by Jessa York
“We should talk about this some more. Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” she said and kissed him lightly on the mouth. Oh, ugh. Barf.
“Get a room,” I mumbled.
“They already did. Yours.” Harper cackled, and this time I grabbed her and tickled her.
“Not funny,” I whispered into her ear and laughed.
“Very funny.” She gasped for breath.
“Maris told me she and her husband saw them practically making out at Captain Chip’s,” Iris said in her usual know-it-all voice.
“Making out in a restaurant? God, it’s like genetic or something,” Harper said to me. I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Jack caught them,” she said to Iris in a lowered voice.
“Caught them doing what?” Iris asked, oblivious to how her life would change once she heard confirmation that our parents did indeed...oh yuck.
“You know. It. Right in his bed.” Harper filled them in on the nasty details. Blake laughed his ever-loving ass off, and Iris snorted into her soup.
“It’s not funny,” I said for the millionth time.
“Aw, buddy, do we need to have a talk about the birds and the bees?” Blake said and slapped his leg.
“Oh gross. Better you than me. So, are they for sure, for sure back together?” Iris asked.
“Sounds like it. She took all of her bags with her this morning after Jack caught them—” Harper said.
“Stop. Enough. I need to forget, and you constantly bringing it up again isn’t helping matters,” I cut her off and looked up at the ceiling. Everyone at the table laughed at my expense. Again.
“Glad everyone’s having a good time. Did we miss out on a joke?” Dad asked, and Harper was quick to save the day.
“No, not at all. Just teasing Jack.” She smiled up at him.
“That’s a hell of a kitchen you’ve got there, Son. And those employees of yours are hard workers,” he said and clapped me on the back. He hadn’t done that since I was…hmmm. Had he ever done that?
“Thanks. I lucked out,” I replied politely, not used to his jovial ways or receiving his compliments.
“Pffft, luck has nothing to do with it. It takes savvy business sense and skill to know how to pick out loyal, tough individuals,” he said and sat down next to me. “Your mother wants a freezer and fridge just like the ones in there.” He jerked his thumb toward the kitchen doors, and they both laughed.
Iris stared with her mouth open. Blake frowned and tilted his head. Glad I wasn’t the only one freaked out by the change in our father. It was a one hundred eighty degree paradigm shift.
The rest of the evening went by just like that—no fighting, no belittling, just a cool, calm, and collected Dad. It was difficult to relax at first, but as time went on, we all settled into a comfortable rhythm. Weird. Very, very weird.
After our meal, which Dad pronounced was the best he’d ever had—aside from Mom’s cooking, of course—my servers came out with the cake I’d worked on for the better part of the day. Mom started sobbing. Dad’s arm went around her, and he turned to me with glossy eyes.
“That’s stunning, Son. Did you do that by yourself?” he asked, his voice wobbly and full of emotion.
I smiled genuinely at him for the first time in years and said, “Yeah, most of it. My staff helped with a few of the finishing touches.”
“Thanks for outdoing us, little brother. All I got them was a crappy gift card,” Iris bemoaned in her teasing manner.
“It’s beautiful, Jack. And is that…? No, it can’t be,” Mom said as she stood. “Oh my gosh, it’s our cake topper? How did you get it from the cabinet?” That took some planning. But with Blake’s sneaky skills, we managed the heist of the kissing bride and groom under an archway. It looked amazingly good for how old it was. I’d seen pictures of their small, plain wedding cake and did my best to replicate it with the addition of some added scrollwork, lace, and a few dozen fresh roses to liven things up a bit.
“It’s the nicest cake I’ve ever seen. Puts our first one to shame, right, Lainey?” Dad said while he hugged Mom from behind. Mom just nodded and wiped her eyes while she gave me a jittery grin.
“Thirty-five years is a big milestone,” I said as I took Harper’s hand in mine.
“Let me take a picture,” Iris said, dabbing her eyes as inconspicuously as possible. Her kids took this opportunity to complain, but she didn’t give them a second look.
