His shoulders lower a fraction. “You think I don’t know that she needs that?” he asks quietly.
I swallow.
“I think you’ve been an empire,” I say. “And somewhere along the way, she got left behind to be abused and neglected by her own mother. Now she thinks work is all she has and somehow can’t have both.”
He walks back over to the window and looks out at it. Then looks back at me. “You and I aren’t so different.”
I don’t break eye contact.
He walks over to his bar and pulls down two crystal glasses from the shelf. “I started as nothing. Did you know that? I was thebartender at my wife’s family’s country club. I mixed drinks for all of the men who thought I’d never become one of them.”
Holy shit.
His mouth twitches at my surprise. “And look at me now,” he continues. “ But I didn’t come from a family like yours. I didn’t marry into a family like yours. I tried to create that...and failed. But Silvie? Silvie is different.”
“Silvie is everything,” I say softly.
“She loves you,” he says as he pours bourbon into two glasses. I don’t tell him that it’s eleven in the morning.
“I love her,” I answer.
“I know.”
He studies my face like he’s looking for doubt or something to conflict with this. He won’t find it.
“I was wrong about you,” he says finally. “And I wasn’t fair. I thought you were a rebellion for my daughter.”
“I’m not.”
“No,” he agrees quietly. “You’re not.”
He steps closer and hands me a glass. I take it and hold it.
“What does this marriage and life look like for you, Cal?” he asks over his glass.
“I know you think I don’t fit into your world. But I fit into Silvie’s world. I can promise you that. I love her and I will take care of her and support her until the day that I die,” I say with conviction.
He unbuttons his cuffs and rolls up his sleeves to reveal completely tatted-up arms. Wow. Unexpected.
“You mark everything important on your skin?” he asks.
I shrug. “Sometimes.”
He nods once. “I did too, once upon a time. See? Not much different.” He lets loose a sharp breath. “I’ll support this,” he says. “The board is still gunning for her. But having you by her side helps.”
Relief pulses through me, but I don’t let it show.
“I’m here for whatever she needs,” I tell him. “I’ll attend meetings and dinners. I’ll be by her side if that’s what she wants.”
He nods.
“But I’m not playing golf. I draw the line there.”
He blinks, and then he laughs. “That’s where you draw the line?”
“That’s where I draw the line. Golf is boring, Charles.”
He shakes his head, still smiling. “Thank fuck.”
