Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“That’s a gentleman’s gentleman if I ever saw one,” Brock replies.
“Mr. Ainsley must have some money.”
“I’m sure he does. Remember, he worked for my family for years. Decades even. I’m sure they set him up with an amazing retirement package.”
Right. I should’ve known that. But I’m not a Steel. I’m a Pike.
An elderly gentleman enters the room. He has a shock of silvery-white hair, and he walks upright without the help of a cane. If this is Ennis Ainsley, he’s eighty-eight years old. This gentleman doesn’t look a day over seventy. He wears a blazer with leather patches on the elbows, blue jeans, and brown leather loafers. He’s got a professor vibe going.
Brock rises. “Mr. Ainsley?”
The elderly man’s eyes widen, and they’re a searing blue. He must’ve been a handsome young man with all that hair. From its color, I’m guessing he was dark blond or light brown.
“My God,” he says. “You look exactly like your father.”
“Brock Steel.” Brock holds out his hand. “Yes, I get that all the time.”
Ennis takes his hand and gives him a hearty shake back. “You couldn’t have been more than two or three years old the last time I saw you. You resembled him even then. I remember your brother had your mother’s green eyes, but you? I could tell you were going to be a carbon copy of Jonah Steel. After all, you looked exactly like him at that age.”
“Did I?”
“Oh yes. He was the apple of your grandmother’s eye, that one. Her firstborn. She called him her little dove. A child born out of love if there ever was one.”
“Oh?”
“Didn’t you know? Your grandmother became pregnant with your father before they were married.”
Brock nods. “I only recently found out.”
“I didn’t mean to open any wounds,” Ennis says.
“No wounds at all. I’m here, and I wouldn’t be if not for my grandparents and their”—he smiles—“horniness.”
That gets a cackle out of Ennis Ainsley. He turns to me then. “You must be Ms. Pike. My goodness, you’re a pretty thing.”
My cheeks warm. “Yes, I’m Rory Pike. And thank you.”
“Thank you for seeing us,” Brock says.
“Not at all. I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.” He gestures to the sofa we just rose from. “Have a seat, and Havisham will be in with our tea momentarily.”
Brock and I sit back down, and within a few seconds, Havisham returns with a tea tray.
“How do you take your tea, ma’am?” he asks me.
“Just as it is, thank you.”
Havisham nods, pours a cup of tea, and then places several finger sandwiches on a plate and hands it to me. He sets my tea on a coaster on the coffee table in front of me. I inhale the fragrance.
Thank goodness. It’s black tea, which means it will have a lot of caffeine.
Although, I seem to be wide awake now.
“And you, sir?” Havisham nods to Brock.
“Same.”
Havisham serves Brock, and then serves Mr. Ainsley. “Will there be anything else, sir?”
“No, thank you, Havisham.”
“Very well.” Havisham bows and leaves the room.
Mr. Ainsley takes a sip of his tea and then sets the cup back on the saucer. “I won’t bore you with any small talk,” he says. “You said you wanted to talk about Patty.”
“Yes.” Brock clears his throat. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“It was sixty years ago,” he says. “But I never met another woman like her. She was strikingly beautiful. Not the kind of woman I was normally attracted to. She had flaming red hair and piercing emerald-green eyes. Freckles across her face. But goodness, she was gregarious. Such a force to be reckoned with. To be honest, I wasn’t her type either. She liked playboys. She liked to have her fun, that one. But somehow, we found our way to each other.” He closes his eyes for a moment and then opens them. “The universe didn’t give us enough time together.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say.
“Like I said, it was sixty years ago. But she was special. I dated other women from time to time after I lost her, but I never felt the same thing. So I never married. I gave my life to your family, Brock. I’m the one who taught your uncle Ryan how to make wine.”
“I know. He speaks highly of you.”
“I owe your family a lot.”
“Do you know what ultimately happened to Patty?” Brock asks.
“For a long time, I thought she left me. But her parents didn’t know where she was. Daphne—your grandmother—didn’t know where she was, and they were best friends. Her parents told me she had decided to join the Peace Corps. But that didn’t sound like Patty. Not that she wasn’t a wonderful human being who might like to give to others, but she wouldn’t have just left me without telling me. We had just confessed our love to each other.”