“I didn’t want you to sleep too long, in case it stops you sleeping tonight. You’re probably jet-lagged. Alec is always the same for the first few days after he comes home. I’ve brought you tea and one of Granny’s scones. It’s the only thing she makes since her eyesight has failed and she does them by hand.” She put the tray down and flicked on the light, smiling when she saw Nelson. “That’s where you are! You do know Alec isn’t the one in the bed? Come on, move. Sky doesn’t want you there.”
“Yes, I do.” Sky pulled the dog closer. “I like him. He’s like a comforter.”
“He loves this room. When we first brought him back here as a puppy, he wouldn’t leave Alec’s side. He slept by his bed and howled every night for a week. Not once did Alec complain. He got up, soothed him, went back to sleep. I couldn’t believe the way he took care of that dog.”
He’d done the same with her, Sky thought. He’d taken care of her when she’d needed help.
And because of his generosity his family now assumed they were involved.
And it was up to her to fix it.
She took the tea Suzanne offered her with a smile of thanks. She had no idea what a scone was, but it looked and smelled delicious. “About Alec—”
“He’s just a friend. I know. He’s told us the whole story while you were asleep.” Suzanne sat down on the side of the bed. “I apologize if we embarrassed you. The thing is, we didn’t think he’d ever bring a woman here again. His relationship with Selina was such a disaster. You’ve never seen two people more wrong for each other.”
“That would be the two of us.” Sky sipped her tea, deciding that honesty was the only way to convince them of the truth. “Alec and I kind of wind each other up. I irritate him and he annoys the hell out of me. I hope that doesn’t offend you.”
“Not at all. He annoys the hell out of all of us quite frequently,” Suzanne said calmly. “He’s my only son and I adore him, but he can be very stubborn and one of his biggest flaws is thinking he’s right all the time. Simon is the same. When the two of them argue, it’s like two stags clashing antlers. It often takes Alec a while to climb down from a stance he’s taken, but he gets there eventually.”
“He came to my exhibition because our friends forced him to. We barely even know each other, and then—well, things happened and— I don’t know why he helped me.”
It was a question she’d asked herself repeatedly.
He could have walked away and she wouldn’t have given it a second thought. He owed her nothing.
“If you don’t know the answer to that one then I believe you when you say you don’t know him. He couldn’t not help you. Alec would never walk past a person in trouble. That’s how he first met Selina. She was in trouble and he went to her rescue. What he didn’t know was that she was always in trouble. It was the way she lived her life. She’d had a very unsettled childhood, poor thing, and she couldn’t live without the attention.” Suzanne looked tired. “She exploited the kindness in him, drained every last drop of goodness until he was so empty and bitter there were days when I barely recognized my own son. He became hard, and my Alec was never hard. And I’ve said too much.” She gave an apologetic smile and Sky frowned.
If she’d had questions before she had a million more now. “He rescued her?”
“He hasn’t told you how they met?”
“He’s told me nothing. We barely know each other.”
Suzanne looked at her thoughtfully. “And yet he brought you here, and is very protective of you. He was adamant that no one was to come up here and wake you.”
Sky felt a strange fluttering in her chest. “Yeah, well, from what you’ve been telling me, that’s the way he is. It’s not personal.” She wasn’t going to pretend for one moment that it was. And she didn’t want it to be. She had enough complications in her life. “He thinks I’m a brainless blonde. When he wants to wind me up, which is often, he calls me princess.”
Alec’s mother laughed. “Wonderful.”
“Is it? I confess I didn’t take it as a compliment.”
“He’s clearly more affected by you than he’d like to admit, even to himself.” Suzanne picked up her tea and sat down on the sofa. “And he certainly doesn’t think you’re brainless. How could he? You’re very intelligent and he has made no secret of the fact he admires your work greatly.”
“I’ve never heard him admire it before today. Mostly, he’s pretty hostile toward me. We mix socially from time to time because we have mutual friends, but we don’t know each other. We’re not … intimate.” Apart from seeing each other naked and knowing all the embarrassing details of one another’s families. “He only came to my exhibition because our friend Brittany asked him to. Then I found myself in trouble and he helped me.”
And because she wanted to be clear about everything, because she owed it to Alec, she told his mother the whole truth, including details of the proposal and the fall.
Suzanne listened without interrupting. “So this Richard cared enough to propose, but then he walked out? That’s shocking. You poor thing. You not only have a bruised head, you have a bruised heart.” Suzanne reached out and covered her hand with hers. “How are you feeling about it all?”
It was the one question her own mother hadn’t asked.
She’d asked why Sky had broken up with a man who was perfect for her, when she was going to start making good choices and when she’d be home for Christmas.
She hadn’t once asked how her daughter was feeling.
Sky looked at Suzanne. She didn’t even know this woman, but something in the gentle warmth of her gaze unlocked something inside her. “I don’t know. Part of me is mad with him, but I’m even madder with myself. I keep going back over all the time we spent together trying to work out if any of it was real. I’m probably supposed to feel heartbroken, but instead I feel—”
“Betrayed?”