Chapter 20
Dylan
It had been a minute since I’d had to sneak a girl out of my aunt’s house, but I still had it. I was riding a high as I walked down the hall.
And I might have been whistling as I left the house and joined the party in the backyard. People were still everywhere, talking and laughing. A band played at the far end of the yard and a few couples slow danced in front of them.
“Where did you disappear to, or do I even have to ask?” Austin asked beside me.
I jumped. I hadn’t even heard him come up. My eyes had been too busy scanning for any glimpse of Indy. “What?”
He laughed. “Gotcha a beer.”
“Thanks,” I said as I accept the bottle and took a pull. Suddenly I felt parched. “So what’d I miss?”
Austin snorted a laugh. “Aunt Wendy was looking for you. I said something about you showing someone your bike out front. I didn’t think you wanted everyone or even her knowing your business.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem. I’m just jealous, honestly. Rachel and I had the same idea. You just got to the room first.”
I coughed as the beer went down the wrong way. “Shit.”
Austin clapped me on the back. “Love looks good on you, bro. I’m happy for you.”
I swiped at my stinging eyes. “What?”
“Shit. You’re not there yet. Never mind. Just…I like her. I think she’s good people.”
“I do too.” We stood there for a second and sipped our beers. “So when are you two going to do this?”
“We have plans for the summer, but now I’m thinking that Ryan’s onto something here. Not having the film crew around, scheming and making us reshoot stuff…it’s nice.”
“It is.”
Austin nodded. “Also makes me think maybe this should be the last season for the show.”
“I’m okay with that.”
“Really?” He turned to face me. “Even if it means less money?”
I shrugged. “We’ll figure something out. We always do.”
“It might mean downsizing.”
“What, like jobs? Or people?” We didn’t have any employees under our company’s umbrella. Well, aside from Indy. Everyone else was family and had a share of the business.
“I was thinking the shop. Without the show, I don’t know if we can afford to stay in the building.”
“I mean, it’s nice, but it’s not what makes it Badass Builds. We do that. And we can do that in another place. Even a smaller place. It’ll be fine.”
Austin huffed. “Clearly I need to get laid. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you so calm about everything changing.”
“Change can be good.”
He raised his beer to his mouth and muttered, “Yup, I definitely need to get laid.”
I laughed and clinked my bottle against his.
“Dylan!” Aunt Wendy called from the other end of the long buffet table. “There you are!”
“Run, bro. Run away,” Austin muttered out of the side of his mouth.
I shoved him with a laugh before I headed over to Aunt Wendy. Nothing could get me down right now. My brother was married and happy. I’d found my girl. And it sounded like we were finally going to get out from under Urban Channel’s thumb.
Life was looking up.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere, boy-o,” Aunt Wendy all but shouted as she wrapped an arm around me, tucking me into her side.
“Sorry. One of Hope’s relatives wanted to see my bike.”
Judging by her raised eyebrows, she didn’t buy it, but she let it slide. “I wanted to talk to you about something before it was too late.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“Let’s go dish up a plate and talk.”
“Aunt Wendy, I really should make sure that Indy is okay. She’s new here and doesn’t know many people.”
“The girl is fine. See?” Wendy gestured to where Indy sat at a nearby table with Rachel, Maddie, and Sabrina.
I smiled at the sight. Indy was leaning toward Maddie as Maddie talked and waved her hands vehemently. I loved seeing my girl finding friends with my family. I knew she’d click with them.
“Yeah,” Wendy sighed. “That was what I was afraid of.”
“What?”
“Come on, Casanova.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me over to where the buffet had been laid out. She grabbed an empty plate and shoved it into my belly. “Here. Dish up.”
“Damn, Wendy,” I muttered as I took the plate from her. When she moved toward the utensils, I jumped out of the way and lifted my arms over my head like I was being robbed. “You can have whatever you want. Just please, don’t hurt me.”
A few people nearby laughed at my antics, but Aunt Wendy didn’t seem to see the humor, judging by her glare. And the way she jabbed a fork in my direction.
“Knock it off.”
“What?” I asked as I warily accepted the utensils from her. “I’m seriously worried about your intensions.”
She huffed. “Like I’d do bodily harm to you with all these witnesses around. I wasn’t born yesterday, kid. Now fill up your plate. We have some talking to do.”
