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When I straighten, he holds his hands out and takes a cautious step backward. “Down, boy. I’m just getting a feel for how today is going to go.”

“Not well if you say shit like that again.”

My cousin has a habit of pushing the line, but he typically watches himself when it comes to Bennett. He dismisses the glare I set on him and shakes his head. “I’ll risk the ass-kicking and guess you two haven’t talked much then?”

I clench my jaw, and after a long sigh, he heads for the door.

“You two are fucking exhausting.”

And I couldn’t agree more.

By the time Liam andI finish our workout, he’s filled me in on the details. A wake tomorrow with a private service the day after. The old man might have acted like he would outlive us all, but it sounds like he was rather set in what he wanted.

I shower at the gym and pick up my truck before returning to the house. No part of me expects Bennett to have hung around, so when I walk in and see a blonde on my couch, I freeze in the doorway. Then I recognize the dye job.

“Get out,” I say to Aubrey, dropping my bag by the door.

And just to make my fucking day all the better, I step farther in and spot my father. He’s scanning the frames on the mantel over the fireplace, scowling at pictures of the wife he deemed unworthy and son he sees as competition.

“You too,” I add. “And if you’re looking for any proof of you in those photos, we burned them all. Bought a fire pit just for the occasion.”

Greg tugs at his collar, uncomfortable in the house that has brought him nothing but annoyance. How much money did he bleed into it just to keep her from raising hell in his personal life? She gutted him on alimony, as one should when they’re left because of a terminal illness. Then, with every fuckup after, she found a way to make him pay.

Without any other greeting, he holds out his hand, a slip of paper between two of the fingers. “Happy birthday, son.”

He stops a decent distance away, and I reach for the check. Reading the amount, I let out a disgusted laugh. “We both know you don’t have half a million lying around. Not with that one’s surgery schedule.”

Aubrey narrows her eyes at me and mouths,Asshole.

I shrug and return to the other glare set on me. “So, what are you bribing me for?”

Greg glances around and gestures at the walls surrounding us.

“Fuck you,” I spit. “You think I’d let you anywhere near her house?”

He tried the same bullshit before I left for college. Twice since then. This place is a splinter festering in his palm, and by tearing it down, he’d finally one-up a dead woman.

“You aren’t happy here, Dane.” His tone carries an irritation only a father could have for his son. “You’ve been rather blunt about that over the past year. So, why hold on to something you don’t even want?”

I cross my arms over my chest and slowly shake my head. I’ll die in this house before I give him the pleasure of destroying what was hers.

“Fine,” he says, waving it off. But a flash of disappointment in his eyes gives him away as he sits on the couch beside Aubrey. “Even without the house, the money’s yours if you sign over my half of the business. I shouldn’t need to pay anything, considering it rightfully belongs to me, but you are my son.”

I’m shaking my head again, a disbelieving smirk on my face. “You just can’t fucking quit, can you?”

“We both know you have no interest in being there. The only reason you came back was for Miles, and … well”—he slides his arm behind Aubrey—“he’s gone, so now, you can be too. Take the money and go wherever you want. Maybe Colorado to be with that lovely little blonde.” His mouth twitches, mentioning Bennett, and I’m onelovelypast fucking losing it.

“Out,” I warn. “Before I fucking throw you out.”

Aubrey prickles at his side, her reaction to his comment as subtle as mine. “Greg,” she says, giving me a rare look of understanding, “I want to leave.”

My father holds my gaze as he rises, and I wonder when I became such a threat to him. Even without the shit with my mother and grandfather between us, I can’t imagine anything more than a mildly apathetic relationship with him. The same father-son dynamic he'd shared with his father until he started acting like an entitled fuck.

Aubrey drags him through the living room, giving me one last look before they disappear out the door. And as much as I hate to admit it, all I can think about after they leave is the check. Still in my hand.

Despite agreeing to pretend it’snot my birthday, Liam’s incessant messages demanding I meet them for dinner wear me down. I park at the restaurant, thinking about something Aria said during my short time in San Francisco.

While we ate my shitty birthday cake, Steve went to feed Little Stevie. The way she watched him from the living room made me ask her,“When did you fall in love?”

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