Chapter 21
Desiree slowly opened her eyes, blinking against the bright sunlight shining through her bedroom window.
She changed positions and looked up at the ceiling, realizing this was the first time she had slept in her own bed in a week.
She and Cobra saw no reason to spend time apart when they didn’t have to do so.
She loved waking up to him, his warm, masculine body spooning her backside.
He’d make love to her the moment he realized she was awake, then, at night, they would make love and fall asleep the same way.
It was like they were both making up for lost time.
The only reason she had come home last night was that her grandfather had returned home.
Desiree had promised Cobra she would talk to Richard the first chance she got, though not about her relationship with Cobra, since he wanted to be the one to tell her grandfather about them.
But Cobra felt she should talk to her grandfather about what Cobra thought were misconceived notions about their relationship.
She’d learned that her grandfather had no plans to go into the office until after the weekend, so she had taken the day off. There was no telling what sort of mental state she would be in after their conversation. But at least now, she had a man who loved her and who was only a phone call away.
Both she and Camille had reasons to be happy these days.
Her best friend was back home in Paris and happily in love with Léandre.
A wedding was planned around Valentine’s Day, and of course, Desiree would be returning to Paris for that.
Wild horses wouldn’t keep her away. Cobra had agreed to go as her plus-one.
She smiled when her phone rang. She knew it was Cobra since she had given him his own ringtone. Picking it up off the nightstand, she said, “Good morning, Cobra.”
“Good morning to you, too, love. I missed you last night.”
“I missed you, too.”
“I got a text from Richard. He wanted to let me know he was back and was checking to make sure our chess game is still on for tonight.”
“Hmm, I’d think Granddad would want to rest up from jet lag.”
Cobra chuckled. “Richard has more energy than you think. Will you be there tonight?” he asked.
“I have a special one-on-one tutoring session with one of my adult readers who couldn’t make last Saturday’s class.”
“Where?”
“I’ve reserved one of the meeting rooms on the amenity floor. She works as a nanny for a family who lives in this building. It’ll only take about an hour, so I’ll see you before your chess game with Granddad is over.”
“You will because I’m not leaving until you get home.”
***
Desiree knocked on the door to her grandfather’s study.
“Come in.”
She entered, and her gaze immediately went to the huge window and its stunning view of the George Washington Bridge. His study was just as massive as his office at the Sharpe Corporation. Her gaze then shifted to her grandfather, who had stood when she’d entered.
“Good morning, Granddad. Welcome back.”
“Thank you, Allison. Helga mentioned that you didn’t go into the office today. Are you ill?”
“No, I’m fine. I took the day off because I knew you were coming home, and I wanted to talk to you about something.”
He lifted a brow. “Oh? Is there something going on at the office that I need to know about?”
“No, this is personal. I hope I’m not interrupting you,” she said, upon seeing all the papers spread over his desk.
“There’s never a time you can’t talk to me, Allison.”
His words gave her pause. When she was away at school, there had never been a time when she could talk to him.
“Please have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.
She studied her grandfather. He looked the same, but somehow different. He seemed more relaxed, restful, and calm—not words she would usually use to describe someone who had just returned from a five-week business trip. “How was your trip?”
A smile ─an actual smile ─spread across his lips. “It was wonderful.”
Wonderful? She could only assume the trip had been productive, and he hadn’t had any issues to deal with. “I’m glad.”
“So, what personal matter do you want to discuss with me?” he asked.
Desiree really didn’t know how to start this conversation.
But in a way, Richard had unknowingly given her the opening she needed.
“I need to ask you something. Earlier, you said there was never a time when I couldn’t talk to you.
But if that’s true, why did you block my number so I wouldn’t call you when I was in college? ”
Richard stared at his granddaughter, looking as if he hadn’t heard her right. “I never blocked your number. Why would you think such a thing?”
“Because it’s true. Of course, I couldn’t use a cell phone at that boarding school in California because they were banned. But when you got me that phone just before college, I assumed you wanted me to call you now and then.”
