Ian nodded. If there was one person he could confide in, it was his mother. “Yes. She is. And right now she’s ignoring my calls.” And texts.
Emma laughed at his obvious distress.
“Umm… What did you do?”
He raised his eyebrows. Normally with that look, his employees would go running.
His mother merely laughed again.
“What makes you think I did something?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know. Why would she suddenly ignore you unless you upset her?”
He rolled his shoulders, the tension there painful. “I sent flowers to her hotel room.” And told her to miss him because he sure as fuck missed her.
“And?”
He didn’t want to admit to the next part and let out a frustrated groan. “I might have called and warned her boss to keep his hands to himself on their business trip.”
She’d left him a message while he was in a meeting telling him in no uncertain terms that she was pissed and he’d gone too far. And she wasn’t answering his return calls.
“Ian Carlton Dare, how could you!” his mother asked, wagging her finger in his face as if he were a child.
“You should hear the things he’s said to Olivia! I was just making sure he understood that Riley was mine.”
She shook her head, her blue eyes dancing with undisguised laughter. “Oh my God. You are impossible. First, Olivia and Dylan have history, not that it’s any of your business.”
Ian nearly fell off his stool. “How the hell would I know that?”
“You wouldn’t! Your sisters don’t want you to know anything about their love lives because you scare men away.”
He narrowed his gaze but didn’t touch that remark, mostly because it was true.
“You can’t go around staking your claim like some caveman!” His mother’s shoulders shook from trying to suppress laugh
ter.
“Now you sound like Olivia,” he muttered.
“Because she’s right. I’m sure your Riley would be flattered by your attention if you didn’t insert yourself into her work and diminish her in the eyes of her boss!”
“I didn’t—”
“You did.” A few seconds of silence passed before his mother continued. “Ian, honey, you can’t ensure the people you love won’t leave you. You just have to learn to trust.”
And wasn’t that the crux of all his problems in life, Ian thought wryly.
“Thanks for talking, Mom.”
“Honey, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
He rose and pulled her into a hug. The scent of her perfume brought him back to childhood, evoking warm, pleasant memories. “I hope you and Riley can fix things. I’d like to meet her one day.” Her eyes opened wide. “Are you bringing her to the fundraiser Saturday evening?”
“We’ll see.” He had to get her to talk to him again first.
TEN
Riley’s first day back at work, she was on edge and not only because she’d have to deal with Ian. When she’d played her answering machine at home, she’d had numerous heavy breathing messages. The caller didn’t say anything, but there was no doubt the messages were deliberate, not mistaken calls and hang-ups. They’d continued after her return, waking her in the middle of the night and early in the morning. As she had an unlisted number, yeah, she was rattled, to say the least.