Chapter 13 Duke
DUKE
When John Hart called me this afternoon, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Sometimes, I’d run errands for him if he wasn’t feeling well.
Other times, I would help him with things that needed fixing around the house or yard.
If there was a big project, Lukas would haul my ass out to help with whatever needed to be done.
But today, John hadn’t given me a single clue as to what he needed. The bar was slow enough that Sawyer could handle it on her own until Ryan showed up later this afternoon. So, I’d jumped in my old truck and driven across town to his property.
When Lukas told me his uncle was sick, I never expected it to be terminal. The man felt infallible. He was bigger than life itself, and every single person in town would feel his absence.
If it hadn’t been for John, I never would’ve been able to help my mom get set up in a care facility after her stroke. I damn sure couldn’t have afforded it after my divorce, when it was taking everything I had to keep Harper and me afloat in the aftermath.
Looking back, the signs of his illness were there. The low energy, the bruises across his skin. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but it did. I hated that he was refusing to fight. It wasn’t fair to him, and it wasn’t fair to us.
As I pulled onto the property, I noticed Olivia’s black SUV parked outside. I stopped beside it, hesitating with my hand on the ignition, wondering if it was too late to drive away or if I’d already been noticed. My truck wasn’t that loud. Surely I could just sneak off.
As if on cue, I saw movement through the large arched window in front of me. The curtains pulled back, and a very familiar face peeked through the fabric. A face that had started haunting my dreams at night.
Guess that answers that.
Since our little sleepover, my mind had run rampant with thoughts of Olivia. Showers were my favorite time of day. A moment to reflect on the way it’d felt to have her in my arms and wonder what noises she’d make if things had been different.
I shook my head. Olivia Hart was a goddamn distraction. The worst part was not knowing if this pull was mutual. I mean, I wasn’t ignorant. I noticed the way she looked at me from time to time. The chemistry was there, but was it enough to tempt her?
That was the million-dollar question.
It was best if I never found out the answer. If the attraction wasn’t reciprocated, I’d rather take my secret to the grave. And if it was? Well, that would just be the cruelest form of torture because I could never act on what I wanted anyway.
Lukas would kill me if he knew I was lusting over his little sister.
He’d always been protective of her with good reason.
Anytime she’d brought a boy around as a teenager, he found something wrong with them.
When she introduced Grady as her fiancé for the first time, I thought he was going to have a fucking aneurysm.
Not to mention the fact that Harper and Charlie were best friends. What if whatever this attraction was between Olivia and me affected that? It’d sure as fuck make pickups and drop-offs awkward if we couldn’t even be in the same room as one another.
So, no. I wasn’t convinced it’d be worth it to try and blur the lines of friendship between myself and my best friend’s little sister.
No matter how tempting she was.
Stepping out of my truck, I headed for the door. I didn’t even get the chance to knock before it swung open, revealing a smiling Olivia.
“Duke, I didn’t know you were coming over.” She stepped aside, ushering me in. “Is everything okay?”
What had I just said about not wanting to rock the boat with Lukas? Because I was ready to call myself a fucking liar after being in her space for only a second.
Olivia really was beautiful. Her hair, normally pulled back, was down, making her bare face seem more relaxed. It matched the slightly baggy Hartfelt Homes t-shirt and loose-fitting jeans she was wearing.
It made me wonder what she’d look like waking up next to me one morning, freshly fucked and satiated, wearing nothing but my shirt from the night before. How it’d hang nearly to her knees, and I’d only need to slide the fabric up a few inches to satiate my appetite.
And her scent. God. The sweet perfume hung in the air, wrapping around my senses and holding my thoughts hostage with images of her head thrown back in ecstasy as I—
“Duke?”
I blinked away the thoughts, focusing back on the woman in front of me. “Sorry, what?”
Olivia gave me a coy smile. “I asked what you were doing here.”
“John asked me to stop by, so”—I reached up and scratched the back of my neck—“here I am.”
“Oh. He didn’t tell me.” Her full, glossed lips drew together in a pout. The way they glistened in the light captured my attention. “But, then again, I’ve been so busy this morning that he might’ve said something in passing, and I forgot.”
