Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Ronald glanced back to his son who pushed the drink across the table.
“Cheers,” Lucas told Ronald.
“Should have had someone drive you across town,” his father said.
“I’m leaving town, so that wouldn’t work, either.”
Ronald’s scowl deepened; his attempt to stick Lucas with another verbal barb fell short, and it showed between them.
Perhaps it was Lucas’ mention of leaving town that made Lawrence comfortable enough to ask his client about his new penchant for a particular spot upriver.
In front of Ronald, unfortunately.
“Are you staying at the camp or with …”
Lawrence trailed off at the sudden turn of Lucas’ head at the table.
“Apologies,” Lawrence muttered fast.
The damage had already been done.
Ronald finally had enough information to put together something important in Lucas’ current life. Delaney, that was.
“What’s her name—Reed, right? Delaney Reed,” Ronald said. “The hairdresser you started seeing just before Jacob … well, you know,” his father settled on saying.
Lamely.
It felt like a punch to the chest to Lucas. He had not given his father a chance to bring up his knowledge of Delaney or her connection to Lucas. In fact, he never even brought it to Ronald’s attention that he knew the man had contacted Delaney’s boss in her former city of residence. A feat made easier by the fact he no longer answered calls from Ronald, and their lawyers did all the talking. As he’d hoped, it all made Ronald think Delaney wasn’t anything interesting to Lucas, and therefore, not useful to his father.
Ronald put the puzzle together way too late.
Oh, well.
Unlike his father, Lucas protected the people he loved.
“I tried to check up on her, but found she’d quit her job and moved from Fredericton. I wondered why you hadn’t taken one of the job offers I heard came your way. Now it makes a little more sense. Are you looking for a specific area to work? I didn’t realize you—”
“She’s none of your business,” Lucas interjected, the edge to his tone drawing a clear line for Ronald. Or so he willed with a tight jaw and a gaze that dared his father to try.
He truly expected Ronald to prove how much of a bastard he really was in that moment. Another attempt to bait Lucas into a verbal altercation, even. Some shit never changed, right?
No.
Ronald surprised him.
His father just nodded, and reached for the glass of whiskey Lucas had pushed across earlier to take a sip. He then tipped the rim in Lucas’ direction, smacking his lips before uttering, “Cheers, then.”
Lucas dared to think the way his father’s eyebrows and mouth drew downward came from a realization of some sadness. Did he understand the privilege to know his son’s personal life had gone along with any lines of communication that wasn’t through their lawyers?
Good.
Maybe the bastard did have a heart.
Lucas hoped guilt and regret tore it apart.
Pulling in a deep breath, and resituating his focus at the table to the legal agreement spread out on the table between the lawyers, Lucas asked, “Is the foundation going to be a hard line here or is there a number we can readjust to make that worth somebody’s while to shut the fuck up?”
Ronald replied, “Keep the name.”
“Ronald, are you sure?” Chandler stepped in quietly. “Maybe we should check with—”
“Take it out.”
Lucas could feel his father’s gaze burrowing a hole into the side of his head.
He refused to turn and look at the man.
“That’s really it, huh?” Ronald asked Lucas, sounding almost tired.
If not bored.
“Is what it?” Lucas asked back.
“This is how you’re gonna break the cycle, then? By shutting me out, pretending like I don’t exist, and making a new life for yourself somewhere else?”
Lucas had said none of those things.
In fact, he never even thought about them.
Mostly.
“This is how it’s gonna be,” Lucas told his father, settling on that being the best out of everything else racing through his head.
Next to him, Lawrence offered a wary, awkward smile. “If we need to bring someone else in to handle the family side of things … I don’t have anyone to suggest. Hanny?”
“I …”
The other lawyer came up with nothing.
Lucas rolled his eyes, and the irritation shuddered through the rest of his body with the action. He wasn’t the only one, apparently.
“Oh, get off it,” Ronald snapped, tossing the napkin rudely at the older man. He pointed at the papers, but Lawrence glared back, unaffected. “Let’s just get back to that, huh? Stay out of the family side of things. We’ve gone over it a million times. The foundation was new, so take it out. We’ll both sign.”
Lucas then looked to his father.
“Right?” Ronald asked him, brows lifting at the question.
“Right.”
It took a few more minutes for the lawyers to work their way to the end of a bunch of babble that, Ronald was right, they had gone over enough times. It all had to be official and correct—a transaction done through appropriate legal counsel. For the benefit of the company, two Dalton men would put away their private differences to handle a company matter.