One Foolish Night (Eternal Bachelors Club #4)

Paul exchanged a look with his sister, who looked as stunned as he. Then he stared at his mother. Pure horror was etched in her face.

“Oh, yes, the woman who’s now judging everybody else was down in the dumps herself. Apparently she doesn’t like to be reminded of that time, does she?” Mirabelle blew out a breath. “And if I recall correctly, for a few extra bucks she would give her customers more than just a lap dance.”

“Brad?” Pleadingly his mother looked at his father.

He put his hand on her forearm. “I’m sorry, honey, you know I can’t . . . ”

Wet with tears, his mother’s eyes found Paul’s. “All I did was try to save you from what your father had to endure when he married me. I only wanted to make sure you ended up with a decent woman. One who was above reproach. Somebody better than—”

“No, Nora!” his father interrupted.

Sobbing, she stormed from the room. In that moment, for the first time, Paul wanted to hug her and comfort her. Because for the first time his mother had shown her human side, the vulnerability that she’d been hiding all this time. He understood so much now. She’d tried to find a woman for him to save him from making the mistake she believed his father had made.

“Mother,” he murmured as he watched her disappear down the hallway. Slowly, he turned to his father, who’d slumped in his chair and dropped his head into his hands. “So you fell in love with a stripper.”

His father nodded without looking up. “She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. I wanted her more than I wanted anything else.” He looked up and their gazes met. “I can’t live without her.”

For a moment, Paul let his father’s words sink into him. Could he live without Holly? The two months that they’d been apart had been hell for him. Not a day had passed that he hadn’t longed for her. And the last week they’d spent together had been like paradise.

“Didn’t your family stop you?” Paul addressed his father.

He smiled. “They tried. But love always finds a way.” His father glanced at Olivia, then back at Paul. “We eloped, and by the time we got back, Nora was already pregnant with you, Paul. So your grandparents gave up fighting us. But they always looked down on her. That’s why she became the way she is. She tried so hard to be what they wanted her to be. But your mother became bitter, because they always judged her by what she’d done in her past.”

He glanced at Mirabelle. “You were the only one who supported us, but even after my parents’ deaths, Nora couldn’t get over the fact that there was still one other person who knew about her past. I think that’s why there was always tension between you two. Please don’t blame her for it, Mirabelle. She’s a good person, but the decisions she made when she was young haunt her to this day.”

Then Paul’s father looked at Paul and Olivia. “Please don’t judge your mother. She loves you both.”

Paul reached across the table and squeezed his father’s hand. “We have to judge people by their future. Otherwise, they can never become what they’re meant to be.”

Slowly, his father nodded. “Go, Paul, and do what you need to do. You know in your heart what’s right.”

Paul smiled. Yes, he knew.





29


“Are you sure about it?” Sabrina asked.

Holly nodded. “You saw what happened. I can’t stay here. I have to go home.” She looked at Daniel, who leaned against the armrest of the sofa in the living room of his parents’ home. “Could you please go over to Paul’s house and get my suitcase? I don’t think anybody wants to see me over there.”

Daniel nodded, his face serious. “Of course I’ll do that. Do you want me to give Paul a message while I’m there?”

Holly bowed her head. She had embarrassed Paul and his family. “I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear from me.”

“Okay. I’ll be back shortly.” He pivoted and left the room.

“Oh, Holly. Don’t you think you should talk to Paul and tell him the truth?” Sabrina asked. “Don’t you think he deserves to know that it’s his child?”

Holly met her friend’s gaze. “What would that serve? There is no future for us, no matter what happened before last night.”

After Holly had run to the Sinclairs’ house, because she hadn’t had anywhere else to go after her former client had exposed her, she had told Sabrina everything that had happened between her and Paul.

“But he seems to care about you. Why don’t you give him a chance and let him decide for himself, before you conclude that he doesn’t want to talk to you?”