“Oh, no, we’d be running the risk of him doing the same thing,” Silas said. “You’re already here, so you should stay. Please, sit down.” He gestured to the chair adjacent to his own.
Chelsea walked to the end of the table and sat down next to Silas. It was strange to have such a big table for just the two of them. This must be how Miles had grown up — his father at the head of the table while he himself sat at the right hand, the rest of the table vast and empty. They probably kept this big table for dinner parties or something, she supposed, but on nights like this it was pretty lonely.
“I sure appreciate you coming,” Silas said. “I know you didn’t have to do that with Miles off at work.” He sighed. “You know, I really thought that now that he’s expecting a child, this would settle down. I thought he might get away from the office a little more and spend more time with his family. That’s what I was hoping for. I wonder if you were hoping for that too.”
Chelsea cleared her throat. This was an awkward question, since she didn’t really consider herself and Miles to be family. Of course, she wasn’t going to tell Silas that. She wasn’t going to tell him that Miles had been clear that this was nothing more than a business arrangement. They were going to raise their child together, yes, but co-parenting was different from sharing any sort of relationship. They weren’t anything to one another besides business partners. What didshecare if he was at work instead of spending time with her?
I wanted him to come with me tonight because I felt awkward being here alone, that’s all. But since I am on my own, since I’ve decided to face it, I don’t have any complaints about what he does with his time.
She made eye contact with Silas. He was searching her gaze as though trying to figure something out, and it occurred to her that he was using the power he had to read people. He was trying to understand her. It was a fine thing to do — if she had really been Miles’s girlfriend. But since she wasn’t, it made her feel awkward to have him trying to read her like this.
She looked down. “Miles takes his legacy very seriously,” she said, dancing as close as she could to the truth. “He wants to be sure he’ll have something meaningful to leave to his child. I’m sure you know that about him. I’m guessing that’s a value he learned from you.”
“You’re right,” Silas agreed. “But at the same time… I just want him to be happy. I want the same thing for him that any father would want for his child. The same thing I’m sure you want for my grandchild.” He smiled. “So, much more than business and legacy, I just want to know that he’s making the most of his life and getting all he can out of it.”
Chelsea’s stomach knotted with shame. This wasn’t a man who wanted a grandchild so he would have someone to inherit the company he’d built. Or, rather, maybe he did want that, but it was far from the only thing he wanted. He wanted to see his son happy. He was excited at the prospect of Miles having a girlfriend and a baby on the way because he thought those things would bring his son joy.
And we’re lying to him. We’ve been lying to him all this time.
Chelsea didn’t know when she had ever felt so guilty in her life.
CHAPTER 11
MILES
“So, we’ll convert the guestroom adjacent to your room into a nursery,” Miles said.
The two of them were sitting in the den at Miles’s house. Two days had passed since the night Chelsea had gone to dinner with Miles’s father. She’d returned seeming quieter than usual, and he wondered whether there had been some kind of unpleasantness — and whether she was mad at him for not joining her there that night. Today was supposed to make up for it. He had taken the whole day off work so he would be able to talk to her about what they would do when the baby came. So far, it didn’t seem to be working very well. She was distant, disconnected, almost as if she wasn’t really hearing what he was saying.
“Chelsea?” he prompted. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
She looked up at him. “Does that mean I’ll still be living here when the baby comes?”
“I guess that’s up to you,” he told her. “I wasn’t going to tell you to go or anything. As far as I’m concerned, you can stay here aslong as you want to.” She bit her lip and looked down. “I mean, either way, the kid is going to need to have a bedroom here,” he said. “Because they will be staying with me some of the time.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Chelsea asked.
“What are you talking about?” He was confused. “We agreed when we got into this that we were going to co-parent.”
“We never really spelled out what that was going to look like, though,” she said. “And you’ve been saying from the beginning that you only wanted this to be a business arrangement, right? You want our child to come and work for you when they’re old enough.”
He frowned. “Where is this coming from? I never indicated that I didn’t want to be part of their upbringing. Of course I want that.”
“Well, okay,” Chelsea said. “I just thought, you know, that it seemed like you were more interested in a professional relationship than a personal one. Isn’t that why you wanted to have a baby in the first place? So that you could make sure you’d have someone to inherit your company?”
Miles frowned. “What did my father say to you?”
She turned to face him. “Why do you assume he said something?” she asked, her jaw tight. “Why does this have to be about him?”
“I don’t know.” Miles was completely taken aback. “It just seems to be coming out of nowhere, that’s all. It seems like you’re really upset all of a sudden, and I don’t know what’s changed. To be honest, you’ve been acting a little weird ever since the night you had dinner with Dad, so I’m just figuring he probably saidsomething to get under your skin, and you should tell me what it is.”
“If you want to know what he and I talked about, maybe you should have actually been there at dinner that night,” he heard the tension in Chelsea’s tone.
He sighed. “Is that what this is about? I didn’t realize you were still angry about that. I’m sorry. I’ll make sure I don’t miss the next one, okay?”
“You’re just apologizing to me? Just like that?”
“Isn’t that what you want?”
