can’t argue that a job would do Fay good, but when did she decide running a bed-and-breakfast was what she wanted for her life’s work?”
“Probably right around the time I suggested it.”
“Ah. I should’ve known you were behind this.”
“It’s not a conspiracy,” he said, pouring the beaten eggs into a heated pan. “I saw an opportunity to invest in some real estate and start a business in my hometown. I wanted to do something to give back to the local economy.”
“Aren’t you quite the altruist?”
He looked up from the eggs. “Yes.”
“Hey, as someone who’s benefiting from you playing Donald Trump, I’m not complaining.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“I’m just saying that I’m not sure this is what’s best for Fay. Forcing her to run a business—”
“Forcing?” he muttered. “Christ.”
“—she knows nothing about. Look,” Maddie continued, her voice gentling, “I know she’s your kid sister and you want to take care of her, but if she’s spending more time in bed than on her feet, she needs something more than just being kept busy.”
“Weren’t you the one who told her she should stop wasting time crying over Shane and move on with her life?”
“Unfortunately, she hasn’t heeded my excellent and wise advice. And there’s a chance, a small one, mind you, that I was wrong about that. The longer this goes on, the worse she gets. For God’s sake, she dragged her sons to the gas station to parade them in front of her husband’s lover—”
“Damn it,” he said roughly, his palms on the counter. “I said no. No doctors.”
Maddie leaned back. “You have something against psychiatry in general? Or maybe you’re just worried word will get out. Can’t have that sparkling reputation of yours tarnished now, can we?”
He felt as if she’d tossed the contents of her coffee cup in his face then whacked him on the head with it. “Is that what you really think of me?”
She blushed. “No. No,” she repeated softly, almost regretfully, as if she wished it was. “That’s not what I think of you.”
What do you think of me?
He snapped his lips together so the question wouldn’t leap out. It didn’t matter what she thought of him as anything other than a father. And she’d made it clear he lacked greatly in that capacity.
Getting to her feet, she started gathering items off the counter—mail, empty cups, what looked to be some sort of fancy wrench. She’d always had a problem being still, had preferred to be moving, doing, all the time. Especially when something was bothering her.
“I know it doesn’t seem like it,” Maddie continued, putting the glasses into the dishwasher, “but I’m starting to get really worried about her.”
“She’ll be okay.”
“Because you’re tossing money around?” Maddie’s dark eyes were steady. Expectant. Waiting for more.
Damn it, he had his reasons for feeling the way he did and they were just that. His. Just because they’d agreed to this temporary truce didn’t mean they were confidants. Or even friends. They were coparents, ones who usually only spoke to each other about their daughter.
But she was worried about Fay. Loved her, as much as Neil did.
Turning the heat to low, he stirred the eggs. “Did Fay ever tell you about our mother?”
Maddie frowned. “About Gerry?” Her expression cleared and she straightened. “No, not Gerry. You mean your biological mother?”
He nodded curtly. “Annie. She was...sensitive. Like Fay. But mostly she was...emotionally dependent on our father, I guess you could say. He was her entire world. All that mattered to her was keeping him happy. Keeping him with her. When he cheated on her, she was crushed.”
“Your father had an affair?”
“Many and often.”
Maddie’s expression soured, her mouth twisting.
“Go ahead,” Neil said softly. “Say it.”
She straightened, wrapped her hands around her coffee cup. “Say what?”
Setting the spatula down, he met her eyes. “Say how I take after my old man.”
* * *
MADDIE BLUSHED SO HARD, she considered sticking her head under the faucet, turning on the cold water and giving herself a good dousing.
“I wasn’t going to say that,” she told Neil, her chin lifted in the perfect picture of an affronted female.
But it was a lie. Her first instinct had been to lash out. To hurt him.
The way he’d hurt her all those years ago when he’d called and confessed he’d been unfaithful with some redhead he’d met in a bar.
And, dear Lord, what did that say about her?
“Whenever Dad...Sam...cheated,” Neil said, staring at the tomato as if it was a mirror to his past, “Annie was always shocked, as if she