AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Zach,” his tone takes on a dangerous tone now. “What’s going on?” His patience is at zero, I can tell.
“It’s a long story, but…”
“Give me the highlights,” he orders, and I let it all out without taking a breath.
“I met this girl seven years ago and fell in love with her. She broke up with me to go to school in New York. Neither one of us knew, but she was pregnant. She lost the baby. Now she’s back. And we’re married.”
The only thing you can hear in the quiet kitchen is the ticking of the clock on the far wall, followed by my father chocking on the baked goods he was so busy inhaling not two seconds ago.
“What the fuck,” he gasps for air. “Water,” he stretches his arm out and I put a bottle of water in his hand. It would be really sad if he survived all his other health issues just to choke on Grams’ awesome chocolate chip cookie.
“You okay?” I ask when he finally looks like he’s calmed down.
“You’re married?” he says at the same time, but his tone is not nearly as worried as I thought it’d be.
“Basically,” I nod and kick the leg of the kitchen chair closest to me.
“To Hunter, I hope.” Now it is my turn to be shocked, and, had I been eating, I would’ve chocked on everything as well.
“How do you know her name?”
“Isn’t that the girl from seven years ago?” he says it like it’s a no brainer.
“Yeah, but…”
“Grams,” he shrugs, and that says it all. I only briefly mentioned to him at the time that my heart was broken. However, I talked to Grams a lot about Hunter. She obviously reported everything to my father.
“And you’re okay with it?”
“Well, from what she told me back then, things were pretty serious, right?” I nod in confirmation. “So you just picked up where you left off then?”
“Not exactly.” I am so ashamed of my actions when I confess to him all that I said and did to Hunter. Well, I skipped over all the sex part. Neither one of us is ready for that kind of a father-son conversation.
“You’re a dumbass,” he concludes.
“I…” but there’s no defense to that. I really am a dumbass.
“What happens now?” Dad crosses his arms over his chest and watches me critically. He’s always thought I was this super smart human, genius level really, and I just proved him wrong.
“I’m going to talk to her parents.”
I thought of it all night long, and I feel like I need to clear the air with them before I go any further. And maybe Hunter needs some closure as far as that goes too. It can’t be healthy to hold a grudge like this for so many years. It’ll end up killing her, no doubt.
“You want me to go with?”
Dad’s question makes me laugh. Here I am, a healthy thirty-two-year-old man, who, might I add, runs a billion-dollar conglomerate, and my dad wants to hold my hand when I go to talk to my wife’s parents who I have never met.
“No, I think I got this, Dad. I got a plan,” I pat him on the back.
“Well, that plan needs to be better than all this fuckery you’ve been doing up to today. You’re gonna lose points big time. You know who her father is?”
Jack Montgomery is a well respected businessman. He is the owner and CEO of a chain of outdoor retail stores that took off like wildfire few years back, and the success never stopped coming. He’s got just as much money and power as he needs. And he definitely doesn’t need me, even though I am wealthier than he is.
“I’ve never met him or his wife, but I know Hunter’s brother. He hates me,” I laugh like it’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.
“Ah, Brooke’s husband,” Dad nods in understanding. “He’s got a good reason to hate you, son.”
“Not my problem that his wife thought I wanted her,” I crack up again.
