Chapter 34
Damian
“What are you doing?”
Brielle, her arms loaded with boxes, a strained grimace on her face, tries to walk past me. “Moving in. Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind,” she huffs.
We decided to wait until the weekend to officially move her stuff into my place, even though she’s been spending every night in my bed anyway.
“We hired movers to do that. Give me that before you hurt yourself.” I pull the two boxes out of her arms. They can’t weigh twenty pounds combined.
“Okay, fancy pants. Some people just ask their friends to help and pay them in pizza and beer.” She goes back to the moving truck to grab more boxes. I shoot the two guys in the back of the truck a meaningful look.
“We’ve got it, ma’am. It’s policy that we have to carry all of the boxes for you,” one of the guys tells her.
She frowns, like she was looking forward to helping. “Oh, okay. That makes sense.”
“Take one of these. Not both,” I gripe, shaking my head when she tries to take them both back.
She pulls the top box from me with a smile. I have to lean across the boxes to plant a kiss on her lips.
“What do we have here?”
I straighten, the sound of my father’s voice catching me off guard.
“Dad. What are you doing here?”
He raises a questioning brow, looking between me and Brielle.
“Thought I’d stop by and see if you were home. Haven’t talked to you as much lately. Wanted to catch up, see what’s new with you.” His eyes land on Brielle at that last part.
Even though my relationship with Brielle is out in the open now, I still haven’t told my father. I already know what he’s going to tell me. Cut and run. Don’t let her get too close. Be smart and protect your heart.
“Hi, Mr. Edgerton. I’m Brielle. Damian’s girlfriend.” Brielle drops her box to the ground and extends her hand to my father.
My heart stops, anticipating the worst. I’m ready to jump in if he says anything the least bit out of line.
“Nice to meet you, Brielle. Please, call me Mark.” He shakes her hand, a genuine smile on his face. “Are these… your things?”
“Yes. You’ve caught us on moving day. I’d offer you a chance to help carry some boxes, but apparently, it’s against policy. We were only getting away with these two.” She shrugs.
“Pity. I would have loved to help move my boy’s girlfriend into his home. Here, let me grab this one for you.”
Brielle lets him take the box by her feet without protest. “Thank you, Mark. I’ll get the door.”
She trots ahead to the apartment door.
“She seems nice,” he says.
I don’t bother hiding the growl in my voice. “Don’t start, Dad.”
“I’m not saying anything.”
We meet Brielle at the door. My father chats with her the entire ride up the elevator and into my penthouse suite.
“You can just put the box down there, Mark. Thanks so much. Can we get you a drink?”
“He isn’t staying,” I say quickly. Things are going too well between me and Brielle to risk my father saying something that fucks that up. I need to talk to him first, let him know that I’m serious about her. That I know what I’m doing.
“Damian,” Brielle chides, “don’t be rude.”
A wide smile breaks out over my father’s face. “I’d love a drink. Thank you, dear.”
“Brielle,” I tell him, a warning note in my voice. I know what he’s doing. Acting like she isn’t going to be around long enough to bother remembering her name. “Her name is Brielle.”
“I know. She introduced herself all of five minutes ago. I may be getting old, but I’m not senile yet.”
“Damian, why don’t you go outside and keep an eye on the movers,” Brielle says. She passes my father a cold water and ushers him onto the couch.
“Hey.” I pull her aside before she sits. My father chuckles, taking a sip of his water. “If he says anything cruel to you, tell him to leave. This is your house now.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Damian. Relax.” She pats my chest and lifts to her toes. I give her a quick kiss. And then another.
“Get moving. I want to get to know Brielle, and I can’t do that with your tongue down her throat,” my father shouts.
I give him one more warning look before I go. I leave them alone in the apartment, a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.
Forty minutes later, the movers are gone, and boxes are stacked in my living room, bedroom, and bathroom. Unsurprisingly, absolutely nothing kitchen-related made it into the move.
Brielle and my father are laughing on the couch like old friends. A weird feeling flutters in my chest. He’s looking at something on her phone, wiping tears out of the corner of his eyes.
“What are you showing him?” I ask, taking a seat next to her so I can rest my hand on her leg. He hands the phone back to her with a shit-eating grin. She shows me the picture that has him in stitches.
The one of me with my long johns and women’s too-short coveralls from our trip to Maine.
