“He's paying tuition with blood money.” Daisy shook her head. “His parents kicked him out when we were in high school. They didn't talk to him for years, but they came back a while ago, said they felt terrible and missed him, and they wanted to make it up to him. They still barely see him, but they forked over the cash for his tuition, so that's something.”
“Why'd they kick him out?”
Daisy shook her head again. “Some things aren't mine to tell, you know?”
“I do.” I had a suspicion, but I wouldn't push. “When are you going to start adding on to the bakery?”
I'd figured that would be an easy question to lead us away from J.T.'s secrets, but it looked like I'd hit a sore spot. Daisy's thick lashes lowered, and she took another bite of the quiche.
Interesting. She'd gone quiet at the bakery when Grams had been talking about her plans for expansion. There was something wrong there, but I'd pried enough already.
“It smells like Hawk made them put out the fire.” At the obvious change of subject Daisy's eyes cleared of worry. The air had cleared as well, the odor of burnt hair and chemicals faint but present all the same. The last few minutes it had cleared, chased off by the scent of wildflowers and damp grass. Much better.
“That was quite a fire. Anything you wish you'd thrown in while you had the chance?”
Chapter Sixteen
royal
I took a bite of quiche and thought about it. “I think we hit the major spots in the office, but I wish the others had been here. I'm sure they had stuff they wanted to see go up in flames.”
“Is it weird? All of you living at home again? Hope told me it was part of the will. I'm sorry if it's awkward that I know these things because of her. She's one of my best friends, so—”
“I don't mind. I'm used to people knowing way more about my family than they should.”
Daisy looked away, her shoulders stiff. I reached out to close a hand over her arm and gave her a gentle shake.
“I don't mean you. I'm just saying I'm pretty much an open book. I don't mind you knowing stuff. I trust Hope's judgment, and I want to get to know you better. It wouldn't be fair if I asked you about your family and then got annoyed that you know about mine.
“And to answer your question, it's extremely weird to have all of us back home again. Griffen is practically a stranger. So is Finn. And I don't know the rest of them that well either, aside from Tenn. Prentice was always setting us against each other. What we should have done is team up against him, but by the time we were old enough to figure that out, we'd spent most of our lives getting played by Prentice. I don't think it occurred to a single one of us to work together. Watching Ford betray Griffen felt like an object lesson.”
“Wasn't your father behind that? Didn't he talk Ford into it? Hope said—” Daisy stopped herself. “It just seems like maybe an object lesson was the point. Maybe it wasn't only about Ford and Griffen. Maybe your dad wanted to prove to the rest of you that you couldn't trust each other.”
I stared at her. Why had that never occurred to me? I'd figured out that Prentice had been behind Ford's betrayal of Griffen. It had been obvious at the time. Prentice hadn't even bothered to hide his machinations once they came out. But it had never occurred to me that he might have been making a point to the rest of us.
If that was his plan, it had worked.
Daisy watched the realization bloom on my face. Reaching out, she closed her hand over mine. “Sorry to bring it up. Your dad was a real asshole.”
I barked out a laugh. Goddamn, this woman was good for me. “And then some.” I leaned over and dropped a kiss on her lips. Immediately, I wanted more. After dessert. Soon.
Daisy looked over my shoulder at the rear elevation of Heartstone Manor. “At least you have plenty of room to avoid each other if you want to. You could probably stash a football team in there and no one would notice.”
I followed her gaze. The house was massive, it was true. “You'd be right, except half of the bedrooms aren't even furnished. Prentice let the house go to hell, and none of us were living here, so we didn't know.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. He was a miserable bastard most of the time. The only one of us who had regular contact with him was Ford, and Ford claims he doesn't know what Dad was up to. I don't know how they could work together all day and not know anything about each other's personal lives, but apparently, that was the case.”