Mister Big Stuff_A Single Mom Friends to Lovers Novel

by Weston Parker

  "But we'll just pay it out and be done with it," Damon finished for her, unable to take his eyes off of her. Something about knowing that they were moving one step closer to her truly being his left his heart racing. He'd almost lost her over a handful of stupid bullshit. "I want you with me."

  She smiled and glanced over at her mom. "Now all we need to do is talk Damon into letting us redecorate his bachelor pad."

  Matt snorted. "Good luck with that."

  "Redecorate all you want. I just want you there as soon as possible." Damon winked at his woman and glanced down the table to find his father quiet and staring at his plate. "Dad? You okay?"

  "Hmmm?" He glanced up. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. Just thinking about a few things."

  Karen reached out and brushed her fingers down his arm. "Like?"

  "Kendal losing his sister just brought back a lot of memories." Damon's father let out a soft sigh and turned his heavy gaze to rest on Damon. "Have you checked on him since the funeral?"

  "Yeah. We spoke late last night, and I told him I would check in with him again this week."

  "Good. Sometimes the death of a loved one doesn't truly hit you until everything is over and everyone has gone home. Then you have time to sit alone in the silence of the house, and it slams into you like a brick wall." His father shrugged and got up. "I've got a few calls to make. Forgive me?"

  "Of course." Karen stood up and leaned in as he moved over to kiss her. "You sure you're okay?"

  "Oh, yeah. I'm great." He walked out of the dining room toward his study as Damon glanced across the table toward Matt.

  "What's up with him? Any idea?" Damon turned his question toward Karen.

  "This is around the time that Mom died. Maybe he's just having a hard time with the memories of her death?" Matt shrugged and grabbed another piece of fried chicken.

  "Go talk to him." Bethany rubbed Damon's back softly, giving him the little bit of courage he needed.

  "All right." He leaned in for a quick kiss and stood. "Save me a piece of chicken. Matt will sit here and eat every damn piece if you're not careful."

  "Hey! I'm right here." Matt snorted. "I'm watching my weight too, so only three pieces tonight.”

  Damon rolled his eyes and chuckled as he walked languidly toward the study. It seemed the worst possible time to talk with his dad about his mom's infidelities, but Beth was right. He had to get it off his chest. Lying was the one thing he wouldn't stand for, and not being honest with hidden information was the same as lying to him.

  Maybe that was part of the reason for the truth being such a burden to him over the years.

  "Dad?" He knocked softly on the door and pushed it open. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

  "Yeah. I'd like that." His father was kneeling in front of a large fireplace, tossing in small logs when he walked in. It was a rarity to need a fire in Texas no matter what time of the year it was, but his dad had always been good about letting them keep the air-conditioner down low starting in October so that fires were part of their fall and winter experience.

  "Did you by chance get to talk to Delilah?" He closed the door and sat down in one of the large leather chairs in the center of the room.

  "She called, but I didn't call back. Her message was a little hard to understand, and by the sound of her voice, I could tell it was something personal and not business related." He stood, closed the fireplace and turned to face Damon. "What happened?"

  "Lots of things." Damon ran his fingers through his hair. "I should have told you the minute you hired her that it wasn't a good idea, or better yet, maybe next time just include me in the hiring process. I thought that was my job anyway."

  "It is, but you've been under a lot of stress lately." His father sat down in the chair beside him. "I wanted to take something off of you. I thought you and Delilah had a great friendship when you were kids. Once I saw her resume and realized who she was, I thought she would be perfect for the position. Not only was she completely capable of doing the job, and doing it well, but you already had established some type of trust with her from your youth."

  "Yeah, I get it. Thanks for trying to help." Damon moved to the edge of his seat and pressed his forearms to his legs. "I fired her in Florida. She's been an HR nightmare since she got to the firm, both with Beth and me. And it's not just us. Patrick and Ben have complained about her antics and the poor way she's been treating the staff. She's manipulative and still has feelings for me, which drives her to make shitty decisions while at work."

  "Oh, shit. I didn't know all of that." He let out a tight chuckle. "You need to document everything for when she tries to sue us."

  When. There would be no question that the bitch would try, but Damon almost looked forward to slapping her back again for all the shit she put Beth through.

  "I will."

  "Good. Is Bethany rejoining the firm now that Delilah is no longer there?"

  "I'm not sure. It's fine either way." Damon shrugged. "Where I'd love to have her with us, it might be best while we're rebuilding our relationship if we just see each other outside of work. It's sometimes a hostile environment in the office thanks to our deadlines and the stress to keep up with demands."

  "Whatever the two of you decide is fine by me. You know that I'd love her up there with us because she's family, but if it's a better situation for your relationship to let her work somewhere else-"

  "Or not at all. She doesn't need to work. I'll pay for everything."

  He chuckled. "Good luck with that. If she's anything like Karen, she's not going to let you pay for everything. That woman is fiercely independent."

  "And you love her even more for it?" Damon leaned back and smirked.

  "Hell, yeah, I do. I never imagined finding someone that truly loved me for me, you know?" He shrugged and brushed his hands down his face.

