The Delacourt Scandal by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online

ounce of gratitude in him, he’d follow my wishes and send my son packing.”
    Tyler grinned ruefully. “Yeah, I heard you’d told him I wasn’t coming back.”
    “And he couldn’t wait to run to you, could he?”
    “Gee, he seemed to think it might be my decision to make. Now there’s a crazy notion, isn’t it?”
    “Don’t get sarcastic with me, boy. I’m still your father.”
    “I know that.”
    “Then give me a little credit. I know what’s best for you.”
    “No, Dad, you don’t. You know what you want for me, not what I want.”
    “If it’s money you’re after…”
    “Don’t be absurd, Dad. This isn’t about money. I know what you pay your top executives. It’s more than I could make working eighty hours a week for Daniel, and that’s saying something.”
    “Then I just don’t get it.”
    “I like the physical work, the challenge, being outdoors. I’d suffocate being cooped up in here all day.”
    “Dammit, Tyler, working those rigs is dangerous. There was a time when I was learning the ropes that I did it, too. Came damned near to getting killed in a fire on one of them. Your mother would never forgive me if anything happened to you.”
    Tyler saw the ploy for exactly what it was, a pitiful attempt by his father to shift the blame for his own hardheadedness onto his wife by suggesting that she was the one who feared for Tyler’s safety.
    “Then I’ll just have to see that nothing happens.” He met his father’s gaze evenly. “And if you want me to, I’ll explain my decision to Mother. I’ll assure her you did your absolute best to keep me right here in Houston.”
    For just an instant his father looked so thoroughly bewildered and defeated that Tyler almost relented. Then he stiffened his spine and his resolve. This was the way it had to be.
    “Dad, this is for the best. Someday I’ll be too old to work the rigs. If I’m lucky, there will be a nice desk job waiting for me then.”
    “Don’t count on it.”
    Tyler matched his father’s scowl. “Would you rather I went to another company?”
    Red patches darkened his father’s cheeks at the suggestion. “Maybe that would be for the best. It would get you away from the influence of that hooligan.”
    Tyler wasn’t sure which of them was the mostshocked by the response. “If that’s the way you really feel—”
    His father’s anger dissolved. “Blast it all, Tyler, that’s not what I want! You’re a Delacourt. What would people think if you turned up working for one of our competitors?”
    “That you and I had a falling out,” Tyler said readily. “They wouldn’t be off the mark, either.”
    “Well, I’m not going to be fodder for anyone’s gossip. If you insist on risking your life, then you’ll do it on one of my rigs. They’ve got the best safety record in the business—Corrigan’s seen to that. The man costs me an arm and a leg with all his precautions.”
    “Do you begrudge him the money he spends so that you can boast about your safety record?”
    “Of course not,” his father retorted impatiently. “Do you have to twist everything I say?”
    Tyler laughed. “Just imagine what I’d do if you had me underfoot every day.”
    Slowly a reluctant smile tugged at the corners of his father’s mouth. “I suppose there is a positive side to this ridiculous decision of yours. At least we won’t be butting heads on a regular basis.”
    “Just holidays and special occasions,” Tyler suggested wryly.
    “Better make it more often than that, or your mother will have my hide,” his father countered.
    It was as near as Bryce Delacourt was likely to come to an admission of affection, and Tyler found it oddly moving. “We definitely can’t have that, can we?” he replied lightly. “Thanks for seeing it my way, Dad.”
    “You didn’t give me much of a choice, did you? Go on, now, before Corrigan calls up and accuses me of stealing his best worker.”
    “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll stick around