Page 74 of Parker

Chapter 10

Parker

Talking to Harper at the hotel made iteasierto go home, but noteasy.

The only thing my family takes more seriously than looking out for one another is how seriously we take our commitment to Stewart Travel. The reputation of our family business means everything.

Well, I fucked up in Vegas, and it got splashed all over social media. So, a reckoning was waiting for me in Skagway, and I was dreading it.

Because I got in after midnight, I’d driven myself home from the airport and gone straight to bed in the cabin I used to share with Reeve. She’d recently moved into the cabin vacated by Sawyer, who was now living in town with Ivy, which meant I had my own place for the first time in my life. And frankly, getting home in the dark of night, to peace and quiet and solitude, felt calming. I didn’t see anyone. I wasn’t confronted by anyone. I could almost believe that Vegas had been just another successful, run-of-the-mill convention.

But the next day, bright and early, I had to face the music.

As I walked into the lodge on Sunday morning, my family was waiting for me. Sitting around the dining room table, dour-faced and tight-lipped, they watched me enter the lodge, stomp my snowy feet on a welcome mat, and cross the room. I stood behind the one available seat at the table, my hands clenching the back of it.

“Morning, everyone.”

No one said a word in response. I caught Harper’s eyes first.

“Morning, Harp.”

“Hey, Park,” she said, not unkindly. “How was the flight home?”

“Uneventful.”

“…unlike the rest of the week,” muttered my father under his breath.

I’d registered his words, but kept my eyes on Harper. Because she and I had been talking regularly while I was in Vegas, she wasn’t as shocked as the rest of my family about the recent romantic developments between me and Quinn.

“How’d you leave things with Quinn?” she’d asked.

“Over,” I’d mumbled.

She’d winced, her face taking on an expression of surprise and then compassion. “Sorry to hear that.”

I don’t want to talk about Quinn. Ever again.

“Go first,” I told her. “Let me have it. I want to get this over with.”

Harper had taken a deep breath and sighed before speaking: “What you do or don’t do with Quinn Morgan is none of my business, and I think it’s disgusting that you were being filmed without your knowledge or permission.”

My heart lifts, and I could almost cry with gratitude for my older sister’s kindness.

“Thanks, Harp—”

“But the punching part of the video? You left that part out when we talked, Park. And I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it. I know he got out of line with you. But Joe told me that Rick could pressassault chargesagainst you, and that really scares me. If you’re going to hit someone in the future,” she’d said, “for the love of God, don’t get caught doing it on camera!”

“I didn’t know I was being filmed.”

“Then it’s probably best not to hit people!”

“I won’t,” I’d promised her in a small voice, pulling out my chair and taking a seat between Gran and Sawyer. “I’ll never do it again.”

My father was sitting next to Harper, and as I shifted my eyes to his, I felt the full measure of his disappointment in me. I could read it easily on his face—he was mortified by my behavior.

“Dad?” I’d whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“You’re obviously too immature to be attending any more conferences or conventions in the immediate future, so I will be taking over from here on out.”

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