Pictures were taken, mascara was smeared, and kids ran wild. Ava was more than excited to finally spend some time with her cousins. Luckily, Sunday evenings were fairly quiet, so we didn’t bother too many tables. But really, who cared? Everyone had such a wonderful time, it was worth ticking off a few people.
After we said our goodbyes, I told Harper to wait for me while I closed the office. I’d just logged off my computer when I heard a light tapping on the door followed by, “A minute, Son?”
Dad stood there, carrying his suit jacket, much like the one I currently wore. We were more alike than I cared to admit. “Yeah, come on in. Just shutting down for the night.”
“Thanks again for tonight. It was amazing. I’d like to pay you. I know you said you won’t accept our money, but I feel bad for taking advantage of your generosity.” Who was this man, and what did he do with my father?
“No worries at all, really. It’s a slow day, and my servers and cooks were happy to have something to do,” I said and shut my laptop, pushing it forward.
“But it must’ve cost you, and I’d like to pay,” he said and took a seat.
“I make good money.”
“I’m not saying that you don’t. I’m saying I’d like to compensate you in some way.” He leaned forward.
“It’s not necessary. If it were an issue, I wouldn’t have offered. I do well.”
“You understand that I…we appreciated everything that you did for us tonight, right?” he said, and I jerked my chin up in answer. “I haven’t thanked you for looking after your mother and giving her a place to stay while I was getting my life together and figuring stuff out.” He nervously twisted the ring on his finger.
I exhaled loudly. “Yeah, I get that.”
“What I have to say next is going to sound like I’m being an ass.” He drummed his fingers on the armrests.
Here we go. I fucking knew it wouldn’t last. Jesus. My eyes found his, and I steeled my backbone against the familiar blow.
“You work too much.” That was not at all what I expected him to say. A sarcastic laugh escaped my lips before I had a chance to stop it.
“That’s rich. You telling me that. What a fucking joke.” I shook my head and glared at the idiot.
“You don’t see it, do you? Talking with my therapist, I’ve—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Father. Spare me the mumbo jumbo. My woman is waiting out there for me. I don’t have time for a session with you.”
“My therapist made me,” he continued, and I huffed. Was he seriously going to discuss his therapy? “Realize how alike we are. You and me. Tonight, I see it even clearer. You’re doing the same thing I did, but you have a chance to stop acting like a fool before your life falls apart.”
“Do me a favor?” I asked and raised an eyebrow. “Never compare us. I will never be like you.”
“Too late,” he said and shot his hands up. “Don’t you see it? You’re always working, getting Harper to look after Ava and do your dirty work. She’s not even your wife and already you have her running around for you.”
The anger that bubbled up inside me caused my lip to twitch. “I’m opening a new—”
“Always finding excuses to be away. Nobody can do it like you can, right? Even though there are dozens of qualified people who could help you, there’s no way you’d give up that kind of control. Not even so you can spend more time with your family. Am I wrong?” He bolted up and loosened his tie.
“It’s not even remotely the same thing. And my stupid hours will—”
“Never
fucking end. After the new place opens, do you honestly think you’re going to have more time on your hands?” He rubbed his eyes as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “You’ll have even less, and you know it. Admit it, instead of telling yourself lies. That woman out there?” He threw his arm out toward the door. “And that kid, that sweet, darling kid who is the spitting image of you? They love you. Any moron can see that. But if you think they’re going to wait forever to get your attention,” he said in a whisper and leaned with both hands on my desk, “think again. Learn from my mistakes, Son. Don’t make the same ones I did. You’ve got a lifetime of happiness in store for you, if you choose it. Those people out there will all make sure of that. All you need to do is let them.”
After Dad left, I took a few minutes to calm the hell down. There was no one in the world who made my blood boil faster than my father. I rolled my head on my shoulders and attempted to clear my head of the shit swirling around in my mind. My father’s words ran repeatedly on a loop.
