she had merely tolerated for the past seven years. Emily had to know that. Still, she kept silent. Why?
Dillon was still pondering that when Dr. Conn and the other partners and their wives approached Emily and his family to offer final condolences and bid them goodbye. Noting with relief that others were beginning to collect their coats as well, Dillon went to see them out.
For what seemed like hours, he stood in the foyer, shaking hands and accepting condolences and perfunctory offers of help. By the time he closed the door behind the last person his patience was almost at an end.
“Well, that’s it,” he announced, returning to the living room. “All the wagging tongues have finally left.”
His sister’s two children, Leslie and Roy, had retreated to the den at the back of the house to watch television. In the dining room Ila Mae, Emily’s housekeeper, had already started putting away the leftover food and gathering up the stray dishes scattered around.
Adele dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and shot him an annoyed look. “Must you always be so crass?”
Dillon shrugged. “Ignoring the truth doesn’t change it. I’ve never heard so much malicious whispering in one place before. But I suppose you have to expect that when someone gets caught practically in the act.”
Emily made a small, distressed sound and turned her face away, and Dillon immediately winced.
“Sorry, Emily,” he murmured.
He could have kicked himself. Dammit, man, what were you thinking? Maybe his mother was right. Maybe he was a thoughtless clod.
Adele sniffed and dabbed her eyes again. “I don’t know why everyone is being so unkind and judgmental. It should be obvious that if my son turned to another woman then he wasn’t getting the affection and emotional support he needed at home.”
“Dammit to hell!” Dillon roared.
Charlotte closed her eyes and groaned.
“Well, I’m sorry, but it’s the truth,” Adele insisted with an indignant lift of her chin.
“The hell it is!” Towering over his mother, Dillon jabbed the air with his forefinger, just inches from her nose. “Don’t you dare try to blame this on Emily.”
“No, Dillon, please,” Emily murmured. “It…it doesn’t matter. Really.”
“It matters,” he insisted, never taking his furious gaze off of Adele. “All of his life, no matter what underhanded thing Keith did, no matter what mistakes he made, no matter who he hurt, you made excuses for him. It was always someone else’s fault, never your precious Keith’s. Well, if you think I’m going to let you get away with it this time, think again.”
“How dare you sa—!”
“Oh, I dare. Your precious son cheated on his wife because he was spoiled rotten, thanks to your coddling. He grew up thinking the world revolved around him and that he should have whatever he wanted when he wanted it, regardless of who he hurt. Face it, professionally, he may have been a respected doctor, but on a personal level he was selfish, self-centered and incapable of fidelity.”
“How can you be so cruel?” Adele wailed. “That you, of all people, would talk about Keith that way. He was your brother!”
“And I loved him. But, dammit, I wasn’t blind to his faults.”
He took off his suit coat, dropped it onto a chair, then stripped off his tie and tossed it on top. By the time he had unfastened the top three buttons on his shirt Adele looked as though she’d swallowed a lemon. Paying her no mind, he exhaled a long sigh and muttered a heartfelt, “Thank God. For the past eight hours that thing has felt like a noose around my neck.”
“You’d be accustomed to wearing proper attire if you did so more often,” his mother said with a disdainful sniff.
“I hate wearing suits and ties.”
Just as he hated being cooped up in a fancy office. Over the years, as his company had grown and prospered, he’d had to endure both more and more—especially when he met with bankers or attorneys or clients. Thankfully, he was still able to spend much of his time on the construction sites in a hard hat and work clothes.
Adele dabbed at her eyes again. “I don’t know why I try. You’ll never be anything but a common workman.”
Though she meant it as an insult, Dillon wasn’t offended. In his opinion there was nothing demeaning about good, honest labor. He liked working with his hands as well as his mind, and he was proud of what he’d accomplished.
Besides, he wondered how many “common workmen” his mother knew who owned a multimillion-dollar construction company? One they’d built from the ground up on their own?
He kept quiet, however. Defending himself to her was pointless. No matter what he said or did, she would find fault.
Adele loved Charlotte well enough, but Keith had always been her favorite, her “golden boy” as she was fond of calling him. In her eyes, Keith could do no wrong…and Dillon could do no right. It was a fact of life that he had accepted long ago.
Emily barely registered the exchange between Dillon and Adele. Her anger and hurt had turned to a deep, dark feeling that hung around her shoulders like a lead cape, weighing her down so much she could barely function. She longed to climb into bed and curl up into a ball of misery beneath the covers and shut out the world. The last thing she wanted right now was to be around people, especially Keith’s family.
She started when Dillon sank down on the sofa next to her. He’d left the space of a cushion between them, but just having him that close made her feel crowded. Uneasy.
Dillon always had that effect on her. He towered a foot over her puny five feet four inches, but it was more than that. There were those massive shoulders and bulging biceps, those big, callused hands. His brawny chest tapered down to a washboard abdomen and narrow hips that any male model would envy. Dillon was such a physical man and so overwhelmingly masculine he almost gave off an aura. Whenever she was around him she felt it hitting her in waves.
Stretching his long legs out in front of him, he heaved a long sigh. “Thank heaven that’s over.”
Emily gripped her hands together tighter and briefly closed her eyes, perilously close to tears. Dear Lord, he can’t be half as thankful as I am, she thought. Now if they would all just go home, as well, and leave her alone.
Word of Keith’s infidelity and the sordid details of his death had spread like wildfire. She had been aware of the pitying looks and whispered comments that had swirled around her all day. It had taken every ounce of pride and strength that she possessed just to get through the funeral and the wake with her head held high, but the strain had taken its toll. She felt shaky and fragile, as though every nerve ending in her body was frayed and threatening to give way.
If she was going to fall apart, she wanted to do so in private, not in front of Keith’s family. Especially not in front of Dillon.
From the beginning he had not liked her, nor had he approved of her marrying Keith. He was always so somber and remote, so in control. She was fairly certain he would disapprove of even the hint of hysteria on her part. Besides, she had
