Six Hot Summer Nights

Once Bronson’s jet landed back in L.A., Bronson dropped Mia off at her cottage because his mother had called his cell and told him to come to the house before going anywhere else. She assured him her health was fine, but they urgently needed to talk in private.

He hadn’t told Mia about the message because he didn’t want to alarm her. What else could be wrong? If her health was fine, what else could she have to discuss that was so important?

Even though his mother was a Hollywood icon, she’d never been one for personal drama. Twice in one week she’d needed to see him in private—that made him a bit nervous.

Bronson entered the main house, smiling at one of the staff as they passed each other on the wide, curved stairs. As he entered the grand study where his mother spent nearly all her time, he noticed two things right off the bat:

one, his mother had been crying and two, Anthony Price stood right next to her.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

Olivia gestured toward the sofa where his sister sat. “Please, Bronson, sit with your sister. There’s something you both need to know”

Remaining on his feet, Bronson eyed Anthony. “What’s he doing in your house? Did you go around me and hire him for the project? We were supposed to discuss this when I returned.”

Olivia’s eyes, now misting back up, turned to Anthony. “No, this has nothing to do with the film.”

A sickening pit bottomed out in his stomach. Nothing, absolutely nothing good was going to come from the next few minutes. Of that he was certain.

“Why are you upset?” he asked, fear of the unknown gripping at his chest.

“These are tears of joy,” his mother assured him. “And a little of fear, I must say.”

“Come sit, Bronson.” Victoria shifted on the sofa and smiled. “I’m sure whatever Mom has to say is very important.”

“If it’s that important, maybe just family should be here.”

Why was Anthony looking so … comfortable? What the hell did the man have to do with anything that his mother could have to say?

“Actually, that’s precisely what I need to talk to you both about,” Olivia said. “Family. Bronson, I want you to promise not to speak until I’m done talking.”

He never, ever liked the sound of that, especially coming from his own mother. Who wanted to give up the right to interrupt when the conversation wasn’t going in a satisfactory direction?

“Bronson?” she asked.

“Fine.”

Olivia came to her feet, crossed the room to stand in front of the French doors that opened on to the patio. Silence settled into the room and Bronson knew his mother was having a hard time voicing her thoughts. Whatever she wanted to say obviously upset her.

And there was no script to follow in real life.

Olivia smiled. “I never thought this day would come. I dreamed of how I’d handle it, but I never thought it would be a reality.”

Victoria reached over and grabbed Bronson’s hand, and honestly he wanted that connection. Who knew what was going to come next from his mother’s lips.

“I was at a pivotal point in my career nearly forty years ago,” she went on. “I had one of the biggest roles of my life handed to me without an audition. The industry adored me. I had never been so alive, so happy. I was only twenty years old, and I was pregnant by a man I didn’t love enough to marry.”

Bronson drew his brows together, biting his tongue because that wasn’t right. His mother was twenty-five when he was born, and he knew she’d loved his father.

“I panicked because I was not ready to be a mother. I was still working on my career and knew that if I had a baby, I wouldn’t put his needs before mine. I admit I was selfish, but I also admit that an abortion was out of the question. I wanted this baby to have a good life, and I was wealthy enough that I could buy a private adoption and pay any lawyer and judge to keep this from leaking to the press.

“And I did.”

Victoria squeezed Bronson’s hand. Whether she was scared or because she wanted him to keep his promise of silence, he didn’t know.

“Anthony is the son I gave up for adoption.”

“This is preposterous.” Bronson came to his feet. “Price, what have you told my mother? Did you dig up this dirt on her about an adoptive child and now you’re blackmailing her?”

Anthony shook his head. “What would I blackmail her for, Bronson? I have everything I want and I could buy anything else.”

“Then what the hell do you want?”

Olivia stepped forward. “Bronson, calm down. I’ve known Anthony was my son from the moment I gave birth to him. I gave him up for adoption and kept track of him all this time. He’s not lying, and quite honestly, I’m shocked he found out and came to me. I paid a lot of money to keep this hidden.”

