Page 62 of Cocky Prince
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—weget 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 out his shit.
“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.
