Chapter 19
MAX
I’d acted like the world’s biggest jerk with Lorde, and the moment Fizz pulled away, the moment I couldn’t see him any longer, I felt like shit.
Too bad I couldn’t have Fizz throw the car in reverse and take me back to Pat’s house.
No, that wasn’t possible because my father declared we needed to talk about what happened today.
Honestly, I didn’t understand the way my swan acted this morning, and if I could, I’d rather forget the whole ordeal. I wasn’t that lucky.
Within a couple of minutes, we rolled to a halt in front of my parents’ house, and Fizz ordered me out.
“Can’t we just say I was itching to go for a flight, and not do this?” I implored, opening the car door and not moving an inch.
“It’s not that easy. Get your ass moving, now.” At that exact moment, I decided Fizz was an asshole. Wasn’t he supposed to be on my side and not my parents? I paid him, they didn’t.
Grumbling under my breath, I sent a quick text to Lorde to apologize for my behavior and reluctantly scooted out of the vehicle, wishing, not for the first time, I’d brought my own car. “I suppose we have to get this over with.”
With one foot on the porch, something hit me like a missile.
Fizz had to catch me to prevent my fall, which could have seriously injured me.
“Mom?” She clung to me, and at the same time, felt my arms and chest. “Nothing broken.” In my head, I added, Although you almost changed that.
I might have been safer in my own home, dealing with that woman, than here with my family.
Pulling back, she looked me over from head to foot and back again before jerking me onto the porch and moving around me, making sure I had no injuries whatsoever. “Are you sure?” she asked, her voice thick with emotion, and I could see the tears filling her eyes and threatening to fall.
I melted and felt like an ass. This woman was my mother, and me her only child.
Of course, she would worry, as was her prerogative as a parent.
Wrapping her in my arms, I squeezed her tightly, her tears soaking my shirt.
“I’m sure. Fizz got me out of there, and nothing happened while I was with Lorde today. ”
I could practically feel the shift in her. Her head popped up, and as she wiped any wetness that lingered, she smiled, her eyes bright with more than tears. “You were with Lorde?” she asked quickly, her giddiness at the prospect filling her voice.
Closing my eyes, I shook my head and sighed. “Dad knew, so I’m sure you knew, too.”
“He might have mentioned it. How did it go? Did you have fun with him? Are you going to see him again? Was it a date or just because you had to go out with him?” It amazed me how she could go from upset to excited in a matter of seconds.
“It was fine.”
“Let him in, Willow,” my dad spoke from the doorway.
I lifted my gaze and found him smiling at my mother, a soft look in his eyes. He still loved her after all these years, and it was more evident now than I remembered as a child.
“Oh, right,” Mom gasped and dragged me toward the front door.
Once the heavy wood rattled against its frame, she once again tried to interrogate me, “Where did you go? What did you do? Were you a gentleman? I taught you manners, and I expect you to use them, how else are you going to win him over and convince him to marry you?”
“Marry?” I choked, coughing and trying to draw in a breath. “Excuse me?”
Fizz pounded me on the back. “Suck it up,” he told me in a low voice close to my ear without moving his lips at all.
I’d seen him do it a million times. This man was better than some ventriloquists.
Easy for him to say, his mother wasn’t planning his wedding because I had no doubt, my mother already had the whole thing worked out in her head.
Clearing my throat, I said, “Mom, he lives in England.”
“He’s a U.S. citizen, so you won’t need to do that K9 visa or spousal visa,” she retorted.
I ran a hand down my face. “Mom, he lives in England. Thinking he would pick up his life and move here?—”
She interrupted me, “He’s not happy there. Pat said so.”
“That isn’t the point.” I was quickly losing my patience, not that I ever had much to begin with.
“But he’s your?—”
This time, my father cut her off, “That’s enough, Willow. We need to talk about what happened this morning.” I was both relieved and confused. There were countless times he allowed her to drone on and on about nothing, especially if she heard a rumor I was dating someone. Not this time.
Before I could ask what she was going to say, Fizz suggested, “Shall we go into your office, sir?”
But I wanted to know. My what? Lorde was my what?
“Yes, good idea.”
