“It was like that with your daddy and me. Falling in love hard and fast. High emotions. They’re exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time, aren’t they?”
Chloe just nodded. She knew her parents had had a whirlwind courtship, but she hadn’t wanted to ask her mom too much by the time she was old enough to show an interest, because doing so would only cause her mom more pain.
“I’m sorry, Momma. I failed you.”
“No, don’t you dare say that! You haven’t failed me at all.”
“But I didn’t get the revenge we’d both talked about for so long. When it came down to it, I couldn’t do it.”
“And I’m glad you didn’t, to be honest. When you called me and told me that you weren’t going forward, I’ll admit I was mad at you for not following through with your plans, and I was determined to finish off what you started.” Releasing a pent-up breath, Loretta admitted, “But then I got to thinking, and I realized it shouldn’t have ever been your fight. It was mine. Realizing that made me see I’d failed you as a parent all these years. I put unrealistic pressures and expectations on you your whole life and, you know, to be totally honest, it’s all credit to you that you’re the incredible human being you are.
“I also realized that I’ve been selfish for quite long enough.”
“No, Momma, never selfish,” Chloe protested.
“Yes, honey. I can see that now. I was so wrapped in my own grief and all we’d lost with your daddy dying, and I harbored a fair amount of anger toward him, as well, for leaving us to deal with it all on our own. I just didn’t see how much you needed me, too. I took all the support you gave me and I expected more. That was wrong—and that’s going to change from here on in. I promise.
“When you told me about the drugs and the DEA, I knew that making that news public would be crippling to the Wingates. I wanted to do that more than anything, to bring them to their knees the way Trent Wingate brought your father to his. But I also realized that doing so would hurt you, too, and I’ve hurt you enough, my darling girl. It’s time I stopped living in the past. Time I took control of me and my life and let you live yours.”
“Oh, Momma, I don’t ever want to be without you,” Chloe said fervently.
“And you won’t be. But I’ll be the mother from this moment forward. You will be able to depend on me as should always have been your right. And I want you to reach out to your young man once he’s had a few days to calm down. You both deserve a bright future together.”
Chloe shook her head slowly. “I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for this. I betrayed him in the worst possible way.”
“Keep the faith. If your love for one another is as strong as you believe it is, it’ll work out eventually.”
“I hope so.”
“Believe it, honey. True love never dies. It takes a hit sometimes, but it never goes away.”
Chloe watched as her mom stacked their cups on the tray together with her breakfast plate and took it through to the kitchen. She wondered if her mom was right.
Fifteen
Miles was like a dead man walking. A snarly one at that. Everyone, even Daniel, had kept a wide berth since he’d sent Chloe home. Miles had been back in Royal for three weeks now, and they’d been both the worst and the best of his life. Heavy on the worst, he told himself.
Chloe had been gone only three days, and while he told himself, frequently, that was a good thing, he found himself missing her so badly it had become a physical ache. He’d avoided his family over the past weekend and had spent most of his waking hours at the head office of Wingate Enterprises working on running the beta version of the new IT security system his team back in Chicago had designed for the company. So far it had been running perfectly and at this rate, in another few days, he’d be able to head back to Chicago and be satisfied that any surprise glitches could be managed remotely from there.
But that didn’t stop the hurt that reverberated through his every waking moment. He let himself back into the house and headed for the stairs up to his room. It was late and the house was quiet, but he was surprised when he saw his mother come from the main sitting room.
“Miles, we need to talk,” she said firmly.
“Not now, Mom. I’m tired and I need my bed.”
“What you need is a good talking-to, and you’re going to get it whether it’s down here in the sitting room or up in your bedroom if I have to follow you there. And don’t think you can lock the door on me. This is my house, remember? I hold all the keys. So, which is it to be?”
Ava put her hands on her hips and stared at him, awaiting his response. Miles sighed in frustration, knowing she’d darn well follow him upstairs and to his room if he tried to avoid her.
“Fine,” he said with ill humor. “Let’s get it over with.”
“Thank you,” Ava murmured, preceding him into the sitting room.
She settled on one of the leather wingback chairs by a picture window that looked down the hill and toward the lake, although it was pitch-dark out now and even under the scant moonlight there was little to be seen. Ava gestured for him to take the other seat, and he threw himself down and leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees, hands clasped together and head bowed in acquiescence. He was startled when he felt his mother’s hand on his hair. Even more so when her fingers shifted to his chin and forced him to raise his face toward her.
“Miles, I hate seeing you like this.”
“What? Tired? Once I’m satisfied with the new IT system I’ll get plenty of rest again. But it’s vital everything is running properly before I leave because I don’t plan on being back anytime soon.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I had hoped, in these years since your father’s death, you would come to see this as a place you are always welcome to come home to. That you might even consider moving back to Royal, even if not onto the estate.”
He shook his head, staring at her in disbelief. “No, that’s not going to happen.”