  "Mom didn't love you for you?" Tension roared to life in the middle of Damon's chest. He reached up and rubbed it. It was time to let his demons come rolling out, but fuck if he didn't want to. It didn't seem right all of a sudden.

  "Your mom was a complex creature." His father stood up and walked to the fire. "She wanted something more than what I was capable of giving her, but she never could articulate what it was. I tried so hard to make her happy in every area of our life, but it became an exhausting quest."

  "Dad." Damon stood up and slipped his hands into his pockets as his father turned to face him.

  "She started to sleep around on me somewhere around your junior year." His father's eyes filled with tears. "It was the most devastating time of my entire life. It outweighed my father beating me as a boy and my sister dying from fever when I was twelve. It was the most painful thing I have ever been through."

  Damon stood in silent shock. His father already knew? All the years of carrying around the lie that his mother was sleeping around on his dad and it was for nothing? He prepared for the fierce anger that should have accompanied the truth of knowing that his dad knew, but it never came.

  His father walked to his desk, grabbed a Kleenex and wiped his nose. "I wanted to divorce her, but about the time I got the balls to do it, she got sick. I couldn't let her die alone."

  "Dad, fuck." Damon moved across the room and reached out, grabbing his dad's hand as the older man shook a little.

  "I hated her by the time we buried her, but I never in a million years would have let you and Matt know that your mother wasn't the woman we all thought she was." He pressed the napkin to his eyes. "It's caused me to move away from more relationship opportunities than I care to discuss. Karen is the first woman in six years I've let myself get close to."

  "And why her?" Damon swallowed his confession. There was no reason to spill the truth now. His father already knew, and he'd fought the good fight, trying to hide it from Damon and Matt. There was no way Damon was going to take away the honor in having to be the man his father was for them and their mother during that time.

  "Because she's beautifully broken. Her heart has yet to he
al, and she's as scared as I am about love and marriage, but she's willing to let me in. It gives me the courage to let her in as well." He wiped at his nose again and let out a long sigh. "I'm sorry I held the information back from you and Matt. Can you forgive me?"

  "There is nothing to forgive. You did what you thought was best as our father." Damon moved up and hugged his dad, resting against the bigger man and closing his eyes to enjoy the moment. "She was incredible at the beginning of the marriage, and I've analyzed a million times what I could have done differently, but the answer always came up the same. Nothing. There was nothing else I could have done. I was more than enough. She was just looking for a different experience."

  "I'm sorry, Dad." Damon squeezed him one more time and stepped back, holding in his emotions as years of struggle came to an end. No more. No more having to worry that he wasn't enough, that his woman would find someone else if he didn't go over the top in life, at the office, and in the bedroom.

  It was almost as if a huge weight had lifted from his shoulders.

  "I'm so thrilled to hear that you and Bethany are working things out. I know it's going to be a hard road to hoe, but we'll all do it together, okay? You two aren't alone in any of this. You have me, Karen and Matt. And Kendal." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Speaking of, you need to tell that boy to find a woman that can help him heal. With his parents gone and now with Amanda's death, he's going to need someone other than us."

  "You're preaching to the choir, Dad." Damon smiled and studied his father. "Thanks for telling me about Mom."

  "Of course. Can I ask you something?"

  "Anything." Damon's chest constricted.

  "Why didn't you go to her funeral, son? It was shocking and a little disappointing. I still can't help but wonder about it." He tilted his head to the side. "You were so close to your mom for a long time."

  "She wasn't the woman I thought she was, Dad. I couldn't pretend that she was, not even in the midst of her death." He nodded and walked to the door before glancing back. "Thanks for being someone I could look up to."

  "You still can, right?" His father gave him a cheeky smile.

  "Absolutely."

  Chapter 18

  Two Days Later

  Bethany

  Peace was a feeling she wasn't used to feeling too often, but between Damon being relaxed from talking with his father, Delilah gone from the firm and Bethany starting to pack up her apartment for the next step in her relationship with Damon, peace belonged to her.

  She walked down the long hall in the accounting building and let her smile grow wide on her face. Life was good, and as long as she and Damon communicated about the parts that weren't so great, everything would work out. It would be time to start planning the wedding soon, and the only two people she really had that could help her were Matt and her mother. Erica might be willing to do some of the decorating and such, but maybe it was better just to hire someone to come in and take care of all of it. That had been Damon's vote the night before when they lay in bed, talking about the future.

  "Bethany," someone called from behind her.

  She turned to find Jake rolling toward her with a smile on his handsome face. His hair was hanging in his eyes, and she couldn't help herself from reaching over and moving it off his forehead.

  "Hey. You look great. You doing okay?" She smiled down at him.

  "Yeah. I've been making great progress like I told you." He locked the wheelchair into place, gripped the side of it and stood up as she held her breath. "See?"

  "Oh wow. That's incredible." She kept her hands locked to her side but wanted so damn bad to reach out and help him sit back down. He wouldn't have appreciated her doing so, no matter the intent. He seemed to thrive on pushing himself to walk again. She understood all too clearly.

  "I'm joining you and Dr. Tarrington in class today. I have an extra physical therapy session tomorrow, so I'm going to get in my TA hours today." He unlocked the wheelchair and moved along beside her. "What's new in your world? How is everything going?"

