son for a long minute, maybe thinking she can stare him down. Good luck with that. Finally, she gives up, her shoulders sagging in defeat. She goes back and reads the words on her paper, about how Thomas Thayer was a great man, about all the achievements in his life, mostly business-related. And as she reads, I can’t help but wonder if she liked him either.
As the services come to a close, Luke is immediately surrounded by people with questions, including his mother. I glance down at my watch and eye the door. I said I’d wait for him and I’m as curious as anyone, but my appointment is scheduled for two. I’ve got some time, but not much. I can’t sit around indefinitely.
Just as I’m about to make a break for it, Luke’s brown eyes catch mine across the crowd and he pushes his way through, something that’s not that easy in his wheelchair. He wheels over to me and gives me a somber look. “Can I talk to you, Ellie? Privately?”
I nod and follow him out of the room. Luke’s apparently planned ahead, because he quickly leads me to a small room in the back and shuts the door behind us. It looks like an empty office. I settle gingerly into an unfinished wooden chair.
“So?” he says.
“So,” I say.
He sighs. “Ellie, I did it for you.”
“For… for me?”
“Well, not entirely,” he amends. “But… I hated myself while I was running that company, and I know you hated me. I wanted to start over and I knew I couldn’t do that while I was CEO of Thayer Industries.”
“Oh,” I say. I feel a twinge in my stomach. That couldn’t be the baby moving. It’s way too early.
“Now that my dad is gone, I want to try to be a better person,” he says. “You make me want to be a better person.”
My cheeks grow warm. “Oh,” I say again.
“I want to start a new company,” he goes on. “Something small. I was hoping you might want to be a part of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you are the second-smartest person I know,” he says with a crooked grin. “I could use someone like you as my vice president.”
“What about my current job?”
Luke lowers his eyes. “Ellie, I told you your company is failing. I thought you and I might be able to strategize to keep it together, but without me on board, they’ll probably just cut their losses and shut it down.”
I can tell he isn’t lying. I’m going to be laid off, through no fault of my own. This job opportunity might be the best one I’ll get in the area. And I know that under Luke’s guidance, the company will be successful.
“I don’t know…”
“It’s okay,” he says. “I don’t expect a decision now. To be honest, I was going to take some time off, maybe do some traveling. Maybe go back to Greece for a while. Try to forget this whole mess. And hopefully, give people time to forget me.”
If he goes away, that will be perfect. I won’t have to break the news to him yet. He won’t be around to notice my stomach growing larger. By the time he returns, I’ll have gotten used to life without him, and I’ll be able to resist if he tries to convince me to come back to him.
I see the pain on his face and despite my resolution to be strong, my heart goes out to him. “Luke,” I say. “Look, you’re not a bad guy. You’re really not. I don’t claim to know what it’s like to run a huge corporation. It seems like… you did what you had to do.” Is that true? Maybe it is. “You’re a much better person than your father.”
He frowns. “You think so?”
“Definitely.” I reach out to take his hand and give him a squeeze. “And I know you’ll be a better father than he was.”
Why oh why did I say that? It’s playing with fire. And as soon as I say the words, Luke’s face darkens. “I doubt that,” he says.
“Um, why?”
He snorts. “Well, for starters, I can’t have children.” He glances up at me. “Sorry, I should have told you. I would have… if we ever got to the point where we were considering… you know, that kind of commitment.”
I stare at Luke. He believes what he’s saying. He thinks he’s sterile. “Um, are you sure you can’t have kids?”
“Yeah, pretty sure.” He sighs. “You know I can’t ejaculate.