Thrill Me (Fool's Gold #18)(42)

So instead he waited and watched until Ceallach walked up the front steps and took the seat opposite his.

“So this is where you’re staying.”

“It is.”

Ceallach looked around. “Too many people.”

Del didn’t bother saying the people around him were a part of what he liked. His father wouldn’t get it or care.

“How can I help you, Dad?”

“Something’s wrong with your mother.”

That got Del’s attention. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. She’s a woman. A mystery. But there’s something. She’s not herself.” He hesitated, as if he were going to say more.

“Do you think she’s sick?”

Ceallach shook his head. “She’s more quiet than usual. She’s gone a lot. Into town. I’ve asked her what’s going on, but she says she’s fine. I have to do something.”

“Okay,” Del said slowly. “Like take her away for a vacation?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I have to work. She hasn’t said anything to you?”

“No.”

“She knows I’m working on several commissions. Big jobs. It’s not like her to distract me.”

Because it was all about the art, Del thought grimly. All about Ceallach. He was the center of the known universe and life revolved around him.

“These are important commissions,” his father added defensively, as if he knew what Del was thinking.

“I’m sure they are.”

“One’s for the French government. I have to be in my work. Elaine understands that.”

After thirty-five years, she wouldn’t have much of a choice.

Del had often wondered what it was about his father that had drawn his mother in the first place. She’d been a small-town girl. He was sure there were those who thought she’d been overwhelmed by Ceallach’s fame. Even in his early twenties, he’d been famous and successful.

Del suspected that hadn’t impressed her. She would have been drawn to something else. Maybe Ceallach’s passion? Not that Del wanted to think about that too much. But whatever the appeal, she had been loyal and loving through all the difficult times. Even when his father’s art messed with his head and the drinking had made it worse—she’d been there.

As a kid, Del had wondered how much of his father was in him. He was sure his brothers worried about the same thing, although they never discussed it. Would they grow up to be like him?

Nick and the twins had inherited Ceallach’s artistic ability. Del and Aidan were more like their mother. Del saw some of his father in himself. The videos were probably an offshoot of the other man’s talent. The restlessness that Ceallach harnessed into his glasswork had manifested in other ways in Del.

He hoped he didn’t have his father’s selfish streak. That he was more accepting of people. Difficult to know when it came to himself.

“What are you doing?” his father asked. “You have a job yet?”

“Not right this second,” Del said. “I’m still considering my options.” He thought about mentioning that he’d sold his company for enough money that, in theory, he never had to work again. At least not very hard. But his father wouldn’t see that as a positive. “I’ve had some offers.”

“In business.” Ceallach’s tone was dismissive.

“Yeah, Dad. In business.”

“A necessary evil.”

“But without the intrinsic value that art brings to the table.”

His father brightened. “Exactly. Men of business don’t understand the genius required for art.”

“What about women in business?” he asked, thinking Maya would appreciate the joke. His father, not so much.

Ceallach stared at him.

“Women in business?” Del repeated. “Because women and men do the same jobs these days.”

“Ridiculous. Your mother always knew her most important job was to support me.”

Which was probably true, Del thought, hoping his mother was happy with her choices. He wouldn’t want that, a woman who simply served him. While the theory of it was kind of fun, the reality would be very different. He wanted someone who was there for him as much as he was there for her, but he also wanted more. A partner in his work. Someone who cared as much as he did about what they were doing. A collaboration, he thought.

Something else his father wouldn’t understand.

“Are the twins coming for your birthday?” he asked.

Ceallach dismissed the question with a shake of his head. “I have no idea.”

“Where are they?”

“You think I have time to keep track of things like that?”

“Okay, I guess you also don’t know why they left town, then?”

His father shifted in his seat and looked away. “I have no idea.”

The statement was so at odds with the other man’s body language that Del nearly started laughing. Obviously Ceallach knew exactly why the twins had run off, but he wasn’t saying. Which was pretty typical for a family that loved to keep secrets, he thought.

“I hope they’re coming to the party,” he said. “It would be good to see them.”

He thought maybe his father would agree, but instead Ceallach stood. “I have to get back to work. Goodbye.”