Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Adam
“You didn’t say anything about private meetings,” I growl at my father. “I brought Hayden tonight. I won’t treat her the way you do the people in your life. She deserves my attention.”
My father’s face turns red and his shoulders square. “She seems like a big girl. I’m sure she can handle herself.”
“That’s not the point. It’s rude, and I don’t like it.”
His eyes narrow. “Since when did you care about treating your girlfriends with such courtesy?”
I run stiff fingers through my hair and glance at my brothers, who don’t seem the least bit inclined to help me out. “I’ve always treated them with courtesy.”
“Perhaps, but not warmth.”
And doesn’t that rankle. The Ice King himself has called me out.
“I’m only going to say this once,” I tell him. “That girl over there deserves all of your respect.” I glance at my father and each of my brothers individually.
My brothers and I have always given each other a hard time, but tonight their flirting pissed me off more than usual.
I direct my next comment to my father. “If you wish to spend time with me, you had better include her.” I don’t know where I’m going with this, or why I called Hayden my girlfriend in front of my entire family, but it feels right.
It’s how I see her. And—fucking hell—not even since we kissed.
Hayden’s been special to me for a long time.
It’s why I haven’t been with anyone else.
Why I’m protective of her.
I shake my head and stare down, rubbing my temples. I’m in deep. Deeper than I’ve ever been.
“All right, Adam. I see you’ve grown wings since you started working at Blue.” My father’s tone is condescending, but I’m used to that coming from him, so I ignore it.
Hunt yawns, clearly bored now that the fireworks between our father and me are over. “Why are we here?” he says. “You know we don’t like coming.”
My father looks around, his gaze suddenly uncertain. “I thought it would be nice for us to get together.”
My brothers are silent, staring at a man who’s clearly lost his mind.
Bran speaks first. “We get together.” The unspoken meaning—we get together, just not with the man who sired us.
“I see,” my father says. “I’d hoped to smooth things over and spend more time together as a family.”
Every one of my brothers glares at the brother next to him, assuming the same thing I have. Who put it in the old man’s head that we wanted to spend time with Daddy?
“Why?” Levi says.
My father turns, noticing Levi, who walked up once Hayden moved to the bar. “Because we are a family, and we are all we have.”
Too stunned to say anything, I don’t.
Levi downs his drink. “Speak for yourself. You should have thought about that before you made this place your priority.” He spins around and storms off as best he can in a walking cast, and exits the party that’s supposed to be the thirty-year anniversary of Club Tahoe. Not that any of us cares.
“I’ve got to be somewhere.” Bran looks to Wes, who reads his silent offer of escape.
“I’ll walk you out,” Wes says.
“I see someone at the bar I’ll be knowing by the end of the night.” Hunt starts off, but I grab his shoulder, halting him. He looks back. “Not your Hayden,” he barks. “I’m not as bad as you all make me out to be.” He yanks his shoulder from my grasp and beelines for the bar, flagging the bartender.
My father raises his eyebrow, but says nothing. He stares off at my brothers as they leave, or take up residence at the bar in Hunt’s case, his expression one of regret and longing. And I’m left standing with him. The way it’s always been. Except this time, I don’t want to be here either.
I glance at Hayden. She’s sitting prettily at the bar, peering around the room. “Are we finished?”
My father sighs and suddenly looks ten years older than his fifty-eight. “Not quite. I’d hoped to mend the riff that exists between your brothers and myself. I’m the cause, but I don’t know how to fix it.”
“You’re asking me for advice?” I say, stunned.
“Yes.”
I shake my head. “Well, for starters, you could explain to them what you just told me. Let them know you care and that you’re trying, instead of ordering us to a party and expecting us to spend happy time together after years of fighting.”
He smiles, a sharp, quick twitch of his lips. “We have fought, your brothers and I. You were always the sensitive one. Until…”
He doesn’t finish the thought, and I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I’m the most unfeeling of the group, which is why I can put up with this man. Because I tune him out.
“I was never good with people outside of business,” he says. “Except with your mother. In any case, I don’t know how to mend what I’ve broken. You’re the only one left.”
I glance at Hayden again, and catch sight of a vulture in a three-piece suit preparing to descend. “It didn’t go well tonight, but you’ve got a lifetime to mend things. Next time, don’t try so hard. It comes across as overbearing, and you know how much my brothers love to be ordered around.”
My father looks down and chuckles. “About as much as I do.”
“Dad, I’ve got to get back to my date. Are we finished here?”
He lifts his head. For the first time in—ever—there’s a soft expression on his face. “Your girlfriend?”
I nod. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but the most efficient way to explain what she means to me. I didn’t miss her questioning look, though. I’m fully prepared to pay for that slip later.
“Before you go,” he says, “I need to tell you something.”
I glance at the bar. Mr. Three-Piece is only one person away from Hayden now, and he’s staring at her, trying to get her attention. “Can it wait?”
“No. I think you should hear it, especially because of Hayden.”
I sense my blood pressure rising. “Don’t say one disparaging remark about her. She is better than you, me, and every person in this town—”
He holds up a hand. “That’s not what I wanted to say.” He gestures to the window overlooking the lake. “It’s quieter over there. Do you mind?”
I reluctantly follow him to the window.
“Your mother was an amazing woman,” he says after a moment of staring out at the lake.
My frustration grows. How long is this going to take? I should have cut out when my brothers did.
“The four of you—before Hunter came along—damn near drove her mad, but she loved you more than anything in this world.”
I stare at the side of my father’s face. It’s difficult to hear about my mother, but I’m listening because I know this conversation will end sooner if I do. And because my father never talks about her.
“She wouldn’t have changed anything, except to be there for you as you grew up. That was the one thing she couldn’t come to peace with during those last few months. That she wouldn’t be able to take care of you.” My father’s voice breaks, and my eyes grow wide.
I’ve never seen him cry. Not even after my mother died.
“I tried to reassure her that I would provide,” he says, having cleared his throat. “But nothing I said comforted her. The only thing—” My father’s throat bobs and he coughs into his fist. “The only thing that comforted her was you.”
“What are you talking about?”
His gaze turns to me. And it’s sincere. “I would find you lying next to her in her bed once the nurses had finished making her comfortable. She was fading, but she’d have a smile on her face as you kissed her forehead and petted her hair.”
I let out a shaky breath. I knew none of this. I have no memories of my mother while she was ill, only flashes of her when she was healthy. And I remember the deep love. So fucking deep. I loved that woman more than I’ve loved anyone in my life.
I look up and blink back the burn, my chest tight. Why is he bringing this up now?
When I glance back, my father is staring at me. “Your mother loved all of you boys, but you had a special bond with her. I’m not sure how much you remember. You were five, six? But I wanted you to know how much you meant to her. It’s okay to love a woman, Adam—”
“Whoa.” I step back and shove my hands in my pockets. “That’s enough. We don’t need to go there.”
“But we do.” He glances at the bar. “I watched the walls build around you after your mother died. You didn’t think I noticed those things.
None of you did. But my weakness is with communication, not observation.
The communication breakdown in this family is something I’ve never known how to overcome. ”
He peers at Hayden waiting. “You care for this girl?”
“I already said I do.”
“Then don’t allow the loss of your mother to prevent you from letting another woman in. Trust me. I speak from a lifetime of experience.”
I stare at my father, thinking he really has lost his mind, but he’s looking at me with such caring and understanding, I can’t look away.
I shake my head. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately. I appreciate you sharing things about Mom. But yeah, I’m just not used to talking about my feelings with you.” Or anyone.
“Fair enough,” he says. “But I wanted to make sure the words were said.”