“Well, it scared more than just the men away,” Min said flatly. “That’s when our fortunes began to take a turn. It took several generations for the wealth to peter out completely, but I’m not sure there’s been a man for generations, besides brothers, who’ve stayed connected to this family for longer than a few years.”
“Good thing I don’t believe in fairy tales, then,” he said. “Who knows, maybe with the find of the Rapid, your family’s fate is about to change.”
Min raised her glass. “I think a toast is in order. To the crew aboard the Discovery; may they discover a way to change both our fate and our fortunes.”
Bella lifted her glass and so did he, touching the crystal glasses together so that they rang out like a bell.
“I’ll drink to that,” he said. He took a swallow then set his glass aside for a moment. “So what are you planning to do, if we find this crystal ball, and if it actually turns out to be a diamond?”
Bella rubbed her glass with her thumb and sat back in her chair. “Well, I might put it on the fireplace mantle.”
He gave her an incredulous look. “Really? I can think of a lot better uses than that once it’s broken the curse.”
She took another sip of her wine. “In all honesty, once I pay off our debts from selling any of the other finds we make, I’d like to give something back to the city.”
“You mean like a charity or something?”
Her eyes narrowed as she thought. “No, more like a museum. Something that could bring tourists to the city and at the same time celebrate our heritage.”
Min nodded. “Makes sense. I swear I’m the only woman in this family that’s ever lived outside this place since we got here when it was still a colony.”
“I even saw this building down by the waterfront for sale across from the original Café du Monde that would make a fabulous location,” Bella said. She shook her head. “But that’s a pipe dream. Right now, we’ve got to see what’s even down there.”
They all sipped their wine, and Min looked over at Bella. “So tell me how things are going. What have you found so far?”
Bella’s eyes lit up, her enthusiasm making her practically sparkle. How Phillip could have been stupid enough to let her get away, he had no idea. She was beautiful, levelheaded, and smart. In fact, come to think of it, perhaps having Bella by his side would be the icing on the fuck-you cake he planned to give his half brother. Not only would he lose the family company, he’d see the sexy-as-hell woman he’d been too short-sighted to keep on his bastard brother’s arm.
There was only one problem with that scenario, sweet as it was. Bella would have to want to be on his arm. She wasn’t some airhead reality starlet to be toyed with. She wouldn’t be in any kind of relationship with him unless she truly wanted to be. Perhaps he was going to have to work harder at gaining her attention and even harder still to get her to see the sense in selling the crystal ball, if they found it. But that would have to wait. For now, he enjoyed listening to the two Dupré women talk with excitement. Bella told Min all about their finds of the last few weeks, while the utensils clinked on the china as they ate. They laughed and talked, filling in the space.
There were no awkward silences or grim stares at this table. Frankly, he envied the easy flow of conversation and shared inside jokes between them. That was something he’d never had with anyone besides his mother and one or two close friends. For him, family meant him and his mother, just the two of them.
There had only been one or two family dinners with his father present that he could remember. Both times he’d felt the heavy stare of his father on him, as if the man expected something miraculous to happen as he ate his dinner and tried to remember to sit up straight in an uncomfortable collared shirt and stiff slacks and keep his elbows off the table and his mouth shut unless spoken to. His mother had expected him to be seen, but not heard.
“You enjoying that chicken?” Min said as she pointed a fork at his plate and smiled. “You’ve been awfully quiet, so I’ll assume it’s because my food is too good to stop eating for conversation.”
He returned her jovial smile with one of his own. “Definitely the best meal I’ve had in years. Nothing beats a good home-cooked meal.”
Bella made a derisive noise.
“Now I know you didn’t make that noise because you don’t like my cooking,” Min added, looking pointedly in Bella’s direction.
“No, you know I love it. It’s just I find it hard to believe that with as much world-traveling as Tuck’s apparently done, and given the chef on his crew, he hasn’t run into any food finer than a regular Sunday night supper at the Dupré house.”
“Then maybe it’s the company as much as the food,” he said and winked at Min just to piss Bella off.
Bella sighed and rolled her eyes. “Could you lay it on any thicker without a shovel?”
“Belladonna Dupré, that is no way to talk to a guest at our table,” Min said, her tone reprimanding and jovial at the same time. “Besides, maybe I enjoy a little male flattery now and then from someone so handsome.”
Bella gulped back a drink of wine. “I don’t understand why you take him seriously. He doesn’t even take himself seriously.”
Min’s penetrating green eyes focused on him, sifting through his soul like a douser looking for water. “Maybe that’s because this poor boy never got to have much fun when he was a kid, Bella. Can’t blame him for seeking it out as a man.”
An awkward moment took over, where they were all silent, chewing sounds and the clinking of silverware the only things accompanying the radio softly playing eighties rock in the background.
“When was the last time you had dinner with your family?” Min’s question couldn’t have been more pointed.
He shifted in his seat under the scrutiny of both women looking at him, expecting him to fess up to something he simply didn’t talk about. With anyone.
“A very long time ago. Probably before junior high.”
“What?” Bella said, then stared at him. “You’re kidding.”
