Millionaires' Destinies(69)
Richard grinned at her. “Not unlike the conversation at one of Destiny’s dinner parties when she invites half of the power brokers in D.C. I’ll have to make sure you’re at the next one. Destiny likes to throw off a controversial spark and see what it ignites.”
“Yes, I imagine that would delight her. She told me about the incredibly lively and intellectual gatherings she used to have in her studio in France.”
Richard regarded her with surprise. “She did? She never talks about France with us.”
“Really?” Melanie’s expression turned thoughtful. “Maybe she doesn’t want to sound as if she misses it.”
“Why on earth would she be afraid to let us see that she had a life before she came home to us?” he asked, then sighed as the answer came to him. “Because she doesn’t want us to think for a second that she made a sacrifice.”
“I suspect that’s it,” Melanie said. “Maybe you should ask her about it sometime.”
“I probably should,” he admitted. “I wonder if she and Ben ever talk about it. That’s when she was painting. It’s what they have in common. They both love art. She nurtured his talent unselfishly, but I sometimes wondered if she missed painting herself.” He felt oddly left out to think that there was a part of Destiny she had kept from him, a part she might have shared with at least one of his brothers, a part she had definitely shared with Melanie, a comparative stranger at the time.
Melanie seemed to guess the direction of his thoughts. “If she kept silent, it was because she didn’t think you were ready to hear about the life she had in France, not because she loved you less.”
“I know that,” he snapped impatiently.
“Do you really?” Melanie asked quietly. “I think what she did was one of the most unselfish acts I’ve ever heard about. She had a wonderful life, Richard. She was living a charmed life in a place she loved. She was madly in love. Her paintings were selling in Paris and along the French Riviera. She had friends. She was even a bit famous in her world. But when you, Mack and Ben needed her, she never gave any of it a second thought. She was here for you. For her, family came first. That’s the only thing that really matters.”
It was true. Richard had always known that his aunt had made sacrifices for them, but he’d never guessed how many. Or maybe as a child he hadn’t wanted to know. And as an adult, her presence was a given, something he no longer questioned. How astonishing that it had taken Melanie to make him see a whole other side to Destiny. For the first time he was seeing her as a remarkable woman, not just as his aunt.
“You’re amazing,” he said, pressing a kiss to Melanie’s cheek, grateful to her for making him put Destiny’s sacrifices into perspective.
“Thank you, but what did I do?”
“Opened my eyes.” And his heart, he added silently.
The brief vacation from the world passed in a blissful haze. If it hadn’t been for the one thing Richard hadn’t said—that he loved her—Melanie would have been totally content and rapturously happy.
They stayed up late, watched movies and ate popcorn. They danced to oldies on the radio. They made love in front of the fire time and again. Each time was a revelation, showing her new insights into everything but his heart. She despaired of that ever changing.
On New Year’s Eve at the stroke of midnight, she was cradled in his arms, spent but filled with contentment, when he gazed into her eyes, “There’s something we need to discuss before we go home tomorrow,” he said. “It’s a new year, time for new beginnings.”
There was hope to be found in his words, but his tone filled Melanie with a sense of dread. “What?”
He looked away from her. “The very public breakup I promised you.”
“You’ve been thinking about that?” she asked dully. She’d dared to envision happily-ever-after, and he’d been focused on extricating himself from the lie, starting the new year fresh without her and all of the complications she represented.
“Haven’t you?” he asked. “You said all along it was something we should do sooner rather than later. I think you were right. After what happened with Destiny the other day, all the shopping and planning, we can’t let this continue.”
“This is it, then,” she said bravely, refusing to allow one single traitorous tear to fall. “What do you have in mind?”
He met her gaze then, searching her face for something, but she was determined not to let him see the hurt ripping her apart. Instead, she fought to keep her gaze neutral.