“Holding,” he confirmed.
“Mimi, could you look for a Robert Saint Patrick? I think just ask Rebecca out on the floor. Andrew, could you please play some light music as soon as this one’s off the stage so it doesn’t look like we’re waiting for anybody?” I suggested.
“Ready,” Andrew assured.
I breathed out another sign of relief. Fighting the urge to glance over at Scott’s table.
Stop it. It’ll only throw you off.You’re at work.
“Elle,” Mimi found me and raced up. “There’s someone asking for you.”
I held up a finger, focusing on the stage. The next speaker was walking up the aisle and climbed the stairs just as I instructed Ryan to release the light cue he’d been holding. Once he was set, I turned to my eager partner. “Who, Starr?” I knew Starr was planning to attend, but not for the entire evening. Still, my boss could have just texted me.
“No. He said he was going to wait for you by the gift bag table in the back of the hall,” Mimi explained. “He said you’d know who he is.”
“Thanks,” I murmured and stalked through the side doors to cross to the back of the hall.
I spotted the waiting man and sighed. Surprised to feel relieved. The man was like the next best thing to home for me. And I could have really used the support right about now. “If you’re looking for someone in a lacey black dress, you’re not going to find one here.”
My old boss tossed a compact back into one of the gift bags and turned to face me. He scanned my black suit with a smirk across his face. “Elle, my dear.” He opened his arms and I walked into his embrace.
A pulled back to take a good look at the retired man and smiled. “How are you, Ron?” I asked before glancing at the seated crowd facing the opposite direction.
“We’re out of sight from his table,” he reassured.
I let out a shaky breath. “Thanks,” I paused and looked at him. “You never told me you had a family.”
“I didn’t really have them anymore,” he said grimly. “I’m sure Scotty told you the only version he chooses to believe. That I never wanted a family and ran off to build my empire.”
“He told me the only version that counts. That you’ve reconnected and he enjoys spending time with you,” I fibbed.
He grunted. “You made that last part up.”
I laughed, caught red-handed. “He didn’t have to say it.”
Ron snickered. “I planned on coming back, you know.”
I shook my head, facing away. “It’s none of my business.”
“In that case, I’ll withdraw the question I was going to ask you,” he arched the same brow whenever he questioned my tactics.
“Good.”
“I’ll just skip to my advice. Elle, I made the mistake of putting my career first. And I lost everything in the end.”
I frowned, still facing the crowd. “It got carried away,” I mumbled, then shook my head. “I was going to tell him after the event tonight.” I watched Scott at his table, listening intently to the speaker. “But now I’m not so sure.”
The difference between us was so vivid when it was like this. When I was standing back here, practically checking coats and he was seated next to some of the most important guests of the evening. When it was just the two of us, when we weren’t so separated by a crowd like this, it felt as though we belonged. That was why telling him tonight felt like it was going to be painlessly seamless, but now…
Ron followed my eyes. “Don’t mind where he’s sitting and where you’re standing. I’ve never agreed with the persona you always thought you needed.”
Doubt consumed me in the worst way, and I felt my eyes water. “At this point he’ll just see me as a liar. And I’d only confirm his initial theory, that the working class can’t be trusted.”
Ron huffed. “Or he’ll see the same Elle Rybeck that is able, brilliant and forceful all on her own.”
I turned back to him with a bitter smile. “You still think I’m worthy of your son?”
“I think you’re more worthy of him than he is of you.”