Anthony sighed. “It wasn’t easy. I’ve had my attorneys and a detective looking for my birth parents for well over a year. I didn’t think they’d uncover anything, but about nine months ago they did.”

Nine months?

“You’ve known for all this time?” Bronson clenched his fists at his side. “Why wait this long to come forward?”

Bronson stared at the man he’d loathed for so many years. Now that he knew the truth, he noticed they had exactly the same eyes and facial structure … just like their mother.

Anthony ran a hand through his hair. “Honestly, my home life hasn’t been the best, as I’m sure you’ve heard. I’m trying to work on my marriage, and I’m fumbling through assistants since mine came to work for Olivia.”

Mia. Another time line perked Bronson up even more.

“Does Mia know about this?”

Anthony stared without saying a word, and dammit, Bronson knew.

How the hell could she keep something like this from him? Maybe this really was some scheme devised by Anthony and Mia.

The mother of his child.

One crisis at a time.

“So now what?” Bronson asked, turning to his mother. “I hope you don’t expect me to accept him as my brother. I never liked him before, and I sure as hell don’t like him now.”

“Bronson,” Victoria’s soft, smooth voice cut through his anger. “Nobody is asking you to do anything. The truth is out there, now we just have to deal with it.”

“The truth?” He laughed. “If Mother had been so worried about the truth, she would’ve told us years ago.”

“And disrupt the only life Anthony had ever known?” Olivia interjected. “I made my choice to give him a better life, and I wasn’t going to push my way back in. I couldn’t afford to tell anyone.”

“All these years Bronson and I feuded were hell on you, I’m sure,” Anthony said to Olivia.

Olivia’s eyes filled, and one tear slid down her aged cheek. “It was torture to see my children always at odds.”

“This isn’t happening,” Bronson muttered to himself. “This cannot be happening.”

“I assure you,” Anthony said. “I’m no more thrilled that we’re related than you are.”

Bronson walked to his mother, angry at her for keeping something so … life-altering from him all these years, but at the same time heartbroken because he couldn’t imagine giving up a child.

“Mom.” He wrapped his arms around her. “I honestly don’t know what to say here. I want to be angry with you, but I can see you’re at war with yourself. I can’t welcome him into the family. I just can’t.”

Olivia sniffed against his polo and nodded. “I know, son. My only wish is that you two will cease this feud and at least try to get along.”

Bronson doubted that would happen, but he’d appease his mother. “I’ll do my best.”

He eyed Anthony over his mother’s shoulder. The illegitimate brother stared back, a knowing look passing between them. Anthony wasn’t any more eager to have Bronson for a brother, and that was perfectly fine.

Because this whole brother thing was a non-issue as far as he was concerned. What was a concern was Mia. The woman he’d made a baby with, trusted and started falling in love with.

She’d betrayed him even more than his mother—though he hated to call what his mother had done betrayal. She’d given up the child nearly forty years ago and had reasons for keeping it a secret.

Mia, though, had known from the second she’d stepped out wearing only a towel that he was Anthony’s brother. And she’d never said a word. Never even hinted at the fact.

Bronson eased back, keeping an arm around his mother’s shoulders. “What did you promise Mia for keeping silent about this?” he asked Anthony.

“Nothing. I asked her to keep this to herself until I had a chance to talk to Olivia.”

Bronson laughed. “And she just agreed to it?”

The muscle in Anthony’s jaw ticked, his dark eyes narrowed. “And here I thought you knew her. You know nothing about Mia if you have to ask that.”

That’s exactly what Bronson was beginning to see. Just how well did he know Mia?

He knew her body better than she did. He knew she lit up like a child at green M&M’s. Her culinary skills were amazing, and she kept the locket with a picture of her parents around her neck at all times so she could always have them with her.

That much he knew.

What he didn’t know was how deep her love for Anthony ran—platonic or not. He didn’t know if she truly had an agenda as far as he and his family were concerned and the pregnancy threw a wrench in her plans.

At this point he knew nothing except his life had just done a one-eighty and now his worst enemy was his brother and a woman he thought he knew was carrying his child.

