Page 92 of Love Without Demands

“Oh, corazón mío,” she said, patting her chest.

“So you’ll come?” I had the sudden urge to spill my guts to my mother about everything. Working with Auburn. Meeting my biological dad. Everything.

I’d been upset about her hiding my paternity when I first found out, but after reading the letters and my long talks with Paul, I understood that she was only doing what she thought was right. But I wanted—needed—to clear the air.

“I’ll see when I can get away,” she promised. “Te amo, my hijo.”

“Te amo también, mamá.”

I’d organized the letters between Papa and Paul, arranging them chronologically and reading them like a conversation between the two men. With one of them in my pocket, I entered the restaurant and found our usual table at the back.

“Son, how are you?” Paul asked, rising and giving me a hug, which I returned. It was becoming easier and easier to relate to this man, and I enjoyed our weekly dinners as much as he seemed to. We no longer focused on what happened all those years ago, and instead, we just talked. Like a normal father and son would do.

Paul had served as my sounding board regarding my feelings for Lehra. While he initially agreed that I should give her time, after a few months, he pointed out that maybe she was waiting on me to make a move. I think his exact words were, “Cruz, you need to either shit or get off the pot.”

Then I’d seen her quiz results on her phone and knew he was right. Knew Lehra and I would be perfect together.Like I didn’t already feel that with every fiber of my soul.

“I’m good. How is your week going?”

“Very well. I was glad to see you at Monty’s get-together. You two seem to get along well.” He smiled. “That makes me so happy.”

“Me too. He’s a good friend.” The server brought our drinks and took our food orders before I continued. “I think I’m feeling better about telling them. I just… I don’t know… I wanted them to get to know me as a person before we tell them I’m their brother.”

Paul’s smile and nod were filled with compassion. “I understand where you’re coming from on that. Whenever you’re ready, we’ll tell them.”

“Thanks,” I said with gratitude for his patience. “I talked with Mama today, and I’m trying to talk her into coming up for a visit.”

His breaths visibly quickened, and I wondered, not for the first time, if he still had feelings for my mom. He always spoke about her with something like reverence. “So you can talk to her about everything? I know you said that you wanted to talk to her face-to-face.”

“I do, and after I get the whole story from her point of view, I think I’d feel more comfortable talking to Monty and Auburn.”

Paul was quiet for a moment. “After you speak with Stella, would you ask her if she’d be willing to meet with me? If it would make her uncomfortable, I completely understand, but I’d likethe opportunity to ask her what Chloe said to her when she fired her. And to apologize and let her know I knew nothing about it until she didn’t come to work the next week.”

“I’ll ask her. Hopefully, after all these years, she’ll be okay with it.”

“Thank you, Cruz. How are things going with Lehra?”

We chatted about that for a few minutes, and after Kenzie brought our food, I pulled the letter from my pocket and handed it over. “I was wondering if you could tell me more about this letter. It’s the only one I’ve seen that was a bit hostile between you two.”

Paul opened it and smiled after reading. “Yes, Benjamin was quite annoyed at me.” He laid down the letter, forked up a bite of his salmon and chewed slowly. “This was shortly after I found out about you. I’d agreed to step back since you were obviously in good hands with your parents, but I still wanted to support you financially. I called Ben and made an offer to him.”

“Oh, like child support?”

“Yes, initially, but… well, he took offense to that. Said he was perfectly capable of supporting his family.”

“I can imagine. Papa was very proud.”

Paul chuckled and tapped the sheet of paper with his knuckle. “He was indeed. He sent me this letter to let me know what I could do with my money. I gave him time to cool off and called him again a few weeks later.”

“I’m guessing you two worked things out?”

“We did. I came up with another proposition that was more… palatable to him. See, at that time, your papa was a private investigator at a firm, working for someone else. The guy he worked for was a bit of an ass. He grossly underpaid and overworked his employees, so I offered to start a corporation with Ben as the CEO. He would have full control over all theoperations, though I would provide the office space and any necessities.”

Taking a bite of my chicken, I scraped through my memories. “I don’t remember Papa working for another firm.”

“You were probably too young. Anyway, my proposal would give him the opportunity to work for himself, and then, after seven years, I would sign over the entire corporation to him. Of course, as you know, Benjamin’s business flourished, and he did very well for himself.”

I smiled across the table at him. “So you gave Papa autonomy, but you were still able to help out financially without making him feel like he was taking a handout.” Paul was a damn smart man.

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