“No. My father wasn’t exactly the family type, at least not with my mom and me. I think he saved that up for his other kids.”
“What about your mom? Surely she had family dinners with you,” Min said.
He shrugged. “When she wasn’t pining away for him, or with him, we ate together, but it was usually takeout or fast food. Cooking wasn’t her strong point.”
“Didn’t you spend any time with your father?” Bella asked.
“He came over for dinner once or twice when I was a kid. Most of the time he didn’t show up until I was already in bed. I could hear him and my mother laughing together and doors closing, but not much else.” Tuck stopped himself. Why in the hell share this with her? Maybe it was the wine Min had served. It was damn good, and he’d had several glasses.
“But your dad obviously loved you. I mean, why would he provide for you and your mom if he didn’t care? He could have just walked out on both of you. That happens often enough. Take it from a girl who knows.”
Tuck set down his wineglass, aware that if he gripped the slender stem any tighter he might snap it in two. “Guilt, plain and simple, and probably a dash of pride. He didn’t want it spread around that his illegitimate child was an idiot—might have reflected badly on him—so he paid for me to go to school. He made sure I had tutors, then private school after third grade where most of the kids were shuttled there by their nannies or chauffeurs. Turns out a lot of them saw their parents less than I did, so not seeing my father was normal to them.”
“But you still lived at home and saw your mother, didn’t you? At least you had that family,” Min said.
“I did, until junior high. By then, dear old Dad thought having a mistress with an older child was a bit of an inconvenience, so he had me sent away to boarding school in Switzerland.”
“And your mom let him?” Min said, crumpling up the napkin in her hand.
“Oh, she not only let him, she
applauded it, because I was going to get a first-rate education at some of the finest schools in the world. I got to see her on holidays, but that was about it.”
No one had come to his high school graduation, because it was too far away and too inconvenient. For many years his ambition had been to earn his father’s praise and approval. It had never come. By his freshman year at an Ivy League school, his father had passed away, leaving him and his mother on their own again, without the benefit of his financial support.
“But your father sent you to college,” Bella said.
“He did. Then he died. And once he died, his legitimate son, as the executor of his estate, decided he didn’t like a trust fund going to the mistress and kid who’d made his and his mother’s lives so miserable, so he had it legally cut off by putting a rider on it.”
“You mean like a certain age?” Min asked.
“No, more like a certain number. The value of the trust is ten million. He set it up so I can’t touch it until I match what my father left for me.”
“Match? Ten million dollars. That’s ridiculous!” Bella fumed.
He shrugged. “It is what it is.” With hard work and savvy investments, he’d passed that marker less than a year ago. He refused to touch the trust. It was like blood money, his mother’s life put into a monetary value. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough yet to buy out the McCormack Group valued at forty million.
“How can you be so casual about it? God, Tuck, don’t you ever get worked up about anything?” she said sharply.
He grabbed hold of the wineglass, and took a drink, trying hard to swallow down the mix of emotions swirling in his system down deep so they wouldn’t well up and spill out.
“I learned a long time ago that getting worked up over things I couldn’t change wouldn’t get me anywhere,” he said as he swirled the dark red wine around in his glass. “Focus and drive are way more helpful. And for focus, you need a calm head. For drive, you need clear thinking.” He looked at Bella and took a sip.
“But matching that enormous amount isn’t even possible.”
He gave her a crooked grin. “Anything is possible, Bella. It only depends on how badly you want it.”
She slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze. Sure, it was sympathy, but right now holding her hand made things better.
The thumping of the ancient doorknocker echoed off the plaster walls and marble floor in the front entryway. Bella turned to her aunt. “Did you invite someone else to dinner?”
“If I did, they’re about an hour too late,” she said and tossed her napkin on the table.
“I told Toneau we’d be here if the crew needed to find us.”
“Then maybe it’s someone from your work. Personally, I’m hoping it’s Publishers Clearing House, and they’ve got an oversize check. Sit. I’ll get it,” Min said. She headed out of the dining room to answer the front door.
The sound of a muffled male voice mingled with Min’s higher feminine tones, and the two became louder as two sets of footsteps approached the dining room. Immediately Bella dropped her hold on his hand and pulled both her hands into her lap, folding them tightly together.
What the hell?
Bella would know that voice anywhere. Jackson Palmer, her boss’s son. Of all the craptastic timing. She decided fate was being a serious pain in the ass tonight.
Her ear caught the slightly irritated quality of Min’s voice, but she doubted that Jackson even noticed. He was kind of dense when it came to picking up signals. She’d already told him several times before that she wasn’t interested in dating him, but he wouldn’t take the hint. Until this point, it had been a minor annoyance, but him stopping by like this was taking it too far.
He and Tucker were probably as polar opposite as one could get on the potential dating pool scale. Where Jackson was naturally amiable and clueless, one always got the sense from Tucker that he was a step ahead, his wit sharp, and his comments even sharper. More than that, Tucker had the air of being a shark beneath the water, powerful, lethal, and not to be messed with, while Jackson was more like a goldfish, happy to swim in circles in the same small bowl until a meal came along. Which, come to think of it, was probably why he was here.
