Angela moved over to the buffet, where there were warming dishes containing their breakfast options. She still wasn’t used to having so many choices for breakfast.
“How are you this morning, Julian?” Kiara asked as she sat down across from him with her plate.
Angela set hers down at the seat next to Kiara, then went to get them coffee. She carried the carafe back to the table.
“Do you want a top-up?”
“Sure.” Julian lifted his mug toward her. “Thanks.” He glanced at Kiara. “I’m doing… fine.”
Kiara looked skeptical, which Angela definitely understood. She had no idea why Julian was such a heavy drinker, when no one else in the family drank much at all. And if he had a problem with alcohol, why did Duncan keep it in the house?
“What do you do to fill your days?” Kiara asked, bolder than Angela was when it came to starting a conversation with her newly found brother.
“Work.”
“You can work remotely?”
“A lot of the time.” His gaze shifted to Angela. “Are you excited to meet Mom?”
“Um… I guess? To be honest, I don’t really know how I feel.”
“She’s excited to see you.”
“Does she wish that Annie was with us for the meeting?”
Julian paused, his gaze dropping to his mug. “I think she’s just focused on you right now. There will be time with Annie later.”
Angela was unsettled by the thought that Jill—she still couldn’t think of her as Mom—could put aside her desire to see Annie just because Angela was back. Had their mom played favorites when they were little?
“What happens if I’m not really interested in having a relationship with her?”
Julian’s features tightened for a moment, then he sighed. “Nothing, I guess. I just hope that you’ll tell her that to her face.I’m tired of having to be the middle person. It’s been that way with Annie. I don’t need it with you too.”
Angela couldn’t imagine anything worse than having to tell Jill that she wasn’t interested in a relationship. But this was something she couldn’t rely on Kiara to do.
She knew it probably wasn’t fair that she was going into this meeting with the woman already thinking she didn’t want a relationship with her. But given how she’d treated Annie, Angela had a hard time believing that she’d be the sort of woman she’d want for a mother.
“Don’t forget you have a meeting with Dad this morning,” Julian said as he got to his feet.
“I won’t,” Angela assured him.
“See you later.” With that, Julian left the room, coffee cup in hand.
“That’s a tortured soul if I ever saw one,” Kiara said when it was just the two of them.
Angela figured that was a good description of the man. He had an edge to him that was lacking in Duncan and Jude.
Neither of them talked as they finished their breakfast, then left the room to go to Duncan’s office for their ten o’clock meeting. It was weird to think that she had an appointment with her father, but she knew he was a busy man.
“Come in,” Duncan said when she knocked on his office door.
The space was decorated just as she’d expect of a powerful man. It was all leather and polished wood with a large stone fireplace at one end of the room. A wall of glass looked out on the snow-covered lawn, which faded into the trees that filled the estate.
“Good morning,” Duncan said as he got to his feet. He started to come around the desk to them, then seemed to check himself. Instead, he smiled and gestured to the cluster of chairs that grouped together near the fireplace. “Let’s have a seat over there.”
It was definitely more comfortable than sitting opposite him at the desk. Yet Angela couldn’t seem to quell the nerves that were fluttering in her stomach.
“How are you doing?” Duncan asked, his gaze on her. “Is everything going okay?”
