Secret Garden. Cathryn Parry

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СКАЧАТЬ crofter’s cottage” had been heaven to Colin once—if only because he got to see Rhiannon when he went there. He closed his eyes at the memory.

      So if Jessie and Jamie were both still alive, that meant...

      Colin took off his cap. Stared into Daisie Lee’s eyes, which were bright with animation. “Are you telling me that my father died?”

      “Yes.” She nodded. “He had a heart attack. That’s why Jessie called me.”

      He couldn’t focus. His vision seemed to be swimming and he blinked hard to clear it. Somehow he remained stubbornly on his feet.

      “No,” he said. Mack and Leonard were staring at him, so he sat. “I’m not going to his funeral.”

      “Colin, there’s a million-dollar inheritance.”

      Colin closed his eyes. He felt sick. He hadn’t wanted to think about any of this stuff from his childhood. It was easier to pretend that it didn’t exist. He sure as hell didn’t want his father’s money.

      “I’m a tour pro,” he said. “Last year I grossed almost that much myself.”

      There was silence in the room. Leonard cleared his throat, but Colin caught Mack giving him a look. Don’t fight it, the look said. Just go, and take the money.

      “I know my tour card’s at risk,” Colin bit out. “But I still don’t want anything from him.”

      “Oh, Colin,” Daisie Lee whispered. She seemed sad, and that tore him up inside, the way it always had.

      Gritting his teeth, he walked to the end of the room and grabbed a paper cup, pouring a drink from the watercooler. Somebody in the hall outside came over to wave and smile at him through the conference room window, but he just couldn’t muster up that old, carefree Colin attitude to wave back at them.

      He was all tapped out. Didn’t care about keeping up his cool. When it came to the subject of his father, nothing was light, and never would be.

      His hand shook as he raised the cup to his lips. For so long he’d thought that someday he’d bump into his father at a tournament, maybe. Show him that he’d been wrong. Rub it in, even.

      It had been a secret, stupid desire, something he’d never shared with anybody, or even really dared to admit to himself, because it was petty. And it was sad, too, because a part of him really had wanted his dad to say he’d made a mistake. That he did love Colin.

      Now it was too late.

       My father is dead.

      Colin heard a choking sound, and he was shocked to realize that came from him. He pressed his palm to his forehead. He didn’t want to feel this.

      His mother came over to him and gingerly put her hand on his shoulder. “Colin, honey, I know it’s hard. What he did to us when he left...well.” She shook her head, collecting herself, and pushed the screen of her phone toward him. “Look. The most important thing now is that we need to be practical. If you lose your tour card—”

      He turned to her, suddenly furious. “I will not lose my tour card.”

      “Of course you won’t, Colin. I know. The inheritance is... Think of it as a contingency plan.”

      He turned and stared out the window. “Then tell Jessie to mail me the check.”

      “I did, but she said you need to be there, for lawyers and signatures and whatever else. Then she mentioned Mr. Sage, Jamie’s employer. Colin, I looked him up on the internet. Do you remember the family?”

      Colin shook his head, ignoring her outstretched hand, cradling the phone. He didn’t like that she was getting so excited about this. For too long, Daisie Lee had cried over the divorce, and Colin, even as young as he was, had been the one who’d had to lift her spirits.

      “Don’t frown, Colin. Surely you remember the MacDowall family that lived in the castle? Rhiannon, the little girl? She was so sweet to you. The two of you were so close back then.”

      Of course he hadn’t forgotten her. Rhiannon had been the one great thing about that place. The best thing, actually.

      But then, Rhiannon had never written to him the way she’d promised. Colin couldn’t help thinking that he’d done something wrong, because he’d believed her when she said that she would write him.

      She’d seen everything that had happened, though—had heard what his father had said to him, and Colin had always figured that in the end, it had affected her decision to keep in touch.

      “Rhiannon’s mother,” Daisie Lee continued, “was a Sage. The Sages of Scotland—you’ve heard of them? They own that big shampoo and cosmetics empire?”

      Daisie Lee didn’t wait for his reaction. She just kept talking, an excited look on her face. “Colin, they’re now about the wealthiest people in Scotland. Can you believe it?”

      “I really don’t care about that,” he said coldly. Because he didn’t.

      “Their company is called Sage Family Products. Here, I looked it up. They sponsor professional athletes.”

      He saw where this was going, all too clearly. She was trying to ensure his financial stability in the event that he crashed and burned on the pro tour. She was just being a mother.

      He sat down at the table and put his head in his hands. He just wanted to keep his tour card and his dignity. No amount of money could save that.

      Daisie Lee’s voice was softer now, but she was still revved up. Apparently, she really was convinced that Colin should return to the place that she’d scorned for so many years.

      Not that he’d blamed her. Daisie Lee’s life had been tough after the divorce. The laughter had died in their little home. For a while, they’d been living in a trailer in her mother’s front yard, next to a chicken coop. Daisie Lee had cried herself to sleep every night, and he’d heard it because the trailer had been so small.

      But the worst thing of all was that his father hadn’t once asked how they were doing. Colin hadn’t heard a word. Not a card on his birthday, not a call at Christmas.

      He could never, ever forgive that.

      Colin stood. Everyone was staring at him. Mack, Leonard, his mom. In a sense, they all depended on him. Colin had never thought of himself as someone big on commitment—he’d expressly avoided it, in fact—but when it came right down to it, he was fast realizing that he was a committed man.

      He had a team to support. A caddie, a business manager, his fans, his sponsors... They were all good to him—friends—and Colin didn’t desert his friends.

      Maybe it was just important to him that he end up being the good guy that his father hadn’t been.

      Mack was watching him, waiting for his decision.

      Leonard rolled his pen in his fingers. He looked sorry about the whole thing. Daisie Lee was filled with crazy hope. Mack, too, probably.

      Colin СКАЧАТЬ