“Why his office and not the living room?” I asked in a bored tone. I didn’t think the room we adjourned to mattered at all.
“No one goes into his office. The cleaning staff doesn’t touch it. The only people allowed in there are your mother and father,” Fizz explained.
I stopped in my tracks, frowning with my bewilderment. “What?”
“We’ll explain in the office,” Fizz stated and grabbed my arm, forcing me to continue moving. He’d never acted like this with me without reason, and this scared me, putting me on edge.
“What the hell?” I finally sputtered when Fizz dropped me into a seat in front of the massive desk. He continued to stand next to me, a hand on my shoulder, and I briefly wondered if he did that to keep me in place.
“I told you! I told you to take the threat seriously!” my father snarled, pacing behind his desk.
Other than Fizz, he was the only one standing since my mother sat next to me in the other chair.
That was odd, too, since she normally lounged on the couch closest to the fireplace with a throw blanket covering her legs.
My fear grew. “Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on here?” I shouted.
“Why is this place safe, and the rest of the house isn’t?
Why are you all freaking out over what happened this morning?
I’ve had those kinds of feelings about people before.
This isn’t anything new, yet you’re all acting like the end of the world has landed at our doorstep!
” I turned my face up to stare at Fizz. “And what the fuck do you know that you haven’t told me? ”
He smirked. The asshole actually smirked at me. “A lot.”
What the actual fuck? I tried to get up, but his hand held me down. “Let go,” I seethed.
“No, you are going to sit down and listen to what we have to say.”
“Let. Me. Go.” Each word was spoken slowly and in a deadly calm voice, however, he still did not remove his hand.
In a fight, no matter if I fought dirty or clean, Fizz would wipe the floor with me.
At this point, I didn’t care. Grabbing his hand, I tried to pull it off of me, but his fingers clutched the material of my shirt and held on tightly.
Bending at the waist, Fizz came nose to nose with me. “You are going to sit there, shut up, and listen to what your father has to say.”
“You’re fired!”
He looked amused. “You can’t actually fire me.”
“I pay you, I’m pretty sure I can.”
“No, the company hired me, and it’s the company I have the contract with, so you can’t fire me. As written in my contract, it would take a vote from the entire board to fire me, which is like an act of congress. Good luck with that.” He chuckled.
“What?” How did I not know this? Sure, my father is the one who initially hired Fizz, but how did I not know that little stipulation?
“If we can get on with this,” my father interrupted.
“Whatever.” At this point, if I wasn’t going to beat them, I might as well listen to what they had to say.
My mom patted my arm closest to her. I didn’t want her comfort, yet I didn’t shrug it off or stop her.
Moving back on topic, I declared, “This morning was nothing. I’ve had feelings like that before.
There. Discussed. May I go home now?” Not that I was entirely comfortable returning to my apartment, but I wasn’t going to admit that to this group.
“No, not whatever and not discussed.” My father slammed his fist on his desk, making the pencil holder rattle and a few papers float to the floor.
“Calm down, Christoph,” Mom spoke softly, her voice melodic and gentle amidst the chaos.
Nodding, Dad ran both hands over his face, through his hair, and linked them together on the back of his neck as he blew out a deep breath.
He looked both annoyed and scared. I’d never seen the wrinkles on his forehead so pronounced when he frowned.
When had my father aged? Before now, he could have told people he was fifteen years younger than he was, and any number of strangers would have believed him. Not today, not now.
“What?” I demanded. I knew they were hiding something from me.
“The times you’ve had feelings like that before, have they ever been that strong or violent?” my father questioned, acting as though I hadn’t acted like a world-class spoiled brat a moment ago.
“No, but I’ve also never passed out for two days or fought my shift like I did last week.”
“When you were a kid, you used to love shifting. We had to tell you time and time again to be careful. Sometimes, you weren’t, but you never got caught. And then the kidnapping threats came, and we had to keep a closer eye on you because we knew someone was watching you,” my mother interjected.
I frowned, bewildered by what any of this had to do with what happened this morning. “I remember. It’s not that I don’t?—”
Dad interrupted, “Wait.” He sounded tired and slumped into the chair behind his desk. “She’s not done.”