LITMIR.BIZ

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In the back of his mind he supposed he’d always thought he would come back. When he was ready. When he’d proved himself. When he was enough. The wedding had just forced his hand a bit.

      ‘I like to think I’m a pleasant surprise,’ Zeke said.

      Thomas sipped his martini and Zeke felt obliged to follow suit. He wished he hadn’t; Thomas clearly liked his drinks a certain way—paint-stripper-strong. He put the glass down on the cocktail bar.

      ‘Well, I think that depends,’ Thomas said. ‘On whether you plan to break your mother’s heart again.’

      Zeke blinked. ‘She didn’t seem that heartbroken to me.’ In fact when she’d greeted him on his arrival she’d seemed positively unflustered. As if he was just one more guest she had to play the perfect hostess to.

      ‘You never did know your mother.’ Thomas shook his head.

      ‘But you did.’ It wasn’t a new thought. The two families had always been a touch too close, lived a little too much in each other’s pockets. And after his wife’s death...well, it hadn’t been just Thomas’s daughters that Zeke’s mother had seemed to want to look after.

      ‘We’re old friends, boy. Just like your father and I.’

      Was that all? If it was a lie, it was one they’d all been telling themselves for so long now it almost seemed true.

      ‘And I was there for both of them when you abandoned them. I don’t think any of us want to go through that again.’

      Maybe eight years had warped the old man’s memory. No way had his father been in the least bit bothered by his disappearing act—hell, it was probably what he’d wanted. Why else would he have picked Flynn over him to take on the role of his right-hand man at Morrison-Ashton? Except Zeke knew why—even if he didn’t understand it. He had heard his father’s twisted reasoning from the man’s own lips. That was why he’d left.

      But he couldn’t help but wonder if Zeke leaving hadn’t been Ezekiel Senior’s plan all along. If he’d wanted him to go out in the world and make something of himself. If so, that was exactly what Zeke had done.

      But not for his father. For himself.

      ‘So, you think I should stick around this time?’ Zeke asked, even though he had no intention of doing so. Once he knew what his father was up to he’d be gone again. Back to his own life and his own achievements. Once he’d proved his point.

      ‘I think that if you plan to leave again you don’t want to get too close while you’re here.’

      The old man’s steely gaze locked on to Zeke’s, and suddenly Zeke knew this wasn’t about his father, or even his mother.

      This was about Thea.

      Right on cue they heard footsteps on the stairs, and Zeke turned to see Thea in the doorway, beautiful in a peacock-blue gown that left her shoulders bare, with her dark hair pinned back from her face and her bright eyes sharp.

      Thomas clapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Welcome home, Zeke.’ But the look he shot at Thea left Zeke in no doubt of the words he left unsaid. Just don’t stay too long.

      * * *

      The air in the lounge felt too heavy, too tightly pressed around the stilted conversation between the three of them—until Helena breezed in wearing the beautiful pewter shoes that had been a perfect match for her dress all along. She fixed drinks, chatting and smiling all the way, and as she pressed another martini into their father’s hand some of the tension seemed to drop and Thea found she could breathe properly again.

      At least until she let her eyes settle on Zeke. Maybe that was the problem. If she could just keep her eyes closed and not see the boy she remembered loving, or the man he’d turned into, she’d be just fine. But the way he stood there, utterly relaxed and unconcerned, his suit outlining a body that had grown up along with the boy, she wanted to know him. Wanted to explore the differences. To find out exactly who he was now, just for this moment in time, before he left again.

      Stop it. Engaged to his brother, remember?

      Flynn arrived moments later, his mother clutching his arm, and suddenly things felt almost easy. Flynn and Helena both had that way about them; they could step into a room and make it better. They knew how to settle people, how to make them relax and smile even when there were a million things to be fretting about.

      Flynn had always been that way, Thea remembered. Always the calm centre of the family, offset by Zeke’s spinning wild brilliance—and frustration. For Helena it had come later.

      Through their whole childhood Thea had been the responsible eldest child, the sensible one, at least when people were looking. And all the while Helena had thrown tantrums and caused chaos. Until Thea had messed up and resigned her role. Somehow Helena had seemed to grow to fill it, even as Isabella had taken over the job of mother, wife and hostess that Thea had been deemed unsuitable for. If it hadn’t been for her role at the company, Thea wondered sometimes if they’d have bothered keeping her around at all. They certainly hadn’t seemed to need her. At least not until Flynn needed a bride with an appropriate bloodline.

      ‘Are we ready to go through for dinner?’ Isabella asked the room at large. ‘My husband will be joining us shortly. He just has a little business to finish up.’

      What business was more important than this? Hadn’t Ezekiel insisted on this huge welcome home feast for his prodigal son? The least he could do was show up and be part of it. Thea wanted nothing more than for Zeke to disappear back to wherever he’d been for eight years, and she was still there.

      Thea glanced up at Zeke and found him already watching her, eyebrows raised and expression amused. He slid in alongside her as they walked through to dinner.

      ‘Offended on my behalf by my father’s tardiness?’ he asked. ‘It’s sweet, but quite unnecessary. The whole evening might be a lot more pleasant if he doesn’t join us.’

      ‘I wasn’t...it just seemed a little rude, that’s all.’

      ‘Rude. Of course.’

      He offered his arm for her to hold, but Thea ignored it. The last thing she needed was to actually touch Zeke in that suit.

      ‘That’s why your face was doing that righteously indignant thing.’

      Thea stared at him. ‘“Righteously indignant thing”?’

      ‘Yeah. Where you frown and your nose wrinkles up and your mouth goes all stern and disapproving.’

      ‘I...I didn’t know I did that.’

      Zeke laughed, and up ahead Helena turned back to look at them. ‘You’ve always done it,’ he said. ‘Usually when someone’s being mean about me. Or Flynn, or Helena. It’s cute. But like I said, in this case unnecessary.’

      Thea scowled, then tried to make her face look as neutral as possible. Never mind her traitorous thoughts—apparently now she had to worry about unconscious overprotective facial expressions, too.

      There were only six of them for dinner—seven if Ezekiel managed to join them—and they clustered around one end of the monstrously large dining table. Her father took the head, with Isabella at his side and Flynn next to her. Which left Thea sandwiched between Zeke and her father, with Helena on Zeke’s other side, opposite Flynn. Thea couldn’t help but think place cards might have been a good idea. Maybe she could have set hers in the kitchen, away from everybody...

      They’d already made it through the starter before Ezekiel finally arrived. Thea bit her lip as he entered. Would he follow the unspoken boy-girl rule and sit next to Helena? But, no, he moved straight to Flynn’s side and, with barely an acknowledgement of Zeke’s presence in the room, started talking business with his eldest son.

      Thea snuck a glance at Zeke, who continued to play with his soup as if he hadn’t noticed his father’s entrance.

      ‘Did he

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