Page 62 of Turning Up the Heat

“I can’t argue with that argument,” Lila said.

“I knew you’d see it my way.”

“You’ve been in a shitty mood all week, Tom,” Shane admonished him, as Tom plucked three beer bottles from the fridge for himself and his friends. When Tom had told them he didn’t feel like going out, Shane and Darren had brought over a pizza and wings from their regular restaurant.

“Yeah, what’s going on with you?” Darren asked. “The stuff with your dad?”

They knew he’d left Cain Rum, and they knew his reasons and hadn’t demanded an explanation. Tom hadn’t told his friends that he’d been seeing Gemma, and he certainly hadn’t told them that they’d ended it. But they’d been able to pick up on his mood. He shook his head, hoping he would get away from interrogation. “Not Dad. Just personal stuff.”

“And you can’t share your personal stuff with your best friends?”

Tom opened each of the beer bottles and handed them off. “Remember Gemma Rexford?”

“That distiller in Miami?” Shane asked. “The hot one? Yeah, of course.”

“We’ve been seeing each other. For a few months now,” he revealed.

“You’ve been hitting that, and you never shared with your friends?” Darren asked. “I’m hurt.”

“It’s the twenty-first century,” Shane said. “Nobody says hitting that anymore.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. It was a private thing,” Tom said. “But now it’s over.”

Both of his friends frowned. “Aw, shit,” Darren said. “Sorry, man. You want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” he said. “Can we just drink beer and eat pizza?”

“Yeah. We can.”

Tom had settled into the friendly, easy conversation when there was a knock on the door. He dropped his pizza slice on his plate and stood. “I’ll be right back.” He walked to the door, and when he opened it, he was surprised to see his father. In the years that he’d lived there, Tom could count on one hand the number of times that his father had visited his place. “Dad.”

“Hello, son. Can I come in?” He had never seen his father look so forlorn before.

“Yeah, of course.” He stepped aside, and his father entered. When he saw Shane and Darren at the table, he paused. “You have company. I’ll come back another time.”

“No, don’t be ridiculous. We’ll just go in another room.” He led his father to the bedroom he’d renovated into a study. “Fellas, I’ll be right back.”

When they walked into the study. Tom realized he was still holding his beer. “Can I get you a drink?”

“No, thank you.” He looked around. “I went by your office. I saw it was cleaned out.”

“Well, I quit, so that would make sense.”

“You didn’t need to quit,” he told him.

“I did, though. You gave Carolina my job.”

“Only for a brief period. I couldn’t trust you to take over right now.”

“You couldn’t trust me? After everything I’ve done...” He trailed off. “I’m your son, for Christ’s sake!”

“And you’re seeing Gemma Rexford.”

“I wasn’t seeing her. I was in love with her.” He shrugged and drank from his beer. “Not that it matters. It’s over now anyway.”

That made his father pause. “You love her?”

“Yes.”

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