“I know your father was hard on you, but—”
“Hard on me? He took every opportunity to let me know I was a disappointment to him. Hardly the actions of a good man or a good father.”
“Everything he did, he did for us,” Ava said in fierce defense.
“Everything? Really, Mom? Even driving a man to suicide? I don’t know how it made you feel to hear that the other day, but it made me sick to my stomach and ashamed to even bear the name Wingate. I can’t believe that even now, knowing what kind of man he truly was, that you still continue to stand by him or that you continue to mourn him.”
His mother’s face bore a mask of pain for a moment, but she pulled herself up straight and her features cleared.
“One can forgive much if the love is real, Miles. I want you to think about that. I know you sent Chloe away after discovering her background but I’d like you to consider just how different you are from your father right now. Isn’t that exactly what he would have done in the same situation?”
Miles flinched as if she’d slapped him. “Don’t go there, Mom. I’m nothing like him. Nothing!”
“Don’t you realize it, yet? The harder you try not to be like someone, often the more like them you become.” He stared at her in stony silence but allowed her to continue.
“You have all the good of your father. Be careful you don’t develop the bad along with it.” She released a quavering breath, and when she spoke again, her voice rang with emotion.
“Yes, I know he wore two masks. I know he could be ruthless at times, and while your father capitalized on another man’s unhappiness, he did everything he could to ensure that you children always had everything you ever needed whether it was the roof over your heads or the educations you undertook. He used to watch you sleep at night, when you were babies, and he’d share with me his dreams for our future, for the empire he wanted to build so that none of u
s would ever want for anything. He loved you all in his way.”
Miles wanted to refute his mother’s words. To tell her she’d viewed her late husband through rose-colored glasses and that the man had been a monster, not some gallant hero forging a life for his family. But deep down, he knew that, faults and all, that’s exactly what his father had done. It didn’t mean that Miles’s feelings toward him changed one iota, and he could live with that. What he couldn’t live with, however, was his mom thinking he was just like the man who’d fathered him.
Ava continued. “Miles, I need to be honest with you. I wasn’t thrilled when I saw you’d brought someone home with you, especially under the circumstances we’re facing. But I could see that she was special to you and, the longer you two stayed, the more I could see how right Chloe is for you. She brought out a softness I haven’t seen in you since you were a little boy. Softness your father drummed out of you. Yes, he shouldn’t have done that, but you’re an adult now. You make your choices. You decide how you treat people, how you’ll let them treat you.
“I know how hard you’ve worked to build your own empire and you’ve done an outstanding job. But—and you have to admit I’m right here—it’s a lonely life managing everything on your own. Chloe loves you. Even a blind man could see that. Give her another chance. Don’t let the fact she hid her true identity from you banish her from your life forever.”
“I trusted her,” he said bitterly.
“I know. We all did. And, when you look at the bigger picture, whatever her initial intentions were, she didn’t betray that trust. People make mistakes, but I believe she loves you, Miles. The way you deserve to be loved. Wholeheartedly. You need to make this right between the two of you.”
“I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Then maybe you’re your father’s son after all,” she said quietly.
Ava rose from her chair and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder before leaving the room. A cascade of thoughts tumbled through his mind. He thought back to the moment he met Chloe, to his instant visceral reaction to her. To his need to ensure she was okay, and not just medically okay but safely home and fed and cared for. Those weren’t his usual reactions on meeting someone. He’d taken her at face value and he’d acted accordingly. Why? She’d admitted she set up the whole thing. Goodness knows how many times she’d lain in wait for him, trying to force a meeting.
But there were no guarantees that even if they’d met that he’d have fallen for her bait and wanted to see more of her. She’d taken a risk but he had the feeling that for all the years of unhappiness she’d endured, she really hadn’t thought the whole thing through. And even if Chloe had released any of the information she’d gleaned from his family during her time here, how much damage could that have done to any of them, anyway? Every dirty, nasty, fact would come out eventually. In fact, he was surprised that nothing had leaked already.
Whoever had been trafficking the drugs stood to gain more by besmirching the Wingate family and falsifying their involvement in all this than whatever Chloe could possibly achieve by sharing details with the media. Which she hadn’t done in the end, anyway. Not even after he’d sent her back to Chicago. A truly vindictive woman bent on revenge would have been on the phone to the papers, selling her story to the highest bidder, the moment she was off the property. Maybe even before that. But Chloe hadn’t.
Miles got up and faced out the window at the darkness, staring at his reflection in the glass. Right now, he didn’t particularly like what he saw. Yes, he was still the same man who always stared back in the mirror when he shaved each day. But his eyes were empty. His soul bleak.
He missed her.
He wanted her.
He had to know if she’d been telling the truth about her feelings for him.
Acknowledging those things didn’t make him weak. It made him strong. And what he decided to do about it could make him even stronger.
The next morning, Miles went into the office before dawn. He ran a final check over the beta security system and decided it was time to hand it over. Just to be certain everything was covered, he contacted one of his best analyst/programmers back in Chicago, apologizing for waking her.