All the levity leached from me. I knew I hadn’t even begun to make up for all my fuck ups with her.
Regret wasn’t a big enough word to encompass all my emotions over the situation. Guilt. Shame. Grief. Pain. Anger. So much fucking anger—both at me and my sperm donor.
So it was with a heavy heart that I set my plate down on the empty table Aunt Wendy had nabbed far from all the fun. I was only mildly concerned she wanted to punish me away from witnesses. Lord knew I deserved anything and everything she could want to dish out.
“Wendy, I’m so fucking sorry.” With my hands folded in my lap, I turned and faced the woman who’d raised me.
The closest person I had to a parent that I could remember.
“I apologized to the family earlier, but you deserve so much more. I know they’re just words I’ve tried and failed to use before, but it’s all I’ve got.
I just…I really wanted everything he told me to be real.
I wanted a father. And I was so stupid. I believed he’d changed.
I regret it so fucking much. I can’t even tell you—” I had to stop because the emotion clogging my throat made it hard to talk.
“Oh darling.” Wendy’s arms came around me.
“I don’t blame you, Dylan. You’re not responsible for his actions.
And he’s always had a special power to make people believe him.
How do you think he convinced my sister to fall for his bullshit and have four kids with him?
He can be charming when he wants to be.”
She held me for a minute and rocked me like she hadn’t done since I was little. And I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I cried a little.
“I never thought he’d hurt anyone. And I busted my ass all over town trying to make up for all the damage he’d caused. But there’s nothing I can do that will ever get your restaurant back. I talked to a bank, but they wouldn’t approve me for—”
“What?” She pulled back and gave me a look like she doubted my sanity. “Now, why would you go and do that?”
“You lost your restaurant because of me. Because I testified for him. Because I brought him back into our lives. I just wanted to try to make up for it somehow. And it was the only thing I could think of. But they wanted thirty-k up front, and I don’t—”
“You foolish boy. That’s not on you.” She put a hand on my jaw and forced me to meet her gaze.
“Look me in the eyes when I say it again. You are not responsible for his actions. What happened is not on you. I will be fine. I’ve taken some time off, but I’ll be looking for a new spot in a few weeks or so.
I’m not giving up. Brian is going to help me out.
He’s decided he’s ready to retire and wants to have his own permanent booth in my next restaurant. ”
“You know what Judge Judy says: ‘until you’re married, document any money transactions in writing.’”
Aunt Wendy laughed. She’d raised us on daytime tv, and Judge Judy had always been a favorite. “Will do.”
I smiled slightly, but despite her lecture on original sin, I still felt guilty. I’d probably always feel guilty about what had happened because no matter what anyone said, I had played a part. If I hadn’t spoken up at that parole meeting…
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Indy.” Aunt Wendy tapped her fork against her plate, her brow wrinkled in thought. “But I suspect I might be too late on that front.”
I finally looked up from my self-flagellation and found her gaze snagged on the girls’ table. Where Indy was currently staring at me with what could only be described as heart eyes. I grinned back at her and waggled my eyebrows. She blushed then grinned back at me.
“Dammit,” Aunt Wendy muttered.
“What’s wrong?” After one more grin at Indy, I turned back to my aunt.
“That.”
I blinked a few times. “I’m going to need more words here.”
“Just…” She sighed heavily and put her fork down.
“That girl has lost everything—her home, the only person who raised her, everything she’d built here—and now you are the very center of her new world.
You live together. You got her a job where you work.
You two are together almost twenty-four, seven.
And I suspect other things are going on too. ”
“And what’s wrong with that?” I gestured with my fork. “You’re going into business with Brian. You guys live together. You do other things too. I don’t see the problem. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”
“And I appreciate that. I really do. But Indy is nineteen. She’s never truly been on her own.
She went from her grandmother’s house to her father’s to yours.
And now she relies on you for everything—food, shelter, work—her very well-being relies on you.
The power imbalance between the two of you is insane. ”
My stomach churned at her implication. “Wait, do you seriously think I’m extorting her? That I’m pressuring her to—”
“No. Never. That’s not what I’m saying, Dylan. I’m saying that Indy is young, and I’m worried that you two might not be together for the right reasons. She deserves to see what’s out there. To stand on her own two feet. She needs to know who she is as a person and that she can rely on herself.”
My heart sank.
Because she was right.