Forgotten Father Read Online Free PDF Page A

But something about this
situation didn’t feel quite right.
    If she didn’t know from working with Donovan how
much he loved his grandson and, in turn, how much he knew his
grandson cared for him, she’d have thought the two had a generally
conflicted relationship. That or Mitchell was being deliberately
difficult.
    She couldn’t think why this would be true.
    Thankfully, Donovan seemed unperturbed by the
awkwardness at the breakfast table.
    “Have you had a chance to look around The Cedars?”
he demanded of Mitchell, after a few minutes of eating in silence.
“Lanie’s work in the main rooms is fabulous. And the guestrooms.
Each one with its own individual look. She’s slaved over this
place. Directed her crew like a seasoned pro and handled every
detail. Lavished attention on the place as if it were her own.”
    The older man beamed at her.
    “Yes, I’m sure she’s a pro,” Mitchell said, his
voice level as he lifted his glass of orange juice. “I can see the
improvements, here and there.”
    “Improvements?” his grandfather echoed the mild word
in disbelief. “The place has never looked better. Lanie’s a miracle
worker. She deserves three times what I paid her.”
    Mitchell smiled at no one in particular, the effort
cold.
    Looking at him in surprise, she wondered if he
really was upset with her for teasing him. Should she have stayed
and introduced herself formally this morning? Woken up naked with
the man and offered to shake his hand?
    The thought tickled her irreverent sense of the
ridiculous. Feeling mischievous, she slipped her foot out of her
sandal and carefully stretched it beneath the table, finding
Mitchell’s calf.
    With her gaze carefully lowered to the table, she
lightly stroked her bare foot along his leg
    “Yes, my room was—“ Mitchell broke off in
mid-sentence.
    She could feel his stare, heating the skin of her
face.
    Delanie smiled at him demurely. Tickling his calf
again, she restrained herself from batting her eyelashes at him
like a silly moonstruck teenager. There was only so much a
too-serious, seriously sexy man could take, after all.
    “Yes,” Mitchell said again, “my room was fine.”
    “I hope you found the bed comfortable,” Delanie
cooed, giving into the urge to provoke him a little.
    “Very comfortable,” Mitchell said, the bite
back in his voice.
    She smiled down at her plate, well satisfied at the
results of her tweaking. He definitely needed loosening up, her
knight.
    The rest of the meal seemed to take forever, Delanie
ate three more strawberries and part of a cheese blintz before
giving up on food and allowing her fingers to knot together in her
lap. Impatience ate at her, instead. She wanted to be alone with
him, wanted to at last say all the things that lovers had to say
between them. Wanted to hear him scold her for teasing him when he
couldn’t really respond.
    Whatever was bothering Mitchell, they’d work it
out.
    Donovan talked all the way through the interminable
meal and they listened, she and Mitchell, each seeming to wait
until the moment they were again alone.
    Watching her lover out of the corner of her eye,
Delanie noted the tension around his mouth and the crisp way he
enunciated his words.
    He felt the strain as greatly as did she. Soon, she promised herself, soon we can be alone.
    And he’d kiss her again, she knew, make her swoon
with passion in his arms.
    To her relief, one of Donovan’s managers appeared at
the older man’s shoulder after half an hour and whispered something
in his ear about an old friend of his who was leaving The Cedars
early.
    “Of course, I’ll come see him off,” Donovan said
jovially, tossing down his napkin. “I’ll catch up with you two
youngsters later. Go on and finish you meal. I want you to get to
know each other. I’ve got more plans—
    He broke off, “But that’ll wait till later.”
    Getting up, Donovan hurried off.
    Delanie pleated her napkin, her gaze lowered to her
lap, her every nerve