“Madison—”
The doorbell rang, interrupting him. “That’s dinner. I’ll get it,” he said.
A few minutes later they were sitting at his table eating Emilio’s pasta. To her surprise, she was feeling not only better but hungry.
She didn’t want to focus on her own life and problems, and he seemed to understand. They talked about work and Riley’s pregnancy and laughed over the fact that Ian was running to feed her pregnancy cravings.
“Are things really better between you and Ian?” she asked, hoping he didn’t mind talking about their relationship.
In the past, he’d always deflected questions about himself, causing her to do the same. She knew it was his way of keeping a dis
tance between them, and the few times he’d slipped and revealed something intimate, he’d immediately rebuilt his walls. She didn’t really think she’d get far now, but she wanted to know and decided to ask. Besides, better to shine the spotlight on his family rather than her lack thereof.
“When I ran into him the other night at the restaurant, he seemed … more interested in my life. Of course it could be so he can have a few laughs at my expense. I’m never sure.”
She chuckled at his supposition. “From what I’ve seen, Ian is a man of few words. The ones he uses, he tends to mean. If he asks, he’s interested.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You think so?” He paused in thought. “You’re probably right. I’m interested in him. I always was. I guess that’s why it bothered me so much that he didn’t feel the same way. But I get why now.”
They’d finished dinner, and she pushed her plate aside, more interested in what he was revealing than cleaning up. Alex was actually confiding in her, and she was mesmerized by every word.
“The thing is, I didn’t have it bad growing up,” Alex continued. “I mean, I wasn’t stupid. I knew something was off between my mother and father. He lived with us, but my parents weren’t married, and we didn’t have Dad’s last name. That’s unusual by any standards.”
“Did you know why they weren’t married?”
He shook his head. “As I got older, it only took a few strokes of the keyboard to find out all I needed to know about Robert Dare, hotel magnate.”
“Ouch,” Madison said softly.
He shrugged, obviously not all that upset by the memory. “It was weird. It didn’t hurt as much as it should have, I guess because I knew we had a father who was always there.”
“Did you confront him?” she asked.
He nodded. “I stormed into their bedroom one night and demanded answers. It turns out Mom knew he had another family all along. He explained how it was complicated and I’d understand more when I was older, but basically his marriage was one of convenience only.” He shook his head. “Clearly more than that since they had kids, but at the time, I didn’t give much thought to it. I mean, I was only fifteen when I figured it all out.”
“Then Sienna got sick?” Madison asked, knowing those touchy details from Riley.
“Childhood leukemia.” He visibly shuddered. “My baby sister, deathly ill. We thought we’d lose her. I mean, my mother actually prepared us, using those words. And one look at Sienna in the hospital, on the rare times we were allowed in to visit her … it was obvious why they were so scared.” His voiced came out gruff and affected.
Unable to stop herself, she rose and walked over to him, intending to give him a comforting hug. He pulled her down onto his lap, obviously wanting the intimate connection. After the day she’d had, she needed the same thing.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Dad had no choice but to go to his wife—Ian’s mother—and ask her to have his other children’s bone marrow tested.”
“Wow. That’s like a soap opera.”
“Yet disturbingly real. I think that’s when it hit home for everyone. Dad had another wife and family, who, as it turned out, knew nothing about my mother or his other kids. It taught us all that my father is definitely a selfish son of a bitch.”
She lay her head against his chest, listening to his rapidly beating heart.
“I lied. When I said the stuff about my father and us not having his name didn’t bother me? It did. I just hated to think about why we were different. What it could mean.”
“I never liked thinking about my parents at all,” she murmured.
“Anything you want to talk about now?” he asked.
She shook her head.