Aunt Min always was punctual about dinner. She was a free spirit in many ways, but there were a few family traditions she clung to, and one of those was Sunday dinner, promptly at five. Without even meaning to, Bella noticed she’d leaned away from Tucker at the sound of Jackson’s voice. He strolled into the dining room with Aunt Min, a bouquet of yellow roses in his hand, and all smiles until he saw there was another man in the room. The edges of his smile faltered.
“Hey, Bella, I heard you were back on land for a bit, and I thought I’d surprise you. Sorry, didn’t realize you’d have company.”
“Jackson, this is Tucker McCormack,” Aunt Min said, quickly stepping into the awkward opening in the conversation. “His crew is working with Bella on the salvage of the Rapid.”
Jackson gave a quick, curt nod to Tucker. “Oh right, the salvage operator my dad mentioned. Nice to meet you. I’m Bella’s boyfriend, Jackson Palmer.”
Bella’s stomach dropped as she watched that keen gaze she knew so well take in Jackson and measure him without the man even realizing it. Tuck extended a hand, apparently deciding he wasn’t a threat. “Nice to meet you.”
Tuck threw her a questioning look that she easily interpreted as what the hell?
She glowered at Jackson. “You are not my boyfriend. We aren’t even dating.”
“Aren’t these beautiful?” Min grabbed the flowers from Jackson. “I’ll put these in some water. I think there’s some dinner left in the kitchen. Let me get you a plate,” Min said, smoothly leaving Bella alone in the room with two men who were sizing one another up like two dogs with one bone.
“Bella’s something, isn’t she? I bet she’s keeping your crew on their toes.”
“Yes, she certainly is. She’s full of surprises,” Tucker replied.
Rather than have them continue discuss her like an artifact from a dive, she pushed her way into their testosterone-fueled exchange.
“Would you two excuse me for a moment?” Belatedly her manners kicked into gear. “Jackson, can I get you something to drink?”
He glanced at Tucker. “A glass of wine would be nice.”
“Coming right up.”
“You wouldn’t mind getting me another glass, too, would you?” Tucker drawled and held out his glass to her.
“Sure.” Bella poured some wine in his glass and then a glass for Jackson, but found when it came to her own glass there was only a sip or two left. Damn, just when she could have used it. She held up the bottle. “Be right back. Need to get another bottle,” she said as she headed for the kitchen.
She pushed on the swinging door so hard it almost slapped her in the butt on the rebound. Min was humming to herself, a perfect plate of dinner in one hand and a cake stand, with a frosted lemon cake balanced on top in the other. The roses from Jackson were artfully arranged in a cut glass vase.
“Here, let me get the cake,” Bella said.
Min’s lips twitched. “Getting a little warm in there for you?”
Bella bit her lip. “You should see the two of them in there, sizing one another up. As if I’d even consider dating either of them.”
Min shrugged. “It’s what men do when they are in competition for the same woman.”
“They are not in competition over me.”
“You sure about that, cher?” Min set the plate and cake stand down and rested her lower back against the countertop. “Because from where I’ve been sitting, Tucker has been sending a whole lot of signals your way that he’s sweet on you.”
Bella sighed. “He may be sweet on me, but I’m looking to settle down and he’s not. End of story.”
“Is it? The way I see things, you two are closer in a month than you’ve been with any other man I’ve seen you bring around for dinner.”
; Which, in all honesty, was only two, Bella thought. Not much to compare to. “So when were you going to tell me you did his ink?” she said, trying to change the subject.
Min took a knife from the drawer and started to slice the cake into thick, pale yellow wedges releasing a pleasant citrus scent into the air. “When you asked,” she said, smoothing her finger along the blade of the knife and licking off the cream frosting. “That boy has potential, you know. I can see it in his aura.”
Bella groaned. “That’s not even possible.” She pulled another bottle of wine from the cupboard and picked up two plates with cake. “So how’d you settle on his design?”
“He picked it. Says it represents his sign.”
“Fish?”
Min shook her head. “Pisces.”
“Explains why he’s so at home on the boat,” she muttered.
“What’s really troubling you, cher?”
Bella locked gazes with her aunt. “I saw his tattoo in a dream.”
“Not surprising since you’ve been around him. Maybe it’s your subconscious trying to work on the attraction you say isn’t there.”
“No. I saw the tattoo in my dream before I saw it on him.”
Min’s eyes widened a little. “Really, well that is interesting.”
“For once in your life could you be less cryptic? Throw me a bone here. What the hell does it mean? Is it a warning to stay away from him or an invitation?”
“Depends on the dream, cher.”
Bella repeated the dream oddity by oddity, trying hard not to leave any detail out.
“And the fish turned into the crystal ball?”
Bella nodded. “That’s what it looked like.”
“Hmmm.” Min took a swipe of the frosting on the lemon cake with her finger and licked it off. “Sounds like a sign to me. Maybe he’s the one who’s going to break the Dupré curse.”
“I don’t need a man for that. I can find the crystal ball and do that myself.”
Her Sworn Enemy (Men of the Zodiac) Page 9
