The Bachelor: a one-night stand boss romance

Chapter 31

Billy Hart stoodin the doorway of his trailer and eyed him with disgust. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Good to see you, too.” Shane stood in the gravel at the bottom of the rickety steps wondering what in the hell he thought he was doing there.

He was in turmoil over the revelation at Rusted Truck that Avery hadn’t shared who she was with him, at any point, in all these weeks when they’d been loving and laughing and having amazing sex and waking up together in his bed. So when he’d gotten into his Lexus, wanting to get away, he found he had driven here. To his father’s. He hadn’t seen Billy in ten years.

He needed to lay his past to rest, once and for all.

Jolene had been subjected to repeated attempts on Billy’s part to squeeze her for money until she’d followed the example of their mother and filed a restraining order. But Shane had stayed far away from the man who had been so instrumental in molding him into the person he was. The person who had wondered and worried if he’d ever be able to have a healthy relationship, who had spent a lifetime in self-reflection, wondering if and when Billy’s temper might appear in his own personality.

Billy had a beer in his hand, and he took a sip of it, studying Shane over the can, holding his screen door open. He didn’t bother to invite Shane in, not that he would have entered the surely depressing residence. His father hadn’t aged well. He had the swollen nose of an alcoholic and a scraggly head of hair that was thinning in the front. His shirt was stained with tobacco juice from his chew, and Shane gave the whole damn state of Kentucky a bad name.

“What do you want? I haven’t been bothering your mother or Jolene, so don’t start shit with me.”

“How come you never bothered me?” he asked, even though he knew the answer. His father had become afraid of him.

His father laughed, which trailed off into a cough. “Because you don’t have a soft spot. There was nothing to be gained from talking to you.” He shook his head. “You drive all the way here to ask me that? Next time just call.”

Billy started to close the door, but then glanced behind Shane. “Shit.”

Shane turned and saw a car had pulled into the drive. A woman got out. About his father’s age, a cigarette in one hand, a brown bag in the other. “Billy, I got your whiskey.”

She was full-figured, wearing a pair of jeans that fit her well, and a cute sweater. Her hair and makeup were done. Shane thought she was far too attractive to be with his father, but there was no accounting for taste. “Oh, who is this?” she asked with a smile.

“I’m Shane,” he said, extending his hand out.

“He’s nobody,” Billy said.

His throat tightened and he paused, but he didn’t rise to the bait.

The woman looked uncertain what to do. She did briefly take Shane’s hand, but like she was afraid to give it a proper shake. “I’m Louise, Billy’s girlfriend.”

“I’m his son.” For years, he’d been wishing that wasn’t the case. But he was never going to be able to move on until he acknowledged it. Admitted the damage that had been done to him emotionally. Accepted it.

And he wanted to move on. He wanted a life with Avery, a marriage and kids and a dog. If he expected her to be ready, he needed to be damn sure he was ready too, and that meant leaving the ghosts of the past behind.

Her eyes widened. “Oh, I see.”

Billy drained his beer and crunched the can down. He threw it at Shane’s head. “He’s just leaving.”

Shane blocked the can before it hit him. He almost laughed. He had fifteen years of training in dodging the old man’s attempts to hurt him. It was amazing how easy it was to predict it still and avoid it.

“Billy!” Louise sounded shocked.

“Don’t ‘Billy’ me. The little prick just came here to rub it in my fucking face that’s he’s driving a sixty-thousand-dollar car, wearing expensive shoes, and carrying a fucking iPhone in his pocket. I don’t need to tolerate it. Selfish assholes, all my kids. Living in luxury and I’m living in this hellhole with you. Ingrates. Goddamn ingrates.” Billy had a line of spittle dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

Shane wondered what it was that made a man so bitter. So angry. So entitled.

He took a deep breath and knew that he nothing like the man standing in front of him. Blaming everyone else for his problems.

“Louise, I’m sorry I riled him up,” Shane said, regretting that. He had the sinking feeling that as soon as he left, she would be on the receiving end of that anger and that was the last thing in the world he wanted. “That wasn’t my intention, and I didn’t know he had a girlfriend. Do me a favor and find somewhere else to go this afternoon so he doesn’t turn that mean streak on you.”

