Daph’s eyes get shinier.
“Bet you a brass polar bear that she’s planning a hostile takeover to push your parents out of the company for what they did to you.”
She gasps. “No.”
I laugh.
Cackle a little, to be honest. “She has the intelligence, the experience, and the resources to do anything she wants.Anything. Step into a CEO role at a competing hotel company. Start her own business. Head up a venture capital fund. You don’t think it’s weird that she stayed with your parents after what they did to you?”
Daph sniffles. “It’s what she was trained to do.”
“She was trained to win at all costs in business. But that’s more than who she is, and that’s something your father has never understood. That part of her that loves you unconditionally makes all the difference.”
“She kept saying she was going to take you back.”
I try to stop smiling, and I can’t. “You heard her. Everything’s almost in place. There are things she’s been keeping from you. Your sister’s about to rock Manhattan. She doesn’t want me, Daph. She wants your father to think she’s still playing by his rules for what he wants.”
“Oh my god,” she breathes.
I arch my brows and wait.
And after a long minute of watching her brain work, I get the satisfaction of hearing her deep belly laugh. “Oh my god.”
I settle my head on the terrible camping pillow and watch her laugh herself out.
Eventually, she rolls to face me and presses a fast, hard kiss to my mouth. “Can we stay here for another day or two? And can I send you to the store for hair dye and a couple new shirts?”
“Yes.” It doesn’t matter if I figure out where I want to call home before the board meeting in a week. It’ll be easier if I use my real identification after I’ve told my family—through Archie—to fuck all the way off.
Daphne’s smile goes watery again. “I thought she’d be mad. I thought she’d finally—that she’d finally pick their side.”
“If she did—which she won’t—she wouldn’t deserve you.”
“Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt.”
I tug her tighter into a hug.
She hugs me back until hugging turns to stroking and stroking turns to kissing and kissing turns to making love while the rain falls on the tent above us.
This is peace.
This is happiness.
This is love.
And I’m going to find a way to keep it all.
I might not be cutthroat, but this—this I’ll fight for.
30
HAPPINESS IS A SIDE OF QUESO
Daphne
Everything about todayis the best.
The best.