I shoot her a glare, but she just smiles and leans in for a kiss. “It’s a good picture, don’t you think? Maybe we can get it printed and hang it in the bedroom.”
“Very funny,” I deadpan.
“Oh, it is. It really is,” my father adds.
“Mark, you have to stay for dinner. Damian is making shrimp scampi. It is absolutely delicious.”
“I’d love to, Brielle. Thank you.”
I roll my eyes in faux irritation and get up from the couch to get started on that dinner that Brielle apparently wants.
My father looks at me again, a subtle nod of approval. I wasn’t looking for it. Didn’t need it. But I appreciate it all the same. I nod back, a small smile pulling at my lips.
“Don’t forget, beautiful, I have my own ammunition, Ms. sleeps with her mouth open in the car.”
“That’s just charming,” she hollers to my back. I laugh. She’s right. Everything about her charms me.
I’m standing at the stove a little while later, stirring the lemon garlic sauce, when a heavy hand lands on my shoulder.
“Where Brielle?” I ask.
“She had to take a call.”
We stand together in silence for a moment, the sizzling sound of the stove the only noise.
“Brielle said this has been going on for months,” he says.
“It has, to some extent. It became serious more recently.”
“She seems great. Why didn’t you say anything?”
My chest deflates on a heavy exhale. “We both know how you would have reacted. Honestly, Dad, I didn’t want to deal with it. Brielle wanted to keep it between us, for good reason, and that worked out better for me. At the beginning anyway.”
“But you couldn’t keep your eyes off her in the office, and then shit blew up, right?” He grins.
“Is that what she told you?” I huff out a laugh.
“No. But I know my son. There’s only one type of woman he’s going to get serious enough with to move her in.
And that’s the kind that he can’t stop thinking about when they’re apart, the kind who steals his focus whenever she’s around, the kind that holds his heart in her hands.
I know, because you’re just like your old man sometimes. ”
He’s right. I get a lot of traits from my father.
I didn’t think falling head over heels in love was going to be one of them, but I was wrong.
I understand now why it tore him apart when he found out about Cynthia and Walt, when he realized that the woman he loved never really existed.
It’s a kind of love that consumes you, mind, body, and soul.
The kind of love you don’t get twice in a lifetime, so you hold on to it, nurture it, cherish it, for all it’s worth.
“I’m in love with her,” I tell him. “I’m not being stupid about it, but I’m telling you, Dad. She’s it for me.”
“I know.” He nods. He looks at me with pride. “Hold on to her, Damian. She’s a keeper.”
Footsteps pad down the hall. I look over my shoulder to her. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, from her ocean eyes to the freckles that dot her upturned nose to those curves that bring me to my knees. She’s stunning.
She smiles brightly at me, and a shot of pride hits me right in the chest.
“I just got off the phone with Courtney,” she says.
“Courtney Vitale?”
“Yeah. She and Stephen are expecting again.” She comes up behind me and wraps her arms around my waist as I continue making dinner.
“Congratulations to them. That’s great.”
“She said it’s been a tough pregnancy for her, and she’s only just starting her second trimester.
Pam has decided to step away from Cardinal West Outdoors to help her with Maggie.
I guess she’s been really sick a lot. Anyway, she wanted to know if I knew anyone who would be interested in working for them temporarily until they can get someone onboarded.
I think she was hoping it would help ease her mom’s worries if they came from a referral. ”
“What did you say?”
“I told her that I would be interested. I have an interview with Pam Monday at 10:00 a.m.”
“That’s fantastic.” I turn around to face her, circling my arms over her shoulders to bring her in close.
“She wants me to work with CreativEdge as the liaison for all things marketing and handle their small-scale internal campaigns that they don’t use CreativEdge for.”
“So, you’re going to do such a good job that my biggest client finds out they don’t need me; all along, it was you they needed?” I smirk.
“Absolutely. I’m going to be so damn good at it, people will come from all over to ask me to help them with their own marketing needs, and before you know it, I’m going to be your biggest competition,” she jokes.
I nip at her lip. “That’s my girl.”
If anyone could do it, it’s her. My lips graze hers in a sweet, intimate kiss.
“Your sauce is burning.” My father’s voice jolts me.
Shit. I spin around to the stove again, casting a glance at my father, an amused smile on his face.