Deep breath. My woman and my daughter were waiting for me.
On the drive home, I grabbed Harper’s hand and kissed it, inhaling her flowery scent. She deserved better than me, but there was no way I was letting go of her now. The first time I gave her up nearly killed me.
Ava’s soft snore drifted to the front of the car, and we smiled at each other. Harper loved my daughter. Well, she also spent more time with Ava than I did.
Fuck. I squeezed Harper’s hand and looked out the window. My father’s words came back at me with full force. As much as I hated to admit it, the bastard was right. The one thing I tried not to do, the one man I tried not to be like was the person I had turned into.
I was just as money-hungry and power-driven as he was. And the most laughable part of all was Harper didn’t give one flying fuck about any of that shit. The woman hated my penthouse. Who hates a brand-new penthouse with all the bells and whistles?
Me for one. That thought made me chuckle. “You all right?” Harper asked, her voice laced with concern.
Her hair shone against the glare of the streetlights. The look on her beautiful face tore at my heart. She was worried about me. Who was doing all the running around, looking after my mom, my kid, and me? But yet, she was asking if I was okay. I did not deserve this woman.
I let go of her hand and stroked the soft skin on the side of her face. “We need to talk. Relationships should be equal, and you’ve been doing the lion’s share of work around here.” I brushed the hair away from her face.
She leaned into my hand. “That’s not true. You’ve been busy, and I told you that I don’t mind,” she said with a yawn.
“You’re exhausted. I can tell,” I said, hoping the sad smile on my face got through to her. “I’d like to take you out after we drop off Ava. Or are you too tired?”
The double take she did at my words hurt like hell. It had been a long time since just the two of us went out. “Just to a movie? We don’t even have to stay through the whole thing. Say the word and we’ll leave.”
“I’d love to go.” She smirked at me with a knowing smile. “Are we going to the new action film that everyone’s talking about? Or the cheesy rom-com that just came out?” she asked, her eyes narrowing on mine.
She had my number, and I laughed as I pulled up Brooke’s driveway. “I’ll keep you in suspense until we get there,” I said and leaned over to kiss that goofy smile off her face before exiting the vehicle.
The usual sense of dread I felt walking up to this house was gone, replaced instead by a smile and…gratitude? Go figure.
“Looks like you wore her out,” Brooke said, but amazingly enough, her tone wasn’t bitchy in the slightest.
“She had a lot of fun and way too much cake,” I said, waiting for the scowl to return. It didn’t. Brooke’s smile grew.
“I’m glad your parents worked things out,” she said and, honest to God, it looked like she meant it.
“Yeah, me, too.” I surprised myself when those words flowed out. “Thanks for letting us have Ava today. Mom and Dad really appreciated having all their grandkids at supper.”
“Anytime, Jack,” she said, and if I wasn’t mistaken, her eyes looked a bit misty.
After I transferred a still sleeping Ava to her mother, my phone rang. Motherfucker. No way in hell was I going into work.
“Yeah, Jack here,” I said, annoyed at the intrusion.
“Mr. McCallister?” the nasally voice said on the other end of the line.
“Yes. Can I help you?”
“It’s your security company calling. We have an error message on your alarm again,” he said and gave the address of the new restaurant. I cannot fucking believe this shit. The one night I finally make plans to take Harper out, and I had to deal with this. “Do you want us to alert the authorities?”
I sighed and rubbed the back of my head while I paced the driveway. “I’ll look into it. Thanks.” With all the construction going on over there, we’d had a massive amount of false alarms. But you had to check each one out. Kids could make a mess of things pretty damn fast if they got in, and I was in no mood to push back the opening because of some punk-ass vandals.
31
Jack
I cannot fucking believe this shit, I repeated over and over to myself as I lay on the cold tile of my abandoned new restaurant. Well, abandoned except for me and the piece of shit looming over me. Fuck! How that bastard managed to sneak up on me and crack my head open, I’ll never know. I couldn’t verify for certain that my skull was in fact busted open, but from the way it throbbed and observing the amount of blood spilled all over my white tile kitchen floor, it was a good assumption. Fuck that bastard.
