He looks at the family photo of the six of us taken a year after my mother’s death. In the picture, my father is standing behind us near the front gates of Club Tahoe. My brothers and I are wearing identical blue polo shirts and slacks we weren’t permitted to so much as touch with our fingers, let alone get dirty. What’s not revealed in the picture is that my brothers and I waited for over an hour for our father to show up. He’d been too busy with work to make the shoot on time. Which left four boys and an eighteen-month-old restless and confused.
“I’ve not been there for you,” he says, shocking me further. “I shouldn’t have put Club Tahoe first. I plan to change that.”
Something is wrong here, or this is a setup. He’s lost his damn mind. I’m twenty-seven; my brothers range in age from twenty-two to twenty-nine. We’re adults. Even if this weren’t a joke, it’s a little late. “Look, Dad. I don’t know where this is coming from or what you have planned, but don’t push the others. They’re happy.”
I nearly wince at the intensity behind the gaze my father sends me. “Are they?”
“Happy?” I ask, just to be sure I’m following. Because this entire conversation is surreal.
He nods.
I’d like to say, yes, of course they’re happy, but the truth is, I don’t know. Sometimes I suspect my brothers are as lost as I am.
I sit forward. “They’re grown men. They make their own choices.”
He studies me for a long moment before his gaze flickers away. “Congratulations. On the promotion. You like it there?” He looks over at this last question as if my answer is important, when my happiness has never been important to him. In my entire life, my father has never asked what I wanted.
“I enjoy the work.” Better to agree and get this uncomfortable conversation over with, but as soon as the words leave my mouth, I realize they’re true. Working at Blue has felt right from the beginning. Or at least, from the moment I set eyes on Hayden Tate.
Hayden is…different. She doesn’t cower. For some twisted reason, I like that. She’s refreshing in a lifestyle that grows stale. Or maybe it’s the way her curvy hips swish back and forth after I’ve pissed her off and she’s storming away from me—I haven’t decided. Either way, she’s made Blue bearable, and now I’ve been promoted. It can only get better from here.
From what I’ve heard, management bonuses, coupled with the increased income I’ll be receiving, will keep me in comfort. I won’t need my father’s money to stay flush. And I’d give anything to prove to my brothers that I can make it on my own.
I lost my brothers’ respect when I started cashing in on the trust fund payments our father dangled while they walked away to live their own lives. My brothers have my back, but they’ve never understood why I put up with our father’s crap.
I thought the job my father ordered me to take at Blue Casino was to ensure he still had me as his lackey, just more experienced. Some part of me still believes it. But if his words are true, and he’s open to me working somewhere else, I’d just as soon never work at Club Tahoe again. I’d like to become my own man, the way my brothers have. Which means I can’t screw up the opportunity Blue has given me.
I stand and reach across the desk, shaking my father’s hand with a firm grip, the way he taught me to when I was four years old. “I’d better get back. I’m meeting with friends to celebrate.”
“Don’t be a stranger, Adam.” He squeezes my palm, the look in his eyes sincere.
“No,” I stammer. “Of course not.” But I have no idea what he’s talking about. My brothers and I are all strangers to him. It just so happens I’m a closer stranger than the rest of them.
I exit his office and stop in the reception area, staring blindly at the opposite wall. Whatever is going on with him, it can’t be important, or I’d have heard about it in the local news. He’ll be back to his overbearing, ornery self in no time.
“Everything all right?” Esther is sitting at her desk, her eyebrows pinched in concern.
“Fine.” I grin and pull a butterscotch candy from my pocket, placing it in front of her. My brothers and I used to leave Esther her favorite candy whenever we visited. Now, I’m the only one who sets foot in this place.
I walk toward the exit, and Esther’s soft voice drifts toward me. “He’s proud of you, you know.”
My back stiffens and I freeze, a prickle of unease floating across my neck. The atmosphere in here is off. I’m not used to heart-to-hearts with my father. Or with Esther, as kind as she’s been over the years.
I thought I wanted my father’s pride in me. Now that I have it, I’m too disturbed by his behavior to feel anything but confusion.
I offer a confident smile that I don’t feel over my shoulder, and exit Club Tahoe.
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Also by Jules Barnard
USA Today Bestselling Author
Men of Lake Tahoe Series
Off Limits (Book 1)
Mountain Man (Book 2)
Rebound Roommate (Book 3)
Hookup Master (Book 4)
Cocky Prince (Book 5)
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Cade Brothers Series
Tempting Levi (Book 1)
Daring Wes (Book 2)
Seducing Bran (Book 3)
Reforming Hunt (Book 4)
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CHECK OUT JULES’S PARANORMAL ROMANCE TITLES AT:
WWW.JULESBARNARD.COM
About the Author
Jules Barnard is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and romantic fantasy. Her contemporary series include the Men of Lake Tahoe and the Cade Brothers. She writes romantic fantasy under the same pen name in the Halven Rising series Library Journal calls ''...an exciting new fantasy adventure.'' Whether she’s writing about sexy men in Lake Tahoe or a Fae world embedded in a college campus, Jules spins addictive stories filled with heart and humor.
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When Jules isn’t in her sweatpants writing and rewarding herself with chocolate, she spends her time with her husband and two children in their small hometown on the California coast. She credits herself with the ability to read while running on the treadmill or burning dinner.
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