Page 96 of Worth the Vow

“So this was all some kind of fucked version of Survivor, family business edition? Just see how far you can push me until I flourish or crumble?” I say angrily, my body taut with tension as I glare at my father.

“No, that wasn’t my intention. Honestly, I thought it was work that brought you down, Dom. The last few years you seemed miserable. You rarely smiled, and you looked like you carried the weight of the world on your shoulders. It crushed me to think that I might have forced you to take over for me. I wanted to ask you to step down well over a year ago, but your mom begged me to wait. I was sick about it. I couldn’t stomach watching you hurt for another day,” Dad says quietly. “I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to feel obligated to run Everlasting if your heart isn’t here.”

“All I’ve ever wanted to do is follow in your footsteps, Dad,” I respond, my voice catching as emotion clogs my throat. He thought about demoting me a year ago? “Mom had to talk you out of demoting me?”

“She was sure things would turn around for you,” he says, nodding.

“Why?” I ask stubbornly.

Dad smiles. “You don’t know why? Really?”

“Obviously not.”

“Because of Kate.”

“How is Kate involved in this?” A nagging twinge in my head is telling me something is off here.

“Do you promise not to tell your mother anything I’m about to tell you?” Dad asks, his eyes darting around quickly.

“Alright.”

“Your mother may have had a part in Kate needing to move out of her rental in town,” Dad whispers.

“What?” I shout.

“Keep your voice down,” Dad hisses. “She’s in the building, and I know she’ll make me sleep on the couch if she hears me telling you.”

I roll my eyes. “She will not. She can’t sleep unless you’re in the bed with her. We all know that.”

Dad smirks and nods. “Okay, you’re right. But I don’t want the disappointed glances and tsk-tsk sounds she’ll do every time she sees me.”

I can’t help but laugh. My mother has some epic guilt trips in her arsenal. “That’s fair. Continue, please.”

“Your mom called in a favor from the family that rented Kate her room. It’s just coincidence that you called Kate right after that, and then offered her a room in your house. But that was your mom’s plan all along. She could see the attraction between you two, and was impatient, so she forced you to be in each other’s spaces.”

“She could see the attraction between us,” I parrot. “Did she expect me to marry Kate when I found out about all of her health problems?”

My dad grins, a wide grin that I haven’t seen in years. “No, that was all you, my boy.”

I chuckle, shaking my head. “Any other shenanigans I need to know about where we were pushed together? Wait. She was the one who suggested Kate nanny for me years ago!”

“Yeah, your mom has been ready for the two of you to get your heads out of your asses for quite some time.”

“Unbelievable,” I mutter. “But what does this have to do with my job?”

“Oh,” he says, straightening up in his chair. “Since you and Kate had your fake wedding, I realized it wasn’t at all that you were unhappy here. I saw you smiling more. You weren’t working tons of late nights, and you rarely came in on the weekends. My grandchildren commented that your moods at home had improved, and that you seemed genuinely happy. You didn’t hate your job. But you were incredibly lonely.”

“I was lonely? Dad, I didn’t have time to be lonely.”

“I disagree. You let work take over your life to hide from your loneliness. You were lonely and heartbroken, but you didn’t know how to solve either of those problems. So your mother pushed you in the right direction.”

I think over his words for a moment. I guess I was lonely. I knew I always had the support and love of my family, but Kate’s love has been everything I didn’t know I needed.

“What have we always said about relationships?” Dad says softly.

“Love out loud,” I murmur, chuckling as I think back to discussing this with my sister Arianna as she struggled with her own relationship.

“It goes both ways, Dom. Neither you, nor Savannah, ever treated your marriage as something you’d be proud to shout from the rooftops. But you and Kate? Watching you fall in love has been the greatest gift, Dominic, but watching her love you, and your kids, makes me get very emotional. I couldn’t ask for a better partner for you,” he says, his voice cracking with emotion.

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