“Yeah.”
“Come on in.”
He walked inside and closed the door. I stood in the hall for a minute, thinking of listening in, but they’d be talking business. Bryce would certainly not be talking about me.
I took the book and went to my bedroom.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Tom Simpson wasn’t the only one. Bryce had two personalities. One where he wanted me, and one where he didn’t.
Nothing I could do.
Chapter Nineteen
Bryce
The meeting went nearly until dinnertime. “You want to stay?” Talon asked. “Joe and Ryan are staying. We’re having grilled rib eye steaks. Jade’s feeling better, so she and I are making dinner. Marj is getting the night off.”
“She deserves it,” Ryan said.
“I agree. She’s been great. She was going to stay until Felicia returned, but I just got a call from her this morning. She’s not coming back.”
“Oh?” I said.
“Nope. She’s happy being back with her family, and she already has a new job. I guess I’ll be interviewing for a new housekeeper and cook. Probably a nanny too. We’ll need someone to look after the boys and the baby once Jade goes back to work.”
“Melanie and I just lined up a part-time nanny for the new baby,” Joe said. “She’s taking a part-time schedule after the baby comes.”
“Jade and I haven’t discussed it,” Talon said, “but if she stays on as city attorney, that’s a full-time job.”
“She might want to stay home with the kids,” Joe said. “Some women do.”
“She might. We’ll see. But we definitely need a housekeeper and cook. Jade’s repertoire is grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, and I can’t even boil water.”
“So Marj is moving out?” I asked.
“She can stay here as long as she wants,” Talon said. “She’s determined to stay until the baby’s born, and Jade needs her for that. But the guys and I want her to go to Paris to study cooking.”
I cleared my throat as my heart fell into my gut. “Paris?”
“Yeah. She was excited about it before…”
He didn’t have to finish the sentence. We all knew what he was talking about. Before the mess we were still all in. Before my father had shown his true colors. Before we’d found out Brad Steel was alive. Before he’d been killed by his lover, Wendy Madigan, who also almost killed her own son, Ryan.
Before I had fallen in love with the youngest Steel.
Marj.
Marj couldn’t go to Paris.
She had to stay here. On the ranch.
With me.
Only she couldn’t.
If she went to Paris, perhaps I could forget her. Out of sight, out of mind and all that.
But absence makes the heart grow fonder.