“You’re right. It has—I don’t know how to fix this. You’re a Clayworth. You’ll never turn against your family. And neither will I.”
“Christ, Athena, you know we can work this out somehow. Not let it come between us. We’ve come too far to let this happen.” He reached for her, but she flinched back, drawing her robe tighter around her like a shield.
The doorbell rang again. This time she knew it must be the driver.
“You need to go.” She turned her back on him.
“Come with me!” He pulled her around to face him. “I want you there. I need you there. We’ll work this out.”
She closed her mind and heart to the anguish in his eyes, his voice, too filled with her own. “How, Drew? I know Clayworths always stand together no matter what. So do Smiths. I’ll never believe my father did anything wrong, and you always will. How can we be together with that between us?”
His fingers bit into her arms. “I’m not leaving. I’m staying here. To hell with the Fastnet. To hell with everything except you.”
For one beat of her heart she believed the Fates had brought her to this moment to save him again. But she was wiser now and knew she had a choice. She needed to let him go, find his own way, like she needed to find hers.
“You need to go, Drew. I want you to go. Now,” she said softly, pulling away from him.
His gaze bore into her. “Promise me that you’ll be here when I get back?”
“I can’t. I’m not sure of anything except that I will never again make you a promise I can’t keep.”
CHAPTER
At Clayworth’s, Connor sat in the office that had once belonged to his dad. He cast one long look at Drew’s tux trousers and open shirt and smiled.
“I see you had your own party with Athena while you threw me to the lions.”
“I need the G-V to get to London. I missed my flight, and I need to get to Cowles. I’m not going on a business trip. I’m racing in the Fastnet.” Drew blurted out the truth.
Connor shot him another long, narrow look and picked up the phone.
Full of pain, Drew paced to the window and back. He caught a few words of Connor’s conversation with Bridget and then obviously with the pilot, before Drew paced back to the window. Despite his life falling apart, he had to go. Athena was right. His decision about the Fastnet, his belief that he’d never escape the guilt of not being with his parents, had to be put to rest.
Now coldness made him stop and stare blindly down at the famous Clayworth Clock below. Clayworth tradition. Clayworths standing shoulder to shoulder. Did anything matter now that he’d lost Athena again?
A commotion at the door turned him around. Bridget rushed in. “What are you boys up to this time!”
“I’m going with Drew to the Fastnet,” Connor said. “Aunt Bridget, you can run this place better than the both of us.” Connor shook his head. “Drew, you didn’t believe I’d let you do this alone, did you?”
An hour later they were in the G-V, the pilots ready to take off, the second crew required by the FAA for a trip from Chicago to England seated in the crew rest area.
As always, Connor strolled to the forward cabin and immediately started working, and Drew prowled to the galley, poured himself a neat scotch, and tossed it down his throat before he strapped himself in for the flight.
The second or third scotch didn’t kill the ache in his gut. This was a different pain than he’d felt that Christmas night on the terrace when he’d left Athena. He’d been too young to understand the loss and loneliness of what he’d decided should be their future. Now he did.
He stared out the window, seeing Athena’s face when he’d left her this time and her voice saying, We can’t fix this. Shutting the door on their future.
Athena cried herself to sleep.
Only Drusilla Junior licking her face roused her out of bed. She glanced at the clock in disbelief. She’d slept the day and most of the night away, exhausted by grief and hours and hours in Drew’s arms making love.
No, I won’t think about it.
Raw with pain, Athena forced herself to go through her daily ritual. But the bathwater scalded her skin, and then her clothes felt too heavy on her body. Every part of her ached.
She conjured up every lesson on life, on courage, her parents had ever taught her. Her oldest-sister role, stiff upper lip, leader of the pack, had gotten her through most tough times in her life. Doing it about Drew might be the proverbial straw, but she needed to try. Even if they didn’t have a future, she couldn’t let go of her fear for Drew and what the past might cost his future.
The doorbell rang at an hour barely civil. For one insane instant she thought it might be Drew.
Torn between so many conflicting emotions that she felt sick, she stood and stared at the door. She couldn’t fake anything at the moment.
As it rang again, she peeked through the lace curtains to see who wouldn’t give up.
She flung the door open for her father.
“Your phones have been off for twenty-four hours. I’ve come to apologize.”
“Dad, I’m the one who was wrong,” she sobbed, throwing herself into his waiting arms.
How could she have any more tears left? Obviously a renewable resource, they poured down her face as her father led her into the living room, sat beside her on the blue velvet settee, and encouraged her to cry on his shoulder.
“I’ve been a fool trusting Drew again. Believing I can fix everything. I’ll never forgive him for believing you guilty of… of… of wrongdoing. And not telling me about it.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong, Athena. I’ve apologized to your sisters for running away to lick my wounds instead of talking this through with all of you. I thought I was sparing you, but obviously I was wrong.”
Her dad’s calm voice shocked her into sitting up to stare into his face. “If you aren’t guilty of anything, why didn’t you stand and fight like you taught me to do?”
His smile gentle, he took out a white handkerchief like he’d always kept in his trouser pocket since they were kids and wiped her wet eyes and nose. “I chose to accept early retirement because I considered Drew’s grandfather an old lion whom I greatly respected. To fight would have compounded the problem. There is trouble brewing at Clayworth’s, but not of my making, even though the evidence speaks to the contrary.”
Justice for her father burned away a small sliver of her grief. “We’ll fight it, then. Clear your name with Drew and the others.”
“Time will do that for me, Athena. For too long I’ve let this blight my life. I don’t want it to blight yours any longer. I don’t want to be the cause of any more unhappiness for you.”
“How can I be with Drew when he believes you capable of larceny?”
“Athena, the evidence certainly supported the possibility. I’d consider it myself if I didn’t know better.”
“He didn’t confide in me. Share it with me so we could somehow work it out. Although I don’t think that is possible.” She couldn’t keep the pain out of her voice.
“Why didn’t he share his feelings about me with you?”
Burning with embarrassment, regret, she shook her head. “He said he was afraid if I knew how he’d voted I wouldn’t give our relationship a chance.”
“Would you have?”
“Of course not. I’ll never betray you, Dad.”
Her father nodded and wiped a fresh tear off her cheek. “Do you love Drew?”
She’d had enough of hiding the truth. “Yes. I’ve loved him since I was seventeen. But how can I be with him and support you?”