2. Chapter Two #2
He’d spent the weekend with Caroline in his hotel suite.
The windows faced the Strip, and city lights showed through the curtains when they should’ve been sleeping.
They ordered breakfast to the room and let it sit in the bright space near the windows while they talked.
The suite had a sitting area they barely used, a bathtub so large that Caroline said the architect ought to be embarrassed, and a bed she’d called an obvious crime against efficient planning.
Hayden had bought her a yellow dress after she paused in front of it at one of the hotel shops. She’d argued that accepting clothing from a possible swindler showed poor judgment.
“Then consider it evidence,” he’d told her.
“Evidence that you bribe witnesses?”
He’d bought the shoes she liked too.
Making her happy had felt simple. He didn’t have to defend a development plan or settle a fight between his father and a board member.
Caroline wanted to know what food he hated, why he never slept enough, and whether his serious face had been installed at birth.
She wanted him before she understood the position attached to him.
For those days, he hadn’t been the responsible Lynch son or the man expected to lead the family business into its next generation. He’d only been Hayden.
Across the table, Caroline finished her story while Paulie demanded to know whether the woman had left with both glasses.
“She left without the man,” Caroline said.
“Even better.”
Hayden reached under the table and rested his hand on Caroline’s knee. She glanced at him and smiled.
Dasha’s attention settled on the gesture. He knew that look too well.
For ten years, he and Dasha had broken apart and returned to each other.
She needed to be the center of every room and every thought.
When Hayden worked too much, she found someone else to provoke him.
When he refused to react, she disappeared until he came after her.
The reunions had burned hot enough to hide how little peace they ever found together.
His parents called it passion. They also liked that Dasha’s family had more money than they could spend and almost no public life to invite questions.
Her parents remained mostly in Russia, guarding their privacy, while Dasha moved easily through the same world as the Lynches.
Larissa had imagined her as Hayden’s wife long before Hayden stopped imagining any future with her at all.
Caroline covered his hand with hers. The difference was so clear that he couldn’t understand why anyone else failed to see it.
“Excuse me,” she said after the plates were cleared. “I’ll be right back.”
He moved his hand so she could rise. “Are you all right?”
“Fine. I just need the powder room.”
Larissa gave her directions, though Caroline had used it before. Hayden watched his wife leave, noticing the slight care in her step. The pregnancy tired her more than she admitted.
Adam waited until the door closed behind her.
“A word in my study,” he said.
Hayden picked up his wine. “No.”
“It concerns the discussion Paul mentioned before dinner.”
Of course it did.
Hayden set the glass down and followed his father. Better to refuse him once more in private than let him raise the subject when Caroline returned.
Adam’s study was darker than the dining room, with shelves of books and a broad desk he’d used for as long as Hayden could remember. Adam closed the door.
“You’re running out of time to handle this sensibly,” he said.
“I’ve handled it.”
“You haven’t. You’ve ignored it.”
“I’ve answered you. I won’t ask Caroline to sign a postnup.”
Adam’s mouth tightened. “She arrived with nothing, Hayden. You’ve paid her student debt, filled her closets, and promised to move her mother across the country. Now there’s a child. Failing to protect yourself isn’t romance.”
“I chose every one of those things.”
“After knowing her for a weekend.”
“I married her after knowing her for a weekend. Also my choice.”
“This isn’t how you make decisions.”
Hayden gave a humorless laugh. “You mean it isn’t how you taught me to make them.”
“I taught you to think.”
“Then believe I did.”
His father came around the desk. “You were meant to marry someone who understood this family and what will one day be yours. You were meant to build on what we’ve given you, not risk it because a pretty woman made you feel young in Las Vegas.”
Right. Because Hayden was forty, and Caroline was twenty-five.
Anger tightened Hayden’s shoulders. At work, his father could still force a disagreement through his position as chairman. That didn’t give him a vote in Hayden’s marriage.
“Caroline isn’t a risk,” he said. “She’s my wife. I married her voluntarily, and I’m not putting an agreement in front of her to satisfy your suspicion. This discussion is over.”
“You’ve said that before.”
“Then you should’ve listened before.”
Hayden opened the door and left.
Caroline hadn’t returned to the table. He checked the hall, then stepped through the terrace doors for air. He’d barely reached the stone rail when Dasha followed him outside.
“Still fighting with your father?” she asked.
“That’s none of your concern.”
“It used to be.”
“A lot of things used to be.”
She came to stand beside him. “You used to tell me these dinners made you want to climb out a window.”
“There aren’t any open windows. I’ve checked.”
Her laugh was soft. “I’ve missed you.”
Hayden turned to face her. “Don’t.”
“Don’t miss you?”
“Don’t pretend you misunderstood me.”
Dasha studied him, then reached up as if to smooth his tie. He caught her wrist before she touched him and lowered her hand.
“You can’t be serious forever,” she said. “A weekend in Vegas, a baby, a wedding. It’s very dramatic, even for you. Aren’t you bored yet?”
“No.”
“She understands nothing about your world.”
“She understands me.”
Dasha’s smile thinned. “Does she?”
“Caroline interests me. I love her. Our marriage is real, and I don’t want what you and I had back.”
Naked anger showed in Dasha’s face. Then she laughed as if he’d made the evening more amusing.
“You always did take things too seriously once you made up your mind.”
“I’ve made it up.”
He left her on the terrace.
Caroline was back at the table, listening while Paulie described a trip nobody had asked about. She smiled when Hayden sat beside her, but it looked tired.
“Ready to go?” he asked quietly.
“Please.”
He didn’t make her wait for dessert. He said their goodbyes, ignored his mother’s disappointment, and kept Dasha’s farewell brief. In the car, Caroline leaned her head against the seat and looked out at the dark hedges along the road.
Hayden took her hand. “Are you all right?”
“I’m tired.”
He kissed her knuckles. She was six months pregnant, trapped in a dress she hadn’t wanted to wear, and tired after a formal meal. It made sense.
He’d reassured her about Dasha, refused his father’s postnup again, and shut down Dasha’s attempt to interfere. His family had teased too much, perhaps, but there’d been no real fight. He’d kept his promise and taken Caroline home early.
As the car carried them toward Southampton, Hayden believed he’d defended his marriage.
Next to him, his wife said nothing.