“Leave Mia out of this,” Olivia said. “If she knew, then I’m even more impressed with her for keeping this to herself.”

“Impressed?” Bronson wasn’t impressed at all right now. He was angry, hurt, betrayed. “After all she and I have been through, she should’ve told me.”

“Loyalty is something Mia prides herself on,” Anthony said. “And even though right at this moment you’re angry with her, she’d be just as loyal to you if you asked her to keep something to herself.”

Bronson turned toward Anthony. He was the dead last person Bronson wanted to have a conversation with regarding Mia.

“This changes nothing.” Bronson narrowed his eyes. “You want to spend time with my mother and try to form some sort of bond, that’s up to her. I’m not feeling very brotherly.”

“Bronson.” Victoria came to stand beside him, placing a delicate hand on his arm. “Don’t say things right now that you don’t mean. We’ve all sustained a shock. Let’s just think this through, let it all settle and then we’ll decide how to proceed.”

He glanced down at his sister who had a loving heart for everyone. “Tori, my feelings won’t change for him just because we share a mother. I’ve never trusted him, and I’m not going to be buddies with him. You and Mom are free to do what you want with this newfound relationship, but I want no part of it.”

Unable to stay in the same room with the tension, the lies and the hurt, Bronson turned to leave.

“No,” Anthony said. “I’ll go.”

Bronson looked over his shoulder. “What?”

His illegitimate brother crossed the room. “I’ll go. You three have a lot to discuss and you don’t need me here. I realize I’m not part of this family, and it’s certainly not my intention to break anything up. I know this will take a lot of time to deal with.”

Bronson was shocked at Anthony’s gracious action, volunteering to leave. He wouldn’t have thought the man would step aside at a time like this. Bronson was grateful … though he wouldn’t admit it.

He nodded to Anthony, who then turned to Olivia. “I hope I can call or stop by again soon.”

Olivia’s face lit up as a smile spread across her face. “Anytime, my darling.”

“Goodbye, Anthony,” Victoria said with a tender smile.

Anthony spared Bronson one last look before leaving.

Bronson turned back to his mother. “You’ve always known?”

Olivia lifted her chin. “Yes, and I’m not ashamed of my actions because I’d do the same thing again to give my child the best start at life.”

Anger, confusion and hurt spread through Bronson. He wished he had somewhere to place the blame, but he didn’t want to castigate his mother. In his heart, he knew his mother had made the hardest decision of her life, and making her pay for it nearly forty years later wouldn’t fix anything.

“Oh, Mother, I wish you’d said something.” Victoria wrapped an arm around their mother’s shoulders. “The pain you must’ve felt all these years with all the turmoil between Bron and Anthony. Why didn’t you at least tell us? We never would’ve told a soul.”

“Because if Anthony never came to me, I would’ve died with this secret.” Olivia smiled at Victoria. “I do have him in my will, and I even had letters to each of you that you were supposed to receive if something happened to me. I gave specific instructions for you to read the letters well before the reading of my will so you wouldn’t be as stunned.”

“Letters, Mother?” Bronson asked, resting his hands on his hips. “I never took you to be afraid of anything, yet you couldn’t tell us this?”

Those sparkling blue eyes that had dazzled the camera for decades turned to him. “To be honest, I didn’t want either of you to be disappointed in me. I was human. I met a man I thought I loved, got pregnant and knew I was in no position to raise or care for a child properly. It wasn’t until a couple years later I met your father, and I told him everything before we married. He tried to get me to reclaim Anthony then, but I couldn’t do that. I’d given him up to a loving family, and I refused to tear them apart.”

Bronson swallowed, unable to even fathom giving up a child. He’d lost one and thankfully had the chance to be a father again. But to willingly give the baby up so he could have a better life?

He wrapped his arms around two of the most important women in his life. “You’re the bravest woman I know,” he whispered to his mother. “I’m glad you don’t have to carry this secret anymore. Just please don’t expect me to change overnight.”

Olivia clutched his shirt at his back and hugged him to her side. “I won’t, son. But promise you’ll try to make amends with Anthony. For me.”

For his mother he’d try anything. But first he had another woman in his life to deal with.

