fifth-born son. “It’s not?”
“No.”
His father stared at him a minute too long to suit Mercury. “Is something wrong, Dad?”
His father shrugged his shoulders. “I hope for your sake there’s not.”
Seven
Sloan figured she had a lot of explaining to do to Eden. But first she needed to give her head a chance to stop spinning and her body time to cease throbbing.
What man kissed like that? Definitely not Harold and certainly not Carlos Larson, that guy she’d dated in college and the only man she’d slept with.
She hadn’t known someone could capture your lips in a way where you felt under siege and too filled with pleasure to do anything but be a willing participant.
“Are you okay, Sloan?”
She glanced at Eden and saw the concern in her eyes. “I guess I need to explain.”
“Only if you want to.”
She didn’t want to, but she knew she should. “I owe you one regardless. You’ve been nothing but kind. And Mercury was right. He started out trying to talk some sense into me. Then something happened we didn’t expect and both now strongly regret. I apologize that you were privy to our foolishness. There is no excuse for our behavior.”
“No need to apologize, but why did he feel the need to talk some sense into you?” Eden asked, coming to sit down on the love seat.
“Mainly because I’ve made decisions about a few things.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I got a call from my mother letting me know my father was behind my eviction today.”
“He was?”
“Yes. Mom also informed me that Dad intends to make trouble for anyone who tries to help me out of the predicament they’ve deliberately put me in.”
Sloan noticed that Eden didn’t seem bothered by that revelation. Instead she said, “I think you need to start from the beginning.”
Sloan told Mercury’s mother everything. When she’d finished, Eden didn’t say anything for a minute. “All this time I was under the assumption that when they made my father, Elijah Tyson, that they broke the mold. Obviously not, if your father is his clone.”
Sloan lifted a brow. “You told me about your father at lunch. Are you saying your father was like mine?”
Eden chuckled. “Close enough. When he discovered Drew had helped me cross state lines, he tried to have him arrested. When that didn’t work, he tried destroying Drew’s trucking business.”
“Oh, my.”
“Yes. But Drew was determined not to go anywhere, even when Dad tried paying him off. Dad literally disowned me until his first grandchild was born, especially one with the Tysons’ trademark green eyes. That’s when he began changing.” Eden smiled. “You can say Galen captured his grandfather’s heart. Then I guess he figured Drew couldn’t be all bad since the two of us could make a child so perfect. There was also the fact that Drew had money. He was a self-made billionaire who’d turned his trucking company into a huge success.”
Eden paused and then added, “He came around, asking for our forgiveness.”
“Did you forgive him?” Sloan asked, coming to sit beside Eden on the love seat.
“Yes, because we knew his apology was sincere. My mother had died and he didn’t want to spend the rest of his years a mean and hateful man without any family. By the time my second child was born, I honored my father by giving my son my maiden name of Tyson. All six of my sons were very close to their grandfather until the day he died nearly eight years ago.”
Sloan didn’t say anything. She had lost her grandfather as well, six years ago. “Do you think I’m making a mistake by running away again?”
Eden reached out and took Sloan’s hand in hers. “Only you can answer that. You are an adult and what you decide to do is your rightful decision to make. However, please don’t make it on the assumption you have to protect my family, just because we are people decent enough to help a young woman in need.”
Sloan took in those words