A Cosmic Kind of Love(98)

“This is a bigger deal than you made out,” I murmured, peering out of the tinted window.

“The event might also be tied to a feature on the company in Mogul Magazine. We ranked in the top for best corporate reputation.”

That did shock me.

My father smirked. “I’m not quite the ruthless bastard you think I am. At least, I’ve been trying for the last few years not to be. We’re turning the company around and attempting to do better.”

Floored, I shook my head. “I didn’t know.” I hadn’t paid attention. “That’s great. I think that’s great.”

“When your son risks his life for the good of his country, it makes a man reevaluate his life.”

Wow.

I didn’t know what to say to that.

It completely bowled me over that my father said that, let alone thought it.

“Right, let’s get out there.” He brushed over it like it wasn’t momentous and stepped outside to flashing camera bulbs as Ivan opened the door.

Still reeling, I took a minute before following him out.

“Christopher! Christopher, can you look this way! Christopher!”

I blinked against the lights and the cacophony of shouts from the journalists as my father put his arm around me and posed for their photographs. Forcing a smile on my face, I relaxed into it, having done this a few times in the past as Darcy’s date at events like this.

“Oh, there’s Darcy,” I heard my father say, and then seconds later he greeted her in front of the press with a fatherly kiss on each of her cheeks. She looked statuesque and beautiful in her gold evening gown. It was a stark contrast to the drunken mess I’d found her in last weekend when I’d collected her from the bar in the Bowery.

Her gaze turned to me, and she held open her arms, her smile widening. “Chris!”

I accepted her embrace, ignoring the clamoring shouts of the paps behind us. “What are you doing here?” I asked in her ear.

“I was invited,” she said, as if it were obvious. “You look wonderful.” She smoothed a hand down my tux and then turned toward the cameras. “Smile, darling, and give them what they want so we can get inside, out of this hullabaloo.”

I gave the press a few shots, and then gently nudged Darcy toward the entrance. My father had already disappeared into the building. “Let’s get inside. You look better?” I framed it as a question.

She beamed at me. “I actually feel like an enormous weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Did Hallie tell you what a lifesaver she’s been canceling everything?”

I knew Darcy well enough to know that her family wasn’t good at showing weakness or vulnerability. There was no way in hell she was as okay with her breakup as she pretended, but I didn’t press her. “Hallie didn’t say. She’s very protective of her clients’ privacy, even with me.”

“Isn’t she a sweetheart? She couldn’t come tonight?”

I shrugged. “It didn’t seem like the best place to . . . introduce her to my father.” I hadn’t told Darcy about his treatment of Hallie. It was nobody’s business but our own.

“I understand.” She slipped her arm through mine and smiled. “Then I guess that means you can keep me company tonight. It’s nice to have a friendly face here. This is my first big event since the breakup.” Her voice shook, betraying her nerves.

“Hey, you’re doing great.”

“Thanks. For everything. I’m glad you’re here.” She gestured ahead of us. “Shall we?”

There was a slight niggle in the back of my mind that Hallie might not understand our accompanying each other tonight, considering I was supposed to be here for my dad, not Darcy. But there was a panicked look in her eyes, and I decided Hallie would understand Darcy needing some support. And I wouldn’t keep it from her because that would just make her think there was something to hide.

Plus, Hallie had been great and supportive about Darcy last weekend. She’d get it.

She was wonderful like that.





THIRTY-EIGHT





Hallie


I want to kill him,” I growled at Althea as I glared at my computer screen. “I’m right to feel this way, right? I’m not being a jealous girlfriend.”

“Oh, you’re being a jealous girlfriend. But you also are so within your right to want to kill him for this.”

My heart pounded at Althea’s confirmation. What Chris had done here was shitty and wrong. I’d barely left the apartment this morning when my phone buzzed with a text from Althea with a link to an article in the same gossip rag that posted the photos of Chris and me in Central Park.

Except this time, their speculation wasn’t over me and Chris. It was over him and Darcy.

“Nothing is going on here, right?” Althea laid a comforting hand on my shoulder.

As furious as I was with Chris for lying to me about this event and the reason I couldn’t come, I knew in my gut that his duplicity wasn’t about cheating. Chris wasn’t a cheater. I refused to believe he had that level of disloyalty in him after everything we’d talked about.

“Not overtly,” I answered, holding back the sting of tears. “He told me she was at the event, that they spent some time together, but this looks like more than that, right?”