“Steph, I need you here on the Texas job. How quickly can you pack and get on a flight?”
He heard her sheets rustle as she obviously got out of bed, soon followed by the sound of fingers clicking on a keyboard.
“Well, I’ve missed the red-eye but I should be able to be there by three this afternoon. Is that soon enough?”
It would have to be. “Great,” Miles said abruptly. “I’ll have a car and a driver waiting at the airport for you when you arrive.”
“Sure, boss. Um, is everything okay?”
Miles allowed himself to smile for the first time in days. “It’s going to be.”
* * *
Chloe closed her classroom door behind her and made her way out of the building. Normally, she loved this time of year. The anticipation of the classroom filled with new faces. Of the bright young minds waiting to be filled with enthusiasm for learning. But today her feet dragged and her heart lay like a lump of concrete in her chest. She had to pull herself together in the next couple of weeks or she wouldn’t be bringing her best to her students or to her love of teaching. But how was she supposed to find joy when, no matter what she did, she couldn’t stop thinking about Miles Wingate?
Her mom was doing her best to cheer her up, but there were only so many mother-daughter dates you could fit into a week. Loretta had even suggested Chloe give up the lease on the house and come and live with her again. After relishing her independence all these years, she was shocked to find herself considering it. Yes, the commute to the elementary school where she taught would be longer, but she wouldn’t be so darn alone all the time.
She could tell her mom was deeply worried about the cloud of sorrow that hung around Chloe’s shoulders. It worried Chloe, too. Even after her father’s death she’d managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other. She’d needed to, for her mom’s sake. But now it was Momma that was the strong and supportive one, and all Chloe wanted to do was take to her bed, hide under the covers and not come out until her heart didn’t hurt so much anymore.
She’d walked to school today, hoping the much-needed exercise might help to lift her mood, but now, it was growing dark out and the idea of walking home didn’t hold a great deal of appeal. Still, she squared her shoulders and, with her house keys firmly lodged between the fingers of her right hand, she headed for home.
Chloe hadn’t been walking long before she became aware of a vehicle driving toward her. Dark and sleek and all too similar to the one Miles had driven, she felt her stomach lurch as she wondered if it was him. But the car continued on down the street, away from her, and she felt the sharp sting of tears in her eyes as she realized she’d have to be dreaming to think that a man like Miles Wingate would ever forgive her for what she’d done, let alone come and find her.
She dashed the tears away, firmly telling herself to get a grip. She couldn’t spend forever moping about. She had a life to live. Kids to teach. Maybe even someone new to fall in love with.
At the thought of allowing herself to get close to anyone else, her stomach did that weird lurch again. No, she definitely wasn’t ready to consider that again. Not now and maybe not ever. Everything was still so raw. Chloe knew she’d done wrong, and that she had to learn from this and move on. She kept striding forward, knowing each step took her closer to home and the chance to lock herself away in her little house and nurse her wounded soul in private.
The sound of rubber on the road behind her made her stop in her tracks, her fingers clutching her keys even tighter than before. A dark shape drew up beside her. Her heart hammered in her chest. The car’s engine was soundless, which was why she hadn’t even heard its approach until it was right there beside her, but she recognized t
he outline of the sleek machine. The driver’s door was flung open, and the interior light of the car blazed on, revealing an all too familiar male figure before he alighted from the car and stood there, staring at her over the top of the roof. She felt his presence as if it was an emotional punch to her midriff. Seeing him standing there sent her already chaotic emotions into overdrive, leaving her conflicted and confused.
“We need to talk,” Miles said in a low monotone.
She couldn’t say why, but instead of leaping at the opportunity she’d been dreaming of, she just got mad.
“Why, hello, Chloe. How are you? Did you make it home from Royal, okay? Oh, lovely, I see you did. And how are you faring? Well, I hope.” Fury mounted, replacing the miasma of misery she’d been dwelling on within. “We need to talk, do we? You wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to talk to you before. Why the hell should I listen to you now?”
She turned her back on him and kept walking. There was a dull thud of a car door and then the creeping sound of tires on the road as he followed her. The car drew up beside her again and the passenger window rolled down.
“Chloe, please. I’d like to talk.”
Every cell in her body was urging her to do as he asked. To actually stop walking and get into that luxury status symbol that he drove, but a perverse imp of self-preservation made her keep putting one foot in front of the other. A couple was walking toward her, and she saw concern painted clearly on both their faces. The man stepped forward.
“Ma’am, are you okay? Is this guy bothering you?” he asked. “Would you like us to call the police?”
“No, it’s okay. I know him, I just—”
She just what? She didn’t know what she wanted. From the minute she’d left the Wingate estate, she’d wanted Miles. In fact, through every waking moment and almost every sleeping one since, she’d wanted him. She’d wanted what they had to be still in one piece, not shattered and bleeding all over the floor. She’d wanted to feel as if she was a part of him, the way he was indelibly a part of her. She dragged in another breath before speaking to her potential rescuer.
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