He nodded. “That was the reason I gave it to you. I don’t know anything about you not being able to reach me. Why didn’t you ever mention it to me when you came home for the holidays?”
She shrugged. “You were busy, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Then why didn’t you call me at the office?”
“I did, several times, and I always asked that you call me back. But you never did.”
He frowned. “When was this?”
“It went on for years. I called while I was in boarding school—I had to use the office phone back then. But when I was in college, I often called just because I was feeling lonely and wanted to talk to you. I missed Mom and Dad, and Gramma Allison. You were all I had left, and sometimes, I just needed to hear your voice.”
***
Her words pierced his heart. Richard had always assumed that Allison had been too busy with her friends to think about calling him. But it looked as if that wasn’t the case.
“I never received any messages that you called, and I certainly never got any that said you needed me to call you back. Who took your calls?”
But he already knew. The same person who had taken the messages Lolita had left, but had not passed them on to him.
“Eloise Markam. She’s been your administrative assistant for years.”
Evidently, too long. In fact, he had hired Eloise a couple of months before his son and daughter-in-law died, and Allison came to live with him. He stood and walked over to the window, then turned back to her. “I never received any messages that you’d called me, Allison.”
“I figured as much when you mentioned that you had Landon Chestnut track me down because you thought I’d been kidnapped.
I found that very odd because I’d called and left a message with Eloise, asking her to let you know I needed to talk to you.
I was getting depressed and wanted to come home for a while.
But when you didn’t return my call, I thought you didn’t want to be bothered with me, so I took off to visit places I’d never been.
My friends went with me because they didn’t want me traveling alone. ”
“I didn’t know,” Richard said.
“I just assumed, like the other times, you didn’t care.”
He left his place by the window and came to stand in front of her, leaning against his desk. “Why wouldn’t I care? You’re my granddaughter.”
“I’m also my mother’s daughter.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She didn’t say anything for a minute. Then she took a deep breath to fortify herself.
It was time. “I always thought the reason you sent me to boarding school was that you didn’t want me here with you, because you never liked my mom and blamed her for Dad’s death.
I reminded you of her, so you didn’t want me around. ”
“You thought that?”
“Yes. Aunt Margot said you told her that you blamed Mom for Dad’s death when she called to tell you about their accident.”
Richard inhaled deeply. He didn’t recall saying that, but hell, he could have at the time.
Getting that call and being told that he’d lost his son had nearly killed him.
But when he had read the police report, which included interviews with the workers on board the yacht, he realized that his son and daughter-in-law were equally responsible for their own deaths.
He saw the tears welling up in Allison’s eyes, and he knew he had to try to get her to understand just what a grief-stricken mess he had been back then. “I appreciate you sharing all of this with me, Allison. And I regret that you assumed I didn’t care all these years.”
He paused. “Losing your grandmother was hard on me. And when I lost your father two years later, I didn’t know how I’d go on. I don’t recall telling your aunt that I blamed your mother, but if I did, it was during a time when my grief had become too much to bear.”
He stopped talking for a moment while recalling that time. “That’s not an excuse, but it’s the way I felt back then. In reality, I never blamed your mother, and I certainly didn’t hold anything against you for being her daughter.”
Drawing in a deep breath, he said, “The reason I sent you away to boarding school was that I was so filled with grief, and you were all that I had left. I loved you so much that the thought of losing you, too, was more than I could deal with at the time. And you were grieving for your own losses, and I was too weak to handle both mine and yours.”
He rubbed his hand down his face. “But there was never a time you weren’t loved or that I didn’t want you.”
“What about you thinking I was just like my parents, that I was a party girl who would never accept any responsibilities in life?”
“Is that something you’ve ever heard me say?”
“No. But I’ve heard others say it.”
He shook his head. “Granted, that time you left school and I wasn’t told, I thought it was reckless and irresponsible.
Then, after reading Landon Chestnut’s investigation report of how you and those other two girls were traveling from city to city, spending your time hitting one nightclub after another, it did give me that impression. ”