“It’s a good partnership. William manages the kitchen and bar. I handle the business and service training.”
“A division of labor that’s working well.” Bellamy smiled at William as he approached the booth with a tray of drinks.
He set a glass of tea in front of each of them. “I can bring you something else if you’d like. Bloody Mary? Wine? An appetizer?”
“This is fine, thank you,” Bellamy replied. “Thank you also for loaning us Steven for a while.”
“You’re welcome.”
He placed his hand on Steven’s shoulder and spoke directly to him. “If you need anyth
ing, I’ll be at the bar.” He gave the shoulder a squeeze before moving away.
Steven watched Bellamy watch William as he withdrew and made his way back to the bar. When her enlightened gaze came back to him, he said, “Yes, in answer to the question you’re either too polite or too offended to ask. William and I are more than business partners.”
“How long have you been together?”
“Last New Year’s Eve we celebrated our tenth anniversary.”
“Ten years?” She was incredulous. “I’m not offended by anything except being excluded from knowing. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What would it matter?”
His harshness wounded her deeply. Had all the times they’d laughed and talked together, all the times he’d taken her side against Susan’s and vice versa—had all those shared experiences meant nothing to him?
When she was on the brink of flunking an algebra exam, it was Steven who’d convinced her that the test wouldn’t define the rest of her life, but then had coached her to a passing grade. It was he who had insisted that her braces were barely noticeable and that her pimples would eventually go away. Whenever her self-esteem was at a low ebb, he’d forecasted that one day she would be beautiful and that her future would be bright. Brighter even than Susan’s.
She had considered him more brother than stepbrother, and she had thought he felt the same about her. Yet he had shut her out of his life effectively and entirely. She had been dispensable to him, and realizing that was acutely painful.
“You mattered, Steven,” she said, her voice husky with emotion. “You, your life, your loves mattered to me.”
He looked somewhat chastened. “Try to understand. When I left Austin, I had to abandon everything. That was the only way I could survive. I had to make a life for myself that was free of that one. If I’d taken any aspect of it with me, even you, I would have stayed shackled to it all. I had to make a clean break. No attachments. Except for Mother, and I keep her at a distance that’s safe to my well-being.”
“That’s why you made an excuse anytime I tried to get together with you in New York.”
“You were a reminder of the worst years of my life. You still are.”
“And you’re still a shit.”
Steven looked sharply at Dent, who’d spoken for the first time since their lukewarm handshake.
“You were a sniveling, selfish kid, and so far I’ve seen no improvement.”
“Dent!” Bellamy exclaimed in a whisper.
But he wasn’t finished. “She went to a lot of trouble to come here. You could at least pretend to be glad to see her.”
When she was about to speak again, Steven held up his hand. “It’s okay, Bellamy. He’s right. I am a shit. It’s a survival tactic. Not meant to hurt you.” He smiled ruefully as he reached out and stroked her smooth cheek, and, as though reading her thoughts of several moments earlier, murmured, “Just as I predicted. The duckling has turned into a swan.”
Then he lowered his hand, and the glimmer of affection she’d seen in his eyes flickered out. “It took time, therapy, and diligence, but I reinvented myself. I was content with the life I’d made. But now your book and the ballyhoo it’s created has brought back everything I ran from. Once again, I’m that skinny, frightened kid being grilled by the police.”
“Dale Moody?” she asked.
“Big guy. Barrel chest. Gravelly voice. He questioned me several times. The interrogations didn’t come to anything, but being a suspect, even for a short time, scarred me for life.”
“Dent said as much.”
Steven looked over at him, taking him in fully. “Pardon my curiosity. There was no love lost between you and our family, but here you are in Atlanta with Bellamy. Why?”