father?”
Charles didn’t have to answer; she knew the truth already, because he knew everything about Jessica and how she lived her life. One mistake and disaster after another. He’d created the spoiled, entitled woman, so he cleaned up after the mess.
Summer’s eyes filled with disappointment, and it killed him. “How could you do this to me? All these years I thought he didn’t want me.Youlet me think he didn’t want me.” Shattering hurt filled her eyes.
Sometimes, a man had to take a blow. This was one of the very few times he was going to take one to the heart without fighting back. He was a hard man, knew that unequivocally about himself. But she’d been something special in his life. With her, he’d been able to let down his guard as much as he was able.
“I’m not a man who apologizes often. You, better than anyone, know that.” He released a deep sigh and continued to look her directly in the eye because she deserved that respect. “I’m sorry, Ladybug. I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Don’t! Don’t use that name with me when you know I’m angry and hurt.”
Resigned to the fact that there was no way out of this discussion, he tried to set things straight. “All right, Summer. At the time, your mother was reckless and impulsive.”
“Nothing has changed.” Summer had stopped being quiet, or even polite, when it came to her mother’s bad behavior years ago.
Jessica let out an indignant huff.
Charles ignored them both and continued. “You know the basic story. She refused to go to college, opting to take off on her own to see the world. She got as far as Carmel, California, where she met your father. They had a brief affair.”
Summer pressed her lips tight. “Three months. One season. She named me Summer because she said that time wasso special.” The thick sarcasm didn’t escape him. “More than likely, it was a reminder that summer affairs have consequences.”
Jessica once again huffed out her indignation, but she still didn’t say anything. She’d spun a tale for Summer about being madly in love with her father.
Charles understood Summer’s ire, because Jessica was always madly in love. It never lasted. It never meant more to her than the next guy she fell for deeply, madly—fleetingly.
“Your mother came home at the end of the summer and announced she wanted to go to college after all. Things with your father hadn’t turned out the way she hoped. Within weeks, she knew she was pregnant. She wanted to keep you but not marry him. I could have gone after him, but he didn’t have the means to support you, and quite honestly, he had plans for his future, plans that would have fallen apart if he’d had to use what little he had to support a child.”
Summer steamed. “She didn’t need his money. Not when she had you.”
“You’re right. But your mother made it clear that if Nate knew about you, he’d want to pay his fair share. It was a hard decision, but I thought, at the time, giving him a chance at his dream made the most sense, since Jessica and I could give you everything you need.”
“Everything but my father. And how did that turn out for me when she got tired of taking care of a baby, a toddler, the child she wanted to keep all to herself but not actually raise?”
He didn’t know what to say. “I supported her decision to keep you. I went along when she refused to tell your father about you. I never said I liked it.” In fact, he hated it. “I couldn’t believe she told you he didn’t want you. In fact, I confronted her about it several times when you were a little girl. You were just so persistent in asking questions that she felt she had to give you an answer, any answer.”
“I wanted my father. Was that so hard to understand?” Misery filled her soft voice.
“No, Ladybug. You had every right. Your mother made a mistake. And so did I.” He saw the look in Summer’s eyes and knew she understood all too well the kinds of errors Jessica had made over the years. All of them had been hurtful in some way to Summer.
“Let’s just get the whole truth out, Grandfather.” The look in her eyes didn’t bode well for him. “Nate didn’t come from a wealthy family. He couldn’t spoil her the way she’d become accustomed to.”
“Summer, darling, that’s not fair.”
Summer turned to her mother abruptly. “Do you really want to talk about fair?” She folded her fingers around the malachite paperweight on his desk.
