Prodigal Son by Danielle Steel Page B

not in Alana’s plans. She shook her head in answer to his question. She had made up her mind. It was written all over her, and he seriously wondered now if she was involved with someone else. He didn’t have the guts to ask again, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “When do you want to tell the boys?”
    “I don’t know, before you go back to New York. You can enjoy them for a few days first. We’re going to Aspen in a week anyway. I guess you’ll want to go back to New York then.” And then she looked panicked for an instant. “Or do you think you’ll stay out here?” Having made the decision, she wanted a clean break.
    “I don’t know,” Peter said, thinking about it. “I’d been thinking about staying out here with you. But there’s no point in that now. Atleast here I’d be close to the boys, but I have nothing to do here, and even less if I’m not with you. I don’t want to sit around in an apartment, waiting to see them. They have their own lives too. I’d rather fly out to see them, or have them come to New York for a chunk of time. If I’m not with you, Alana, I really have no life out here.” She nodded and agreed. She didn’t want him to stay.
    She walked out of the room then and disappeared for a while. The four of them had dinner together that night, and Peter did his best to keep the conversation lively and entertain the boys. His heart was breaking while he did it, and it was the hardest thing he’d ever done. He didn’t speak to Alana again until they went to bed that night. He had thought about staying in a guest room, but that would have said everything to the boys, and Alana agreed. So they were sharing a bedroom and a bed, and he was stunned by how lonely he could feel lying right next to her. Neither of them said a word once the lights were out, and it took him hours to fall asleep.
    He got up at six o’clock the next morning and went to use the gym in the main house. He ran into his father-in-law as he walked in too, and Gary greeted him with a friendly expression.
    “Sorry, Peter.” He went right to the point, as he stood on the treadmill and looked at his about-to-be ex-son-in-law. “I think it’s for the best.”
    “For who? I don’t,” Peter said honestly. “This is going to be hard for the boys, and for me, even if it’s what she wants.”
    “You’ll get back on your feet again. You’re a very smart guy. I’m not worried about you. But it would be hard on Alana sticking by while you go through all the crap you’ll have to, to get to the top again.”
    “I thought that was what ‘for better or worse’ was all about,” Peter said grimly.
    “Not in real life,” Gary said firmly. “She went through enough when she lost her mother at fifteen. I don’t want her ever going through hard times again. She’s not made for that. She deserves an easy life.”
    “Life isn’t always easy,” Peter said doggedly. “That’s what love is all about.”
    “You’ll want things easy for your kids one day too. I don’t want Alana to suffer while you put your life back together again. It could take years. It would be different if you were along for a free ride, but you’re not that kind of guy. You’d go crazy hanging around an office doing nothing. I respect that about you.”
    “But not enough to encourage your daughter to stay married to me.”
    “She’ll be happier out here, and so will your boys. You can come out and see them anytime you like. You’re welcome to stay here,” Gary said magnanimously as he upped the speed on the treadmill and adjusted it for a hill. He was in great shape for a man his age.
    “That’s not the same thing,” Peter said unhappily. “I want to live with my kids.” Not a continent away. And staying in L.A. was not the answer for him either, if he and Alana weren’t together anymore. It would have been a painful life for him, and an empty one.
    “Things don’t always work out the way we want. I lost my wife, and we