I saw the pain from his voice creeping into his eyes when he spoke about it, so I decided not to go with my better judgment. I shouldn’t have taken his hand, but I did. He’d done it earlier in the dressing room to calm me down. To show me his support when I needed it. The least I could do was to be there when he needed me.
His skin was warm and smooth, his hand firm underneath mine. My breath got stuck in my lungs while I waited to see how he would react, if he would pull away, but he didn’t, and air rushed out of me in relief.
Instead of withdrawing, he turned his hand in mine so our palms pressed together, then laced his fingers through mine. The faraway look from earlier was back in his eyes, but he stroked the side of my hand with his thumb.
“It can be sudden or it can recur over time,” he said. “His has been recurring for a while now.”
I tightened my grip on his hand, my own heart starting up a pounding beat in my chest. “What does that mean?”
He gave his head a slight shake. “Different things, depending on the severity of the condition.”
“What does it mean for him?” I asked, pushing a little because I sensed he needed it. “Are they treating it?”
“They’re trying,” he said. “It’s treated by lifestyle changes, medications, angioplasty, or surgery. Unfortunately, he can’t have the surgery he needs because of some other health complications.”
“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath, thinking about the stubborn tycoon I’d met just a week ago. “What happened yesterday?”
“Every once in a while, things flare up and he ends up in the hospital.” He lifted his free hand to squeeze the back of his neck, rolling his head back over it. “He feels worse and worse every time it happens. I’m not sure how many visits like the one yesterday he has left in him.”
With those words, the pain, panic, and worry all made sense. So did the way he’d freaked out yesterday and raced to his boss’s side. Something tightened in my chest when I looked into those blue eyes, and I squeezed his hand as I sucked in a breath.
“So what now?” I asked. “If he can’t have the surgery, what’s the alternative?”
Dane sat back in his chair but left his hand in mine as he jammed the other into his hair. “The alternative is that he retires.”
I mulled the idea over in my head, even though it obviously wasn’t even close to being my decision to make. “That doesn’t seem so bad. Retirement is hardly the end of the world. In fact, I’ve heard a lot of people saying that life begins at retirement.”
“That may be so, but those people aren’t at the helm of multi-billion-dollar companies founded by their families a century ago.”
“Oh.” Realization dawned on me slowly, the few pieces I had of the puzzle suddenly sliding into place. “You’re like a son to him. He never had any children of his own.”
Dane didn’t ask me how I knew, nor did he try to deny that their relationship really was that close. “He’s been grooming me to take over for him for a long time. I’m not his biological son, but I’m the closest thing he’s got. We’ve also agreed to certain terms, such as that I won’t change the name of the company and that I would either keep it in my family or only pass it off to a worthy person when the time comes. I can’t sell it or do anything that will diminish the Killen legacy, but I’d never have done that anyway.”
“Of course not.”
A waiter interrupted us to take our food orders and to deliver the drinks we’d ordered when we’d sat down, and I took a larger than ladylike gulp of my wine before ordering a burger with everything on it.
Dane smiled at that, ordered the same thing, and then asked for two shots of tequila before the waiter left. When he was gone, I cocked my head at him. “You do realize it’s a Sunday afternoon, right?”
“Yep, but we’re celebrating your first successful interview. We’re also drowning my sorrows just a little. Tomorrow, I’ll have all my ducks in a row again. Just for this afternoon, I want to let them run wild.”
Well, when he puts it that way… I smiled and inclined my head in agreement. “Run little