Page 34 of Silent Cravings

“Who is this?” Lucian turned on his stool, putting on a charming smile while he sized her up. I wanted to tell him to take his attention elsewhere. She was my most trusted employee, and I couldn’t afford her complaining about being harassed by one of my best friends.

Thankfully, she was too interested in whatever made her approach us to pay much attention to him. “This is Serena, my event coordinator,” I explained. Turning away from him, I asked her, “What can I help you with? I thought you were only stopping in for a few minutes this morning.”

“I was until I ran into someone.” She gulped, lowering her voice to a whisper. “He’s been waiting up in your office for an hour and a half. I would’ve called to tell you, but he insisted on keeping it a surprise.”

“There he is.” My father’s voice rang out, stabbing me in the ears and making me cringe before I composed myself. Son of a bitch. He strutted across the dining room, his white hair gleaming in the sunlight, turning him into a beacon as he passed between tables.

Fuck me.The man had a sixth sense when it came to destroying a good time. My skin crawled, and my stomach churned, but I couldn’t let it show.

“Dad. I thought you were in Morocco until next month.” Incredible, the way the sight of him could take what had been a great day and turn it into something cringe-inducing.

“Your mother’s still there, shopping her way through the country.” He offered a brief handshake before turning to the guys. I was only half aware of Miles introducing himself, of Colton asking how business had been lately. Why, of all times, did he have to show up now?

I knew why, and the answer didn’t provide any comfort. What he wanted more than anything was to find out I’d run the place into the ground. He had never expected me to make a success out of this, much less on the scale I’d managed it. Anyone could sit back and do the bare minimum, letting a business run itself with the help of countless assistants and underlings. I was the one who had the balls and the vision to do more than coast by the way he always had.

And he couldn’t fucking stand it.

He could smile all he wanted, but there was no hiding that hard glint in his eye. Sizing things up, judging, looking for any excuse to put me down. To make sure my head didn’t get too big. One of his favorite sayings, one of many empty statements I’d heard so many times, they became a mantra I repeated to myself whenever I lost sight of how deeply I needed to succeed.

“Obviously, nothing as busy as this.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder in response to Colton’s question, and it took everything I had not to shake him off. “But we aren’t all business geniuses like this one.”

“Careful with that genius talk,” Lucian warranted him with a grin. “We don’t want him getting an even bigger opinion of himself.”

“I’m not sure that would be possible.” Dad shone hisfriendly, affable smile on me, and I hoped for my friends’ sake that my grimace looked like a smile.

“Let him have a huge opinion of himself,” Colton insisted, grinning my way. “So long as it means my wedding goes off without a hitch. Mr. Anderson, we expected you would still be out of the country, or else we would have?—”

“No need to explain,” Dad told him with a hearty laugh. “Congratulations, by the way. If I hadn’t gotten so damn bored of all that shopping at this bazaar and that market, I would still be over there. I suspect I’ll have to fly back soon, anyway, to make sure my wife doesn’t bankrupt me.”

Relief cooled the heat spreading through my chest. Good. He wouldn’t be here to ruin things. Here I was, close to thirty years old, and the man still had the power to get under my skin. He was the sort of man who used to brag about scheming his way out of doing chores when he was a kid, who couldn’t understand when I first approached him with suggestions on how to improve his business. All because some of us studied and learned in college rather than going through the motions.

I knew something else about him that my friends didn’t. He held a lifelong contempt toward people like them, though he would never show it outside his immediate family. He had grown up with the stigma of being new money, and as an adult, he’d been rich enough to own and run country clubs but not wealthy enough to count the members among his friends. We had nothing like the fortune the Diamond and Black families had amassed. Enough to afford a long trip to Morocco but not enough to send me to an exclusive prep school like the one I’d attended. Only a scholarship had made that possible. Maybe he would have made enough money and then some if he had only tried to do more than skate by.

As always, his hypocrisy made my skin crawl. “Why don’t we go to my office… have a chat?” I suggested, getting up from my seat.

“No, that’s fine,” he insisted. “I don’t want to take you away from your guests. I’ve been waiting so long, I’m almost late for an appointment as it is. We’ll have to catch up soon.” With another handshake, he was gone, his white hair disappearing around the corner as he approached the lobby. It was just like him, popping in to remind me he existed, then leaving without explaining what the hell was so important in the first place.

I picked up my iced tea, the taste of which brought Valentina to mind—the iced tea we drank at my house before the power went out then what played out after. “What time was the shower scheduled for?” I asked no one in particular, playing it off like a casual question.

The guys exchanged glances, knowing exactly why I abruptly changed the topic. Except for Miles, who was new to the group, they knew enough about our uncomfortable history to leave it alone. His mouth snapped shut when Lucian shot him a look.

“I think it started around eleven,” Colton replied.

“It will probably go on for hours,” Noah predicted with a smirk. “Get a bunch of women together, talking about weddings and babies, and you’re talking about an all-day event.”

“Thinking about going over there and looking for some fresh blood?” Lucian inquired with a knowing grin. “I was thinking along those lines, myself.”

“Do you ever stop thinking about pussy?” Miles asked.

“No,” Lucian deadpanned, earning a laugh from the rest of the group. I did my best, but it came off as half-hearted and empty. I needed to see Valentina.

All it took was a few minutes with my father to stir up a lifetime of bullshit. She was the only one who knew what things were really like with him. The way he looked down on my friends while kissing their asses, along with their fathers’ asses, of course. The hypocrisy was endless. How could a man who’d had everything handed to him resent Colton and the others for living the same way? And unlike my friends, Dad had never bothered going above and beyond. He had built nothing of his own. I had no doubt it ate at him as much as anything else.

Valentina would understand. She always had.

I stared down at my phone, waffling between texting her and letting it go. What could she do, after all?She could listen.So could my living room wall. A wall could do roughly as much for me as she could anyway. Nothing would change once I’d vented like a whiny child.

Still, the impulse was surprisingly intense. What would it be like to have someone to go home to after being bombarded?

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