Dare to Love (Dare to Love 1)
“Oh hell no.” Ian spun around, turning to go.
“Ian. Don’t walk out on me.”
He clenched his fists as he pivoted back and strode to the table where his father now stood. “But you had no trouble doing the same to me. To us.”
“That’s right. I did it. Now sit down and listen to my side for once.”
Ian reared back, both at the admission of guilt and the fact that his father demanded to be heard. He hesitated a brief moment.
“I suggest you sit and talk to me. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life not only resenting me but giving up on the woman you love.”
“My mother sent you here.”
“Yes.”
“To set me straight.”
“Right again.”
In other words, if he didn’t have this talk, his mother would make sure she sat him down and did it herself. But for some reason, she’d decided to ask him to do it instead.
“Let’s get this over with.” Ian pulled out a chair and sat down.
His father did the same.
“I have no excuse for what I did. Your mother and I had an arrangement. I not only violated the sanctity of marriage by cheating, but I was a shitty father.”
“To some of us,” Ian muttered.
Robert braced his arms on the table. “To all of you. Savannah knew about your mother. I’m not sure which of the kids knew too, but trust me when I say, they didn’t like me not being married to their mother, and when I told them about all of you—they resented being the illegitimate ones.”
His words gave Ian pause. Not once had he thought about Alex and his siblings getting short shrift. Not. Once.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “What’s your point?”
“You are not making this easy.” Robert shook his head, but Ian had to give the man credit, he didn’t get up and leave. No, he stuck it out.
“Did you really expect me to?”
“My point is, none of you have good reason to trust or believe in people. The thing is, you underestimate people. You underestimate yourself. Look at what you’ve done for your sisters. For your mother. You’ve been their rock.”
Compliments? From Robert Dare?
“Look at what you’re capable of, and now let me ask you, are you really going to give up on Riley when she needs you the most?”
“Now we get to the point. You really think I’m going to sit and listen to you give me advice on love?”
His father grinned. “At least I know you love her. There’s a place to start.”
Ian sat back in his chair and groaned. “Yes. I love her. But she—”
“No buts, boy. If your mother hadn’t said yes to marrying me, things would have been different. If she hadn’t said, ‘I might love someone else, but my father’s sick so I have to marry a man of my parents’ choosing’…well, I wouldn’t have you wonderful children I don’t deserve. But she’d have the man she really loved.”
Ian’s eyes opened wide at his father’s full knowledge of his mother’s emotions and feelings.
“Don’t look so shocked. I knew I wasn’t it for her. To say we didn’t have a shot? Well, that’s an understatement. But you and Riley? What could possibly be holding you back except for the fact that my behavior left you unable to trust or hold on to a good woman?”
Ian grew dizzy.