been in a committed relationship. She hadn’t expected to hear he’d been in love, that he’d been settled with a mortgage and a whole other life. She’d always assumed... Well, she hadn’t actually thought about Dez and his life in Houston. It had been a hole she hadn’t bothered filling. “So what happened to bring you back home?”
His mouth twitched into a bitter smile. “Me. I happened. After a while, walking our dog, Peanut, fighting with Erin over money, over the best kind of beer and over whether or not I should buy one of her daddy’s restaurants, I checked out.”
Checked out? Eleanor knew about checking out, but she’d never walked out. She’d never given up on Skeeter and Blakely. “You left?”
“No. I’m not that guy.” He looked at her, his eyes intense. “I didn’t physically leave, but mentally and even spiritually I withdrew. But that made things worse. She and I unraveled, and we weren’t going to find any common ground again. Erin was young, insecure, wanted a baby, a ring, a new Jaguar. It wasn’t what I wanted, and restlessness made a home in me. I finally realized I hadn’t really given up on my dream, I simply needed time to heal, to grow into a man.”
Eleanor didn’t know what to say. Her name had been Erin. Was she beautiful? Charming and sexy? Doubt gnawed a hole in her heart, and her self-confidence nose-dived. “So, you’re over this woman?”
“That’s the problem. I was over her when I was with her, and that wasn’t fair to her. Erin’s passionate, and very much spoiled by her daddy, part of a big Latino family with ties to the Cardenas family. Erin got what she wanted, except me. Our life was tumultuous and, honestly, considering who her father deals with, I’m lucky I came out without concrete shoes. But Jose knew his daughter. He came to me, told me to leave, gave me money to cover what I’d paid for the house and the engagement ring. Tacked on severance pay, and that was the end.”
“You were engaged?” Suddenly she felt nauseous...and panicky. It became painfully obvious she really didn’t know Dez. Sure, she knew he didn’t like strawberry ice cream, but he’d been engaged to a crime lord’s daughter.
Dez’s smile was hard. “Yeah. Shoulda seen the ring. She had to have a three-carat square diamond. Sweated every month when I got the bill in the mail. But that was Erin. She wrapped people around her pinky so she could get what she wanted. Sort of like Blakely.”
“Blakely’s not like that,” Eleanor said, rushing to her daughter’s defense as she always did because it was genetically coded in a mom’s DNA to defend and excuse.
Dez arched an eyebrow.
“Okay, I suppose my daughter isn’t above manipulation...and pettiness. Since Skeeter isn’t here to defend himself, I’ll blame it on him. She had to have gotten it from his side of the family. In fact, truthfully, she did get it from his side of the family. Vipers.”
Dez gave her a flashbulb smile and propped his forearms on the keyboard’s lid. “Makes perfect sense to me.”
Eleanor knew many of Blakely’s problems were caused by a mother who tried to make up for what Blakely didn’t have—four years of therapy helped Eleanor see she wasn’t responsible for Skeeter’s death merely because she hadn’t been available enough, and also that she was responsible for some of Blakely’s issues because she had been too available.
Now Eleanor reaped what she had sown. She could only hope the true sweet nature and integrity her daughter also possessed would win out. If only Blakely would let go of her anger... Eleanor shelved the nagging problem and refocused on Dez. “So this piano? Did Erin buy it for you?”
“Nah, once her father cut me a check, she and I split. I think she was relieved, but I was still adrift, just like after the storm, but with more dough in my pocket. I knew I had to walk away, but I wanted it to be on my terms. Pride is dangerous, you know.”
“I know.”
“So there was this dude who came into the restaurant, and before I stopped managing the place, he’d begged me to come play the Fazioli. He was a good guy, but I never went. A week before I moved back to New Orleans, I got a call from his attorney. He’d passed and left me the piano in his will. Made me feel like crap that I never went to play