“How’s it feel now, huh?” What? Am I in some horrible children’s after-school special? How do I feel? I feel like I want to pound your fucking head into the cement, you fucking runt!
But all that came out was a low moan. Goddamn, my head was going to explode, if it hadn’t already. The puke had a gun, so I had to play it cool until I could figure out what to do and how to get back to Harper. “Harrrrr—”
“Shut up, motherfucker! Don’t you dare say my wife’s name. She’s mine.” That’s the last thing I heard before he kicked me in the ribs repeatedly and the light slowly drained away.
Harper
I heard someone in the hall, so I rushed to open the door. “Oh, hi, Riley,” I said, disappointed it wasn’t who I thought.
“That was quite a welcome.” Riley snickered and sauntered up to me. “What’s up? You look worried.” She scoured my face. There was no hope in trying to fool her.
“Jack said he’d be back in time to take me to a movie. It starts in a few minutes,” I said, wringing my hands together. “The stupid alarm went off at the restaurant again. I mean, it goes off practically every other day, and it’s always some contractor coming in and forgetting to input the code.”
She looked me over again. “Can I come in?” Not one to wait for an invitation, she stepped inside and closed the door. “I can go with you. And Jack can meet us when he’s ready,” she suggested, swinging her keys on her finger.
“That’s sweet of you, but he’s not answering his phone or his texts. It’s just not like him to do that,” I told her and tried my best not to look concerned. Even though I was.
“He’ll turn up. Go make some coffee and we’ll hang out until he shows,” she said and made herself comfortable on the couch.
It was nice to catch up with Riley. It would have been even nicer if I hadn’t been out of my mind worried with where the hell Jack was. Half an hour later and still nothing.
“You can go home if you want. It’s getting late,” I said as I picked up our cups and plates from the coffee table. Anything to keep my mind off where my boyfriend was. “Don’t feel obligated to wait with me. I’m sure he just got caught up with work and turned his phone off or something,” I added rather unconvincingly and padded to the kitchen.
Riley smiled and grabbed
the blanket from the back of the couch. “Nah, I’ll hang out here for a bit longer. Why don’t you go shower and get ready for bed? He’ll be crawling back with his tail between his legs soon enough.”
Man, I hoped so.
Jack
“I said, sit up, asshole!” the twitching lunatic standing in front of me said. Sitting seemed impossible, especially with my hands tied behind my back. Goddamn twit. I moved, and I was sure part of my brain leaked out. Dizziness and pain made me sick, but I’d rather die than give him the satisfaction of seeing me struggle.
Somehow, I managed to get to a sitting position. The warm fluid dripping down my neck must have been more blood. This was soon verified when my formerly white T-shirt turned red. Fuck, I was going to kill him. “Here, have some water. I wouldn’t want you to dehydrate before the show begins.”
Then the bastard started pouring water down my throat. I had no way to protect myself other than turning my head side to side, which hurt like a bitch. The plastic ties on my wrists dug into my skin when I tried to pull them apart. Not even the bleeding, raw skin stopped me from trying over and over again to get free.
The room spun while the psychopath laughed himself silly watching me choke and sputter. His laugh sounded like a bad episode of a brainless teenage cartoon. How did Harper ever stand this guy? Harper. I needed to keep it together so I could get back to her and Ava.
Riley
Where in the hell was that handsome hunk of burning love? Harper said the false alarms weren’t unusual, but she was clearly agitated. If he even thought about two-timing her, I’d remove his balls and feed them to him. But the question remained—before or after I kicked his ass? Just as I worked up a good torture fantasy, Harper’s phone went off. Now I liked to respect privacy and all that, but this was practically an emergency, right? I roamed over to her chair and peeked down at the illuminated text message on the screen.