Page 17 of Sweet Wicked Vows

“I’m sorry, Dad.” She held his hand tightly. “I didn’t want to put your health at risk. The doctor said to try and minimize your stress. It’s why we had no one there. If I couldn’t have you, I wanted no one else.”

He nodded, wiping away his own tears. “Are you happy, Evie?”

Her pulse skipped under my touch. “Very happy.”

“Then that’s all I can ask for.” Lexington drew his attention back to me. The corners of his eyes were bloodshot. Perhaps death was finally coming to take him. “If you make my daughter happy, then that’s all I can ever ask from you.”

I drained my wine.

The rest of the dinner went by without a problem. Lexington turned his attention to his son, asking him questions about his degree and life at university. It turned out, lying came easily for both Reynolds’ children.

Flynn webbed stories about his last year’s classes, painting himself as the model student, while everyone, including Lexington, at the table knew it was the furthest thing from the truth. Flynn Reynolds was the black sheep of the family. His escapades made the tabloids weekly. Photographs of him with a different woman every week, attending parties and getting completely shitfaced.

It wasn’t a secret that the young man spent a couple nights in a jail cell last year after getting behind the steering wheel of a stolen car while under the influence.

He was lucky that those involved walked away with broken bones and not lost lives.

“I guess this has made your decision for you, Evie,” Lexington announced after dinner. We sat in the parlor room, the fireplace roaring despite the August sunshine blaring outside. Flynn propped his shivering father into the armchair right by the fireplace.

I stood by the window, trying to suck in any air that managed to squeeze through the small opening.

Evelyn sat on the arm of her father’s chair, the furthest she could get from me. “What do you mean?”

“Your decision to remain in New York,” he said. “I can’t say I’m not happy about your choice. Europe is awfully far from home.” He placed his hand on her knee. “This way, you and your brother can stay together.”

“Europe?” I asked.

Lexington nodded. “Evie was considering moving to Europe when she took over the company. A way to be closer to our European market. I wasn’t thrilled when she mentioned it. Ithought it was perhaps because she was brokenhearted and wanted to get away.” He chuckled until he wheezed. “I now see the reason she was so unsure was obviously because of you.”

“Where do you live?” Flynn interrupted. “You’re not about to whisk my sister away?”

“Ontario,” I said tightly. “Your sister will only be across a border.”

“I’m not moving,” Evelyn blurted. “I mean, we never discussed me moving there.”

“We never discussed me moving here, either,” I drawled. “I have a company to run back home.”

“And I will soon have a business to look after here in New York,” she said tightly. “I need to be here to be close to Dad, and be ready for whenever he needs me to step in.”

Lexington patted her knee. “Don’t fret. The two of you can take the house in lower Manhattan.”

“But you need me here in the house with you,” she said. “What if something… what if you need help?”

The dancing around the true severity of his illness was applaudable. Were they truly waiting until the day of his funeral to announce his death? Hope that no one noticed that he simply was never to be seen again?

“That’s what the nurses and Poppy are for,” he said. “You and Jaxon will take that house. That way you can be close to home and the company. I’m sure you don’t mind, Jaxon?”

I clicked my tongue. “I can do most of my work from a computer, so location truly doesn’t matter, I suppose.”

“There,” Lexington declared with a grin. “You will take the house in Tribeca, and once the pair of you are settled, we will announce your marriage with a party.”

“A party?” Evelyn and I said in unison.

“I may not have been there to walk you down the aisle and see you get married, young lady, but you deserve to have acelebration to honor your love to each other,” he said firmly. “We will throw a party. A proper way to announce your news. Wherever you like, no expenses spared. No arguments.”

Evelyn looked across the room. Our eyes met. She hated every single thing about what was happening—it was written all over her sinfully beautiful face.

I grinned and raised my wine glass to her. “I think a party sounds like amagnifiqueidea.”