Color Me Pretty: A Father's Best Friend Romance

“I started drinking in my office after Abigail left for the day. Drank myself stupid, honestly, letting that jackass’s words get to me. I believed him. And, after a while, people were pulling away from IM with their money. Looking back now, it wouldn’t surprise me if Pratt told them to. Gave them money in order to take the loss that partnering with me meant. He wanted in to do God knows what. It wasn’t like I had big operations like some of the other businesses he took control of.”

“And you came to me?”

I wanted to ask, where else would I go? I didn’t though. “Yeah, sweetheart, I came to you. Even then I knew what I wanted but told myself I didn’t deserve it. Convinced myself the world would be against us because it wasn’t right I claimed you when you and your father were going through hell. It wasn’t the right time.”

She shook her head. “Would it have ever been? If my father didn’t…if he hadn’t been killed, would you have even done anything with me? You always fought it.”

“I wanted to believe there was somebody better out there for you,” I admitted, sighing over how much time I’d lost by being an ass. Whenever I got pissed at the idea of Della falling for somebody, I told myself I had no right. It didn’t stop me from turning green and smoking, drinking, or trying to fuck it out. But I didn’t want another woman. I’d wanted Della.

“I don’t want anyone else, Theo.”

“I know that.” I kissed her cheek. “I’m glad. Probably wouldn’t end well. I’d chase them off like that asshole who kept asking you to study for that history class you took last year. The douchebag with the dyed hair.”

She gasped. “Ray? I thought he stood me up when I finally agreed to meet with him at the Hut!”

I knew she did. She’d called me complaining and I offered to hang out with her to get her mind off it. I’d bought her favorite drink from a local café, ordered us dinner, and told her we could watch whatever she wanted.

I hadn’t felt bad at all.

“You kind of suck, Theo.” She didn’t sound upset, more amused than anything. “Ray. Huh. I wasn’t going out with him. I was helping him study.”

I eyed her. “That wasn’t what he wanted, and I knew it. Couldn’t let him try making a move. And don’t get me started on Pretty Boy. Watching him flirt with you makes me want to vomit and throat punch him.”

Now she was laughing. “Ren knows I’m not interested, and he isn’t into me. We’re friends and nothing will ever change that.”

I hugged her into me. “I wouldn’t ask you to change that. Nobody that truly loves you would ask you to stop being part of other people’s lives for them.”

She was quiet for a moment. “I know.”

“I know you do.”

I knew where Sophie was from the strong scent of her expensive perfume that drifted from the parlor. She was talking with somebody on the phone when she saw me, her brows lifting when I stopped at the doorway.

She hung up a moment later, dropping the phone onto a small plant table. “You’re the last person I expect to see in my home, especially when Adele isn’t here.”

“You know—” I walked toward the window that overlooked the extensive garden I knew she didn’t keep up herself, “—she prefers being called Della. Don’t you think it’s time you started calling her that?”

“Her name is Adele. Why on earth would I call her something different? Especially something as childish as Della.”

Patience, I reminded myself. “She’s meeting with a professor of hers. Figured now would be a good time to talk.”

Sophie sat at her usual spot by the opposite window that rested beside her pianoforte. For somebody who pushed Della so hard to learn, she never played herself. I knew she could, had seen it a time or two, but all it did was collect dust. “I don’t see what we could possibly have to talk about.”

That amused me. “Take your pick. It could be about the ten thousand dollars you offered Nicholas McAllister to make the article disappear and get the hell out of the city before Richard Pratt could turn on him, or it could be about the money you threw around different law agencies that your husband wasn’t associated with in case things got bad in the media. I’m sure he loved that when word got back to him.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” was her defense instantly. Not that I expected any different.

“Luckily for you, I don’t give a fuck what you do with your money. Or, in this case, your husband’s money. Have at it. I’m here to talk to you about Della.”

She straightened. “What about her?” Her eyes studied mine a little too carefully as I walked from the window to the seat across from her. Something clouded her vision. “Jesus. You finally did it, didn’t you?”

“Excuse me?”

Sophie pulled a cigarette out of a box that she’d always kept in the crevice of the seat cushion, using the lighter from the small table beside her and lighting it up. “Lydia always told me there’d come a day when you went through with it. I told her that she was crazy. There was no way you’d do such an idiotic thing as go after your only true friend’s daughter. Especially with the age difference and circumstance.”

I dropped into the seat and leisurely draped an ankle over one of my knees. “That’s why I’m here.” One of her brows quirked. “We both know Della is the type of person who cares deeply about what people think about her and the choices she makes. The last thing I want is for you to say something that makes her feel guilty over doing something that makes her happy because you disapprove.”

She blew out a cloud of smoke. “You think I can be told what to do by you? Adele is too easily influenced by people which only proves my point. She’s only latching onto you because you were there for her during the worst. What happens when she meets a boy her own age and