“Check numbers?”
“Reach a little farther into the envelope.”
He did and found a bankbook.
“That’s your share of our profits since Dad died. After he passed, Mom decided that she didn’t need or want all the money Montgomery Development generated, so she made us full partners. As I said, we each own a third. That—” he nodded at the bankbook “—is your share.”
He opened the bankbook. Glanced up at Max. “There are millions of dollars here.”
“I know.”
“You left it in a savings account? Where it barely draws interest?”
Max laughed. “My job was to keep your money safe. Your job is to invest it.”
“I don’t know what to say.” He really didn’t. Their father would have never held profits. Not even for a partner. He would have figured a way take them as salary or a bonus. Max had saved them. For him.
“Say you’ll stay…at least a while. Give me a chance to prove myself. Things are very different here now. We could be a family again.”
A family. The real gift he wanted to give the twins. An uncle, an aunt, cousins, a grandma. And Max wanted it too. Yet, here he was, picking a fight because he couldn’t trust.
He cleared his throat and unexpectedly thought of Tory. Like Max, she’d been nothing but good to him, and what did he do? Convince himself he couldn’t trust her because of Liliah, and build a federal case out of her not telling him where she would be going on her days off.
He swallowed hard. “What if the problem isn’t that I don’t trust you but that I just plain can’t trust at all?”
“Then I would recommend that you stay even more. You build trust first with family, Chance. Give me and Mom the opportunity to show you that we love you and we want you in our lives. And we’ll take it from there.”
He laughed slightly and shook his head, realizing what a yutz he’d been. “You mean start interacting more than just living in Mom’s guesthouse and visiting you on the job?”
“Yeah. You can’t write off me and Mom because Dad was a jerk. Get to know us before you write us off.”
Max’s words rang in Chance’s head as he entered the cottage that night. Because it was already after six, Tory had the babies fed.
“That was a long visit.”
“My brother and I had a talk—”
And he had been so confused about his mistrust of Tory—whether it was leftover feelings from Liliah or genuine mistrust because she had a secret—that he didn’t really want to come home. So he’d driven around a bit, trying to make sense of what was happening. He didn’t want to fall victim to an unexpectedly intense attraction. Yet he didn’t want to lose a good nanny because he said or did something because of his overly suspicious mind. He did want to do what Max had suggested, get to know the new people around him. But the problem was, getting to know Tory usually either made him giddy with attraction or suspicious of her.
He had to find a neutral ground and had no idea how.
He walked over to the play yard, and lifted Sam out. “Hey, big guy. What did you do all day?”
“Actually, they had a special day.”
He peered over. “They did?”
“Yes, your mom has decided to keep them every day at noon while I eat lunch.”
He laughed, felt some of his apprehension loosen. This was a normal discussion a man should have with his children’s nanny. If he could keep the conversation going like this, he might actually get comfortable. “I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist.”
“She is their grandmother.”
“Technically, yes.”
“Technically?”
Maybe it was time for him to be a little more honest too? “I’m adopted.”
“Oh.”
He put Sam back in the play yard and lifted Cindy out. “Hey, sweetie.”
She nuzzled against his face and he laughed. “I missed you too. But Daddy’s going out tonight.” Dinner with Max and Kate and their kids was another part of Max’s get-to-know the family plan. And now that he thought about it, the answer to his problems with Tory might actually be solved that way too. If he wanted to trust her, he needed to know more about her. He couldn’t out-and-out interrogate her, but if the opportunity to question her came up in conversation, he needed to take it.
He glanced at Tory. “My brother and his wife want me to have dinner with them. I hope you don’t mind.”