Page 153 of The One I Hate
“May I ask who?”
He nods. “Maeve’s first interior design client was this house. I gave her the money to buy everything she needed to create the space. Before she knew it, she was designing every bachelor and recently divorced man’s house in Middle Tennessee.”
“I’m sure that’s a lucrative business.”
“You have no idea,” he says. “Oliver and Izzy’s wedding? I took care of your catering bill. For Stella’s wedding I’ve paid for the honeymoon. She’ll find that out at her shower. And don’t get me started on the amount of shit I’ve bought Magnolia for her YouTube channel.”
“Mag…wait…is that who you named your company after?”
“She might not be blood, but the first time someone calls you uncle, you don’t forget it.”
Okay, now I’m going to cry. “Simon, why didn’t you just tell me? And I know why you didn’t tell me you owned it to begin with. You’re right, I would’ve run. Hell, I would’ve never even come down here to look at the place.”
“And then you would have never had your diner. The diner you were meant to have.”
“You’re right. I probably wouldn’t. But after? After we were together? There had to be times you could’ve told me?”
I see him wrestling with that decision, even now. “There were times. I’ve sat here for the past three days thinking of every moment I could have. And I wanted to. But I was scared.”
“So scared that you risked me finding out like I did?”
“Yeah,” he admits. “I went fifteen years thinking you disappeared off the face of the Earth. Every time I thought about telling you, knowing you’d be pissed, all I could think about was my life without you again. Without our baby. Just knowing you as the one who got away again. It scared me so much I was willing to take the risk.”
Shit…I never even thought of it from that angle. “Simon…you know I’d never take the baby away. You’re her father. No matter what happens between us, now or in the future, this baby will never not know you.”
He hangs his head for a second before looking back up to me. “I know. But more than once in my life you’ve made me a desperate man, Charlie Bennett. And a desperate man doesn’t do rational things.”
How is that romantic? I don’t know how, but it is.
“I’m still mad,” I say. “You have to promise me, right now, that there are no other secrets or things you did without my knowledge.”
“The glasses were the last of the secrets. And I have a PowerPoint listing all the things I did for your review, in case I forgot any.”
“A PowerPoint?”
“Yes. Long story.”
I shake my head because I don’t know if I want to know. “Promise me, Simon, from now on, you can’t go behind my back like that.”
“I won’t.”
“And if you want to help, talk to me so we can figure out a rational way of doing it.”
“I’ll talk, but not promising rational means.”
“I can live with that,” I say. “But we need to talk about the money. And Mona’s.”
We both tense slightly, knowing this is going to be the true battle.
“Will you finally let me just give you the restaurant?”
I shake my head. “Absolutely not.”
“Well I’m not letting you pay me rent,” he says. “And as I said at the beginning of this meeting, the ball is in your court. I’m here to help make your dreams come true.”
I take a breath, hoping that my suggestion will be one he can agree to.
“Would you be open to a rent-to-own contract?”