This time Billy threw a brick he’d been using as a doorstop at Shane. “Don’t tell her what to do. Only I tell that bitch what to do.”

Louise let out a cry of dismay. She set the bag of whiskey down, tossed her cigarette into the dirt and said, “I’m out of here. I don’t have to put up with this shit.”

“Good riddance,” Billy told her. “Fat whore.”

She flipped him off over her head.

The brick had landed a good three feet away from him, so Shane didn’t even jump. He just shook his head at his father. “I didn’t come here to rub anything in your face. I thought I don’t know, maybe at some point you’d apologize.”

Billy snorted. “For what? If it wasn’t for me, you’d be a total pussy. I toughened you up. Like my father did.”

As if that had worked out for Billy. “You can justify it however you want but you were a terrible father and now you’re just a mean old man with nothing to show for your life.” He yanked open the passenger door to his car.

There was a worn and soft manila folder with cursive writing on the side. Hart, Shane. He grabbed it and felt the weight of it once more in his hands. The last time. Ten X-rays of all his broken bones compliments of Billy Hart. He had always kept them, for all these years, to remind him where he came from. Now he figured he only needed to know where he was going.

He took the envelope and hurled it into the dirt next to the bag with the whiskey in it. A cloud of dust rose.

“What is that?”

“Nothing. From nobody.”

Damn, that felt good. Shane took a deep breath, got in his car, and drove back to the life he had created. A life he hoped like hell would include Avery.

Pat called Avery that night.

“I like you, Avery,” Pat said after greeting her, and her tone was apologetic.

Shit. “And?” She knew what that meant. She was being fired.

“You’re very talented. You have a future ahead of you in the industry. But…”

There was the “but.” “Thank you,” she said, because she did appreciate the compliment, which sounded sincere.

“If I keep you on, it looks like blatant favoritism. There has been tension with the other writers.”

Avery gripped her phone and closed her eyes, tears burning at the back of her lids. It was over. She was done at Rusted Truck. “I understand.”

“I’ll have a courier bring over your personal effects and your last paycheck.” Pat sounded sympathetic, concerned, which made Avery actually feel worse.

“Thanks, Pat.”

“Listen, hon, now that I’m not your boss, just be careful, okay? Men… they’re used to being in the power position. It’s why they chose girls who are young and innocent. Shane Hart has a revolving door of women.”

That was so far removed from what was going on with her and Shane, she honestly wasn’t sure what to say. “Thanks, Pat. I appreciate your advice.”

Pat ended the call, thankfully.

Unable to stand the small space of her apartment, Avery ran down the front steps of the house. They lived in the upstairs unit and the people downstairs didn’t appear to be home, so she claimed the stoop for herself, hands in the pockets of her denim jacket. She had thought about bringing her guitar down with her, but there were no words. No notes. Everything in her head was silent.

It was like her brain had just shut down. The air was cold and she was shivering but she didn’t want to go back inside.

There was a big fat harvest moon shining overhead and she tilted her neck back, staring at the beauty of its perfect circle hanging out in the inky night sky.

What did she want? Was Shane right, was she afraid to commit to him? Maybe. She’d never thought of herself as a guarded person, but it was suddenly very clear that she’d spent her whole life with the volume turned down on her emotions.

Be the good girl and do what everyone expected of her.

It had gotten her nothing but wasted years and a lack of understanding about herself.

Maybe Shane was right. Maybe the timing was off. Maybe he was a man and she was just coming into her own. But she couldn’t imagine her life without him in it. He had become her best friend.

She texted him.

I should have told you about Buck. I’m sorry

.

That’s just it, Avery. You don’t need to apologize. You were right. It’s up to you when you’re ready.

I’m ready. Can you meet me somewhere?

I’ll meet you wherever you need me to.

She thought him meant that figuratively as well as literally.

It made her heart swell. She didn’t want to lose Shane.

I’ll be at the diner in thirty minutes. The one from that first night.

I’ll be there.

She stood up and took a deep breath of the crisp night air.

Yep. She was ready.