Sixteen

Mia opened her door to a very tense, angry Bronson. The muscle ticking in his jaw, the thin lips and narrowed eyes were all directed at her.

Her heart stopped and she knew the secret was out. Now was possibly her one and only chance to salvage their relationship and prove that her love for him was never in question.

“You saw your mother?”

“Would you ever have told me, Mia?”

Mia’s gaze darted down to her bare feet, then back up. “No.”

“My mother said the same thing,” he whispered. “Betrayal from all sides. This secret just gets better and better.”

A flash of pain tore through Bronson’s eyes before he pushed past her and entered her house. With a heavy heart and a sickening pit in her stomach, Mia shut the door and followed him.

“Your mother knew?” Mia asked, shocked.

He spared her a glance as he moved into her living area. “She’s known the whole time.”

Bronson stood looking out on to her patio, his back to her. “You want to tell me again that there was never anything between you and Anthony? Why your loyalty is stronger for your previous employer than the father of your baby?”

She would not fight. There was no reason to start arguing, Mia told herself. He was hurting and looking for a place to lay blame, and she was in the path of his destruction. She had to be strong to keep this relationship afloat on these rocky waters.

“I’ve never lied to you about my involvement with Anthony,” she told him in a soft voice. “I love Anthony like a brother, and I saw him struggle with this secret. I happened to stumble across the information just about a week before I was set to leave and come work for your mother. I assure you, more than once I wished I’d never known the truth.”

“But you did.” He turned, hands on his hips. “You knew the truth that would change my life. You slept with me, made a child with me and professed your love for me all the while knowing this.”

How could she deny anything?

“Yes.”

He threw his arms in the air, his voice boomed through her house. “How can I trust what you say, Mia? How can I ever trust you to be open and honest with me? You of all people know how important family is.”

Okay, that was low, but she refused to let him pull her into a fight, refused to throw away this family she’d already come to love.

“Bronson, family means everything to me, too.” A soft flutter slid through her stomach as her baby moved. “But this was not my secret to tell, and if Anthony had decided to never open up, then my spilling the secret would’ve ruined everything.”

“Did you know he was going to talk to my mother?”

“Yes. He told me last week he’d be talking to her in the next few days.”

Bronson’s lids fluttered down, and a curse slipped through his lips. “So the whole time we were gone you knew what was happening back here?” he asked, directing those blue eyes at her.

Mia nodded. “I was so worried what we’d come home to, but I wanted that time with you, Bronson. I wanted that time with just us because I have fallen in love with you. Not because of the baby, but because of us.”

Bronson laughed. “There is no us, Mia. Us implies a unit, and I’m not going to be part of a team where I can’t trust my partner.”

The burn in Mia’s throat quickly spread to her eyes, but she wasn’t giving up. She’d known going in this would be hard, but she had never been a quitter.

“If you look back, you’ll see I did nothing to make you not trust me, Bronson. If you think that you can’t see where this relationship would go, then fine. Walk out that door and don’t look back. Don’t give me a second thought. But I know you can’t do that.”

“Not when you’re carrying my baby,” he threw back.

Anger fueled Mia. “The baby may have brought us together, but this baby is not the reason I want to be with you or the reason I love you. And you cannot tell me you aren’t in love with me, Bronson.”

“I’m not.”

“Now who’s lying?” she whispered through tears. “You make love to me like I’m the most important thing in your life. You whisk me away to a castle for a week when I know you never take that much time off work. You surprise me with all of my favorite things and you take me shopping for custom-made, Italian furniture. Don’t even deny those are signs of love.”

That gaze bore into her, but Mia held her ground. Her future, their baby’s future, was at stake.

“Leave if you want,” she told him, praying he’d come to his senses. “But know that no one will ever love you as much as I do. No one will ever be as faithful and loyal to you as I will. And know that you are throwing away a family that would’ve made you a lifetime of memories.”

The muscle in Bronson’s jaw ticked as he stared her in the eyes. Tension-filled silence enveloped Mia, but she hadn’t come so far in her own life by backing down from getting what she wanted.