She gave me her back, motioning for me to follow as we went down the hall and through the living room.
I’d been in this house a thousand times since I was a kid, and it never failed to leave me in awe.
High ceilings and viridian walls were accented by cedar beams and leather furniture.
It was a mountain getaway dream. Large, arched windows were situated all throughout the house, leaving each room steeped in natural light.
As we stopped short of his room, Olivia paused. “It’s not been a good day, just so you know. He’s been a little out of it.”
I nodded, not needing any details. It wasn’t my intention to sit around and gossip with the old man. I was just here to do my job—whatever that may be. “Noted.”
She knocked once before entering, and I followed her inside. It was quite a bit darker than the rest of the house. The only light came from a single lamp on his bedside table.
It’d been about a month since I’d seen John Hart, and the decline was shocking.
He was sitting up in bed, trembling hands folded neatly in his lap. His olive skin was jaundiced, and his normally warm brown eyes were clouded and sunken. It reminded me of the bad FX makeup at our local haunted house that popped up every Halloween.
Except this wasn’t fake. It was real. John was dying.
I already knew that. Lukas had told me as much when we spoke, but it was different seeing it in person. Suddenly, whatever sadness I’d felt before returned tenfold.
“Took you long enough,” John said, breaking into a coughing fit. Olivia went to his side, eyes filled with caution, and brought a glass of water to his cracked lips.
When she pulled it away, she tutted. “I told you to keep the sass to a minimum, and what do you do? You make some smart ass remark and start coughing.”
John looked to his niece and smiled weakly. “I’m not sorry.”
“I know you’re not.” She patted his hand. “I’ll leave you two boys to yap now. If you need anything, just tell Duke to yell for me.”
“If he needs anything, I can get it for him.” I strode across the room and sat in the chair next to his bed. “I know my way around the house just as well as you do.”
Olivia stood there, mouth parted slightly, an argument already forming on her lips. “But—”
“Take a break, Olivia. I’ve got him.” There was no malice in my words. No insistence that she couldn’t take care of him when I knew damn well she could. But I also noticed the way her shoulders fell in relief when I told her to rest.
If I could give her a few minutes of peace, I’d consider my day well spent.
She slipped out the door and closed it behind her. When I turned back toward John, his eyes were trained on the spot she just left. “That girl has always been so damn smart, but stubborn, too. Sometimes stupidly so.”
“That doesn’t seem very nice.”
“The truth almost never is,” John grumbled.
I leaned back in my chair. “Dying really changes a man.”
He chuckled lightly before gesturing for his water, which I helped hand over.
We sat in silence for a long moment until he finished.
“That’s true. Makes you see everything in a different light.
What’s important, what’s not, and all the shit in between.
” He paused, pointing to the door as he struggled to catch his breath.
“I fear that girl won’t learn that lesson until it’s too late. ”
What shit could John possibly be talking about? He lived a good life. Devoted time and energy to his family and his company, catapulting it into a success no one could have ever imagined.
From what little I knew, Olivia had taken her role as CEO seriously.
While I had judged her for it previously, before I saw the way Charlie hung onto every word she spoke and how she loved that girl more than words could ever say, I now knew there was no way she would’ve taken the job if she felt her daughter would suffer.
“She’s got a good head on her shoulders,” I said. “She’ll figure it out. Give her some credit.”
John snorted. “Weren’t you in my office crying over that no-good ex-wife of yours not six months ago?”
I remembered that day with startling clarity. Despite Sarah packing her bags two years ago, it’d been moving into that goddamn cabin that’d nearly undid me—the look on Harper’s face as she watched so many of our things be sold or put into storage because we couldn’t fit them in our place.
Grady offered to take her for the night to help ease the transition, and I hadn’t argued. While I wanted to reach for the bottle, I’d found myself sitting in my truck out front of John’s house instead. He’d always been like a dad to me, so it was natural to turn to him.
I stormed into his office, dropped to my knees, and sobbed for the first time in my life.
I told him every deepest fear I had. That I was ruining my daughter’s life, that she would grow up to resent me when she was older.
How I wished it would all stop, and I wanted to be better than the miserable, pathetic bastard I was turning into.