  "It's good." She pushed the doors to the auditorium open and glanced up to see Kendal leaning over his podium, studying something.

  "You and that jackass back together yet?" Jake glanced over his shoulder and gave her a grin.

  "Yeah." She extended her hand to show off the ring. "I'm going to move in with him soon. I love him with every part of me. I was falling apart trying to figure out how to not love him that much."

  Kendal glanced up, his face pale, dark circles under his haunted-looking eyes. "Morning, guys. Glad to hear you and Damon are working things out."

  "I'm not," Jake muttered and winked playfully before rolling to the other side of the room.

  "Me too." Bethany set her bag down and moved up to the stage, climbing up and standing in front of Kendal. "I would ask how you are, but it seems like a trivial question. I know you must be suffering."

  He glanced up, his green eyes dull. "I'm just taking each day as it comes. Some part of me knows that it's going to get better, but it feels like a promise that's just out of my grasp right now." He turned toward Jake. "Thanks for your help last week. Guess we were lucky that Bethany showed up on a day she wasn’t scheduled to." He turned back to Bethany. "And thank you for teaching for me. It’s nice to know I have someone I can count on."

  "I loved it. I hated the reason I needed to step in but getting to do it was exhilarating. I don't think I realized how much information I retained from this class when I took it."

  He nodded. "It's pretty hands-on because of it being more about product accounting. Have you thought about going into teaching? Not everyone that gets an accounting degree has to become a CFO of a large organization. Some of us dive into academia and enjoy life immensely."

  She thought about his question before responding. What kind of life did she want for herself? What kind of career? With her raising being so rough, the only thing she had focused on since starting college was to get a degree in something that would pay lots of money. There was no way in hell she was going to let her future family suffer the way she and her mother had.

  "It's something to think about for sure." She brushed her hair off her shoulder. "I haven't given it much thought. I figured I would end up in public accounting like everyone else seems to."

  "I didn't." Kendal gave her a tight smile and glanced back down at his notes.

  "Very true. I'll think about it, and maybe we can have coffee sometime soon and talk about it." She didn't wait for a response seeing that he wasn't in a mood to talk from what she could tell. Time would help to heal the wounds of losing his sister, but having someone hold him at night would certainly speed up the process.

  Damon had already tried to get Kendal to think more about giving Dana a chance. Bethany was going to hit the same nerve, but meeting the girl and trying to put her in a position where Kendal would have to pay her attention didn't seem like a bad idea at all.

  She bit her tongue, grabbed her bag and waited for the students to start filing in. Maybe she should just leave good enough alone and let Kendal find his own way.

  Maybe, but what was the fun in that?

  ***

  "So, when are we having this wedding?" Bethany's mom asked through the phone.

  Beth shrugged and turned down the long road that would lead to the mental hospital. The last thing she wanted to do was visit with Krista, but she promised Jake that she would.

  "I think it would be nice to do in the spring next year. Maybe around March?"

  "That sounds great." Her mother paused. "Christmas would be fun too, but it's late October. There is no way in hell we'd have everything done by then."

  "Exactly. Let's shoot for March." Bethany tugged at her seatbelt as nervousness ran through her. "I really don't want to do this."

  "Then don't." Her mom let out a sigh. "You don't have to be everything to everyone, baby. Just because Jake feels the burden for the two of you to help Krista through this transition doesn't mean you need to." />
  "I know, but I don't want him out here, and some part of me wants to help her, you know?"

  "I know, but she's not going to be the same girl, Bethany. They have her medicated until they can figure out if there is something deeper going on besides her being bi-polar."

  "I understand. I'll just go in, talk to her for a few minutes and get out of there." Bethany reached up and rubbed her chest just above her left breast. It would have been incredibly comforting to have Damon with her, but he was at the office, putting out fires from what she understood. Their conversation moments before had been quick and very to the point. Where she'd have gotten upset in the past with him for being so short, she worked on understanding the why behind his actions.

  "All right, well, when you get done, come out to the house and let's start picking colors and looking at dresses. Are you going to want a destination wedding like Kent and I had?"

  "I'm not sure. I don't have a ton of people that I want to invite. Maybe going somewhere would be a good idea. Could be fun for sure."

  "I like the idea, but it's your wedding. Talk with Damon about it, and I'll see you in a little while. I'll have lunch waiting for you when you get here."

  "Perfect, Mom. I love you."

  "Love you too, baby. All my heart."

  Bethany dropped the call and reached over to put her phone back in her bag. "What in the world am I going to say to Krista? I'm sorry you didn't take your meds? I'm sorry your life is ruined? I'm sorry you ruined Jake’s life and scarred his body?"

  She pulled into the closest parking lot and parked the car, but didn't get out. It took a few minutes to gather her courage, but finally, she forced herself to simply get out of the car. What the hell was she afraid of?

  Lots of things.

  "Just breathe," she mumbled and walked toward the building, forcing a tight smile on her face as various doctors and nurses passed by her, each smiling kindly.

  She pushed the doors to enter the hospital and walked to the front counter. "I'm here to see my friend, Krista Grey."