“‘Throwing away’ implies I had something to begin with.” Bronson stepped away from the windows and crossed the wood floor to stand before her. “Yes, we have a baby, but that’s all. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing else between us. There never was, and there never will be.”

He brushed past her, careful to turn his shoulder so he didn’t even come in contact with her. Mia stood stone-still as his shoes clicked on the tile in the foyer. She didn’t even move when he opened the door and closed it.

It wasn’t until the roar of his engine died that she sank back onto the couch. Tears slid down her cheeks, one chasing after the other. But Mia didn’t feel defeated. She hadn’t lost this fight yet, and she certainly didn’t intend to.

Bronson just needed time to think. He needed time to adjust to all that had been thrown at him in one day. Mia couldn’t expect him to deal with her when she had no doubt the relationship with his mother was probably now strained.

Mia’s heart ached for Olivia. Protectively, she slid a hand around her baby. Mia couldn’t fathom giving this baby away, even if it meant a better life for the child. Olivia’s courage forty years ago astounded Mia, and she only hoped Bronson saw how his mother had always put her children’s welfare first.

Because if Bronson didn’t make peace with his mother and Anthony, there was no hope for her and the baby.

For the last hour Bronson had stared at his computer screen. Actually, at the title page of the script he and his mother had worked on, to be exact.

Everything had changed since they began working on writing their own film over a year ago. The script had been very loosely based on his mother’s life in the movie industry. She’d been adamant about keeping her personal life from the script. At first he’d assumed it was simply because she wanted to keep their personal family life to herself.

Now he knew she didn’t want to get into the fact that she’d given up her first child for adoption.

Bronson closed the script and came to his feet. His life had changed dramatically in the last three weeks, and he still hadn’t figured out what steps to take next. Who the hell did he trust? Victoria had certainly taken the news better than he had, but Victoria had always had a heart of gold and gave everyone a chance. One of these days she was going to get her heart broken.

There was nowhere for him to direct his anger. The emotion seemed to shoot out in so many different directions. He wanted to hate his mother for keeping something like this from him, but at the same time he knew she lived her own hell by not being with a child she’d given birth to and then by seeing her two sons turn into rivals in the public eye.

As for his feelings for Anthony, Bronson honestly didn’t know what to feel. Anger crept up from any emotion he battled with lately, but it wasn’t Anthony’s fault. He’d been given up for adoption and just recently discovered his mother was Hollywood’s most beloved star. As much as Bronson hated to admit it, Anthony was a victim of fate, too.

But Mia, the woman who carried his child and claimed to love him, had known for months. In all that time, she’d worked her way into his life with that innocent smile and loving nature. She’d simply glowed whenever talking about the baby.

Bronson ran a hand through his hair, turning to look out the wide window behind his desk. And now he was back to doubting the baby’s paternity. How could he trust her with anything? Did loyalty mean nothing to people anymore? How could he be so naive as to fall for another woman’s lies?

Dammit. How many times had he lectured himself not to get too attached to another child? He’d known going in that Mia’s past working relationship with Anthony made her questionable.

But he’d gone and fallen in love with the child anyway, and he knew, looking back, there was no way around it. The first time he’d seen the baby on the screen, the little heartbeat thump that resounded through the tiny exam room, there was no way anyone could avoid falling in love with that moment, that baby.

Bronson hated this helpless feeling that had plagued him since he’d come back from Italy and discovered the truth. Hated that control had been taken from his life and he’d had no way to stop it.

But he intended to get his life back in order, and the only way he knew to start was to confront each of the key players: his mother, Anthony and Mia.

The war raged within him, but he knew the person he needed to start with was the one who’d had the shock of his life, too.

Bronson didn’t call, didn’t want to think about his plan. He ran down to the kitchen, grabbed the keys to his two-door sports car and headed toward Anthony’s house before he could talk himself out of confronting him.

If Anthony wasn’t home, then Bronson would go to his mother. But right now he was too angry, and he didn’t want to talk to his mother when there was a good chance he’d say something he regretted. As far as offending Anthony, Bronson didn’t care. There was no love lost there to begin with.