Page 187 of Boss of the Year

His sweet Marie.

No, that was wrong. She wasn’t ever his.

That had been wishful thinking from the start.

“So,” Lucas said, turning his attention to Daniel beside him. “How was the honeymoon? Did you actually see any of the islands?”

His brother’s smile was almost sheepish. “It was…good. Emma’s all right. Better than all right, actually.”

Across the room, his young bride looked up and smiled with a pleasant flush on her cheeks. To Lucas’s surprise, the girl actually looked happy.

“We played tennis most mornings, hit the golf course in the afternoons. Turns out she’s got a wicked backhand. It’ll be fun playing doubles after the baby’s born.”

“A backhand, huh?” Lucas honestly didn’t know what to say to that. “So that was your honeymoon? Tennis and sunshine?” It sounded like hell to him. At least with a veritable stranger, which was basically what Emma Hubbard was, even if Daniel had gotten the girl pregnant.

“Well, there was a little more than that to it.” Daniel’s expression grew thoughtful, which was when Lucas realized his brother wasn’t trying to be lascivious. “She felt the baby move while we were there. For the first time. We were having dinner on the terrace, and she got this look on her face. Grabbed my hand, and I felt the little sucker kick.” A different kind of flush touched his cheeks. One from joy, not alcohol. “Would you believe I’m actually excited about being a father? Me. A dad. Never thought I’d say that.”

Lucas studied his brother, searching for signs of the old Daniel—the one who chased every distraction, every high, every beautiful woman who crossed his path.

He was in there somewhere, Lucas was sure. A leopard doesn’t change its spots, and you couldn’t cure a lifelong problem with a few weeks of sunshine and pending fatherhood.

But he couldn’t deny that this version of Daniel seemed settled. Content, even.

“So, you’re not drinking right now either?” Lucas gestured at Daniel’s soda with his own.

Daniel shook his head. “Emma can’t right now, of course, and I…I realized I didn’t want to be three sheets if something happened, you know? Like, what if she or the baby needs to go to the hospital? I can’t be drunk when my kid comes into the world.”

“That’s not for another four months.”

Daniel gave an oddly sad shrug. “Figured I’d better get used to it now.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment, the sound of Winnifred shuffling cards and Clifford’s occasional comments filling the space between them.

“Listen.” Daniel leaned forward, his voice dropping. “I didn’t get a chance to say before the wedding, but I owe you an apology. For Paris. For showing up like that, making demands. The whole thing was?—”

Lucas shook his head. “You don’t need to do this.”

“Yeah, I do.” Daniel’s bright blue eyes were serious. “I was acting like a spoiled kid throwing a tantrum because someone told me I couldn’t have something. Being controlled like that, manipulated…” He shook his head. “It made me crazy. But that’s not your fault. I’ve depended on you to take care of my messes for too long. You were just doing what you thought was right to take care of us. Just like you always do. I could have dealt with it better.”

But all Lucas could see was that pain etched across Marie’s face when she realized the depths he had gone to control her and everyone else like puppets. “I could have handled it differently too.”

That sat for a moment in companionable silence, sipping on their seltzers while the sounds of the card game, the crackling fire, and Winnifred and Emma’s polite conversation filled the room.

“If I told you now that you didn’t have to be married, would you want out?” Lucas asked.

Daniel looked over, clearly surprised. “What?”

Lucas glanced between him and Emma, who was still peeking at her new husband every so often like a lovestruck teenager. Daniel would always have that effect on certain women, it seemed. “I shouldn’t have forced you. None of usshould have. And divorce—or maybe an annulment—wouldn’t stop you from being a dad. If that’s what you want.”

It was the last thing he should do. Hubbard had continued to play hardball after the ceremony, and as a result, the appropriations bill was still sitting on his desk. The truth was, Lucas couldn’t care less. These days, nothing seemed more distasteful than congressional politics or international business deals or any of the machinery that had consumed his life for twenty years.

None of it had mattered at all since she walked out of his life.

“I appreciate the offer,” Daniel said once he’d recovered his shock. “But…I think I might give it a go.”

Lucas blinked. “Really?”

Daniel nodded. “Would you believe that marriage and fatherhood might be exactly what I need? About time I had something important to do with my life, you know? Maybe this is it.”