“What did he do to them?”
“What do you mean?”
“Three of his four kids didn’t come to his wedding. That sounds like something happened.”
“Courtney happened,” Cara snapped.
“I’m not buying it.” Wes shook his head. “Every time you talk about your brothers, it’s always how smart they are, how successful they are. That description doesn’t match a group of grown men not speaking to their father because he finally got married to someone who wasn’t their mother.”
Cara’s mouth opened and shut a few times. He wasn’t wrong. Put like that, her brothers sounded like petulant children, but it was hard to explain. Even she didn’t completely understand where things went so wrong between Declan and their father—he wouldn’t talk about it.
The only time she tried to discuss it, her father told it to drop it. She knew it had something to do with Declan’s brother Seamus and the family business, but that was it.
One thing she did know, however, was that everything was worse after he met Courtney.
“It’s really complicated,” she finally said. “Declan and my dad had some huge disagreement. I’m not exactly sure what the deal is with Luke and James, either.” Cara frowned. Now that she thought about it, her family had a lot of secrets from one another.
“Luke is the brother who lives here?”
Cara brought her attention back to the conversation. “Yeah, his twin, James, lives in Miami. They were never close to Dad like Declan and I were. The twins hated being associated with our family name. The press and stories about our Dad… At one point they even thought about legally changing it to Anne’s maiden name, but they never did. I think they both worried how it could impact them professionally. Not only because they didn’t want people to think their achievements were based on their last name, but my father had a reputation for being a bit… aggressive. All of my brothers are proud to the point of stupidity.”
She stared out the dark doors behind Wes. “Part of me thinks the fact that Anne was with Dad longer than anyone else influenced them. No one ever talks about it, but I suspect of all of them Anne may have been the most hurt by our father. My mom, Corinne, was a fling. There were never any true feelings between them even though they got along, and my dad looked out for her. He was with Siobhan throughout her pregnancy, but she was never going to leave Ireland or her family. She already had Seamus, from a previous marriage and wasn’t looking to get married again. They also remained good friends.”
“That’s…” Cara could see Wes was looking for the right word. “Unusual.”
It was. She had heard plenty of jokes over the years about the Bloom Harem, but she was grateful that all of their parents had stayed friendly. It allowed Declan, Luke, James, and herself to be a family. Nontraditional to say the least, but still a family.
“Once when I was about thirteen, we had Easter in Dublin, and I overheard Siobhan and Anne talking. From what Siobhan said, I got the distinct impression that Anne was still in love with my father. The twins are smart. They had to have picked up on it if it were true. Maybe that’s why they wouldn’t let him in their lives. They adore their mom.”
“It’s very possible. It’s the worst feeling in the world when your mother is sad.” He turned his head slightly, the shadows cast by the kitchen light lengthening on his face. “Particularly when there is nothing you can do to help.”
There was no doubt from the pain in his voice, that he was speaking from experience. Is that why he was raised by his grandparents, she wondered?
Cara pressed two fingers against her temples and rubbed as pressure built behind her eyes. It had been a long, emotional day, and the last thing she wanted to do was make Wes relive a sad memory.
“It’s late. We should probably get to bed,” she murmured.
“I want to hear what happened.” His thumb stroked over her knuckles again, soothing her. “Please.”
Cara gnawed her lower lip. He had been in foster care, had literally lost his whole family. There was no way she could tell this story and he not think less of her.
She would sound like the entitled, spoiled brat she had been. But part of her was relieved to have it out in the open. For him to know where she came from.
“After the wedding, my dad changed. He was angry. I didn’t see him a lot. I was… working.” She wasn’t quite ready to tell Wes she’d been a club rat. “And that kept me away from my dad. When I tried to see him, there was always an excuse. Courtney started answering his phone, claiming he wasn’t feeling well enough to talk, always promising to give him the messages. He almost never called back, and when he did, he only wanted to talk about what I was doing, who I’d seen. Superficial things.
“He used to call me his little star.” Cara smiled remembering the endearment. “He got sicker and sicker and the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. A couple weeks before he died, we had a… disagreement.”
“About what?”
“Technically, I worked for the family company, too, but I wanted to change what I was doing.” She glossed over the fierce argument with her father. She couldn’t face those emotions tonight, on the heels of everything else. “He said no, and I was hurt. Anyway,” she rushed on, “he died before the doctors could find a treatment. We weren’t even told he was gone until after Courtney had him cremated the next day.”
Cara swallowed past the lump in her throat. The pain of missing that time with her father still tormented her. Too wrapped up living her own life, she hadn’t even noticed how much Courtney had isolated their father. She would be ashamed of that until the day she died.
If she hadn’t been so self-absorbed, would he still be alive today?
Wes moved closer, tugging gently on her hand. She allowed herself to sag against him, relishing the comfort of his warm body. She tucked her head against his chest, listening to his heart beat, strong and steady.
“I’m so sorry,” he said against her hair. “That’s a horrible way to find out.”
