Bedroom Diplomacy(41)

“No, not him either.” Rowena hadn’t mentioned Colin to her the last time they spoke, simply because it hadn’t seemed worth mentioning. She’d had no plans to start any sort of relationship with him, so what was the point? It would just be one more person to hound her about her personal life. And here she and Tricia had been right all along.

There was a long pause, and then she gasped. “Oh, my God, are you with a man friend?”

“I might be.”

“Oh, my gosh! I’m so excited for you. Can you tell me who he is? Where you met him? What he looks like?”

Rowena laughed. “How about we meet and talk about it tomorrow? Since I’m here, I’m going to visit my storage unit and look for that yearbook.”

“I’d love to meet with you! How about an early lunch? My treat.”

“Hold on a sec.” She muted her phone and asked Colin, who had poured the cider and made himself comfortable on the sofa, “When is your meeting tomorrow? Because I was thinking of having lunch with an old friend.”

“Ten. I’m not sure how long it will last, though.”

“Maybe when you’re finished, you could meet us.” What was the point in having a rich, gorgeous man in her life if she couldn’t show him off a little?

“Is this friend male or female?” he asked, and she could swear a hint of jealousy tinted his words. Which, she was a little ashamed to admit, she liked.

“Female.”

“Sounds all right to me,” he said.

She switched back to Cara. “Would eleven work for you?”

“That would be perfect.”

They decided on a quiet bistro just down the street from the hotel.

“Oh, and do me a favor,” Rowena said. “Don’t tell anyone that I’m here. Especially my father.”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain tomorrow.”

After she hung up, she joined Colin on the sofa to wait for the food. She cuddled up against him and he handed her a glass of cider. She couldn’t recall the last time she had felt so pampered.

“Tell me about Dylan’s father,” he said.

The request surprised her. She turned, looking up at him, and asked, “Why?”

He shrugged. “Just curious.”

“It’s not something I like to talk about. The few months that I was with him were the lowest in my life.”

“Dylan doesn’t see him?”

She shook her head. “Dylan has never seen him.”

“Why not?”

“My father offered him a big fat check and he gave up his parental rights.”

“Why would the senator do that?”

“The truth is I barely knew Wiley—and yes, that’s his real name. He was a drunken one-night stand that I met in a bar. Which is where he hung out a lot back then. He was a loser. A washed-up politician.

“When I found out I was pregnant it was such a shock. I was in no condition to be taking care of a kid. I couldn’t even take care of myself. Then they did the ultrasound and I saw his tiny little heartbeat. It was like a sign. I just knew that I had to change, for him. I quit everything cold turkey, which was hell on earth. Cara helped me through it. It took me months to work up the courage to tell my dad. I didn’t even know where Wiley was, but the senator found him and paid him to go away permanently.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“On one hand I hate that Dylan will never know his real father, but on the other, Wiley was a loser, and odds were pretty good he wouldn’t have been around anyway. Besides, who would want that sort of male role model for their child? In this case I think it’s definitely for the best.”

“What if he showed up and said he wanted to see Dylan? Said he’d turned his life around?”

“If he had truly pulled himself together and wanted to be a permanent or at least semi-permanent part of his life, I would let him. And of course it would be up to Dylan, too. As he gets older, he could get curious, or he may not want anything to do with his real father. And I have to do what’s best for Dylan.”

“And what’s best for you,” Colin said.

“Well, that part I’m still working on. But it’s all coming together.”

“What is?”

“I’m finally getting away from my father.”

“Getting away?”

“Moving out of the mansion, getting my own place, my own job. I should have done it a long time ago, but I was so scared to screw up again. But I can’t stand it anymore. When I found out what he said to you, about me being off-limits, something just…snapped. So I’ve been making plans ever since. Having a father in government, you would think that I would have known about all the assistance programs available, but because of the senator, I thought I wouldn’t qualify.”