Page 66 of The Marriage Negotiation

End of story.

"Son—"

I stood up and gestured toward the front door. "Thanks for coming. Call next time and save yourself the airfare. Jackson, my parents are leaving. Can you escort them out?"

Jackson appeared out of nowhere as if he'd been waiting for me to call him. "Of course, sir." He gave me a not before looking at my parents. "If you'll follow me?"

"Zaq!"

I waved. "Bye bye."

I didn't need a long drawn out conversation here where my father tried to coax me and then threaten me to get me to do what he wanted. For once in my life, I was going to do what I wanted.

I could hear my father shouting and arguing with Jackson all the way to the door. I simply sat back down in my chair and grabbed my cup, slowly sipping my coffee.

I don't know what exactly was said between Patrick and his parents since they were talking in low tones, but they left about five minutes after my parents did. Patrick was nice enough to escort them to the door himself so maybe there was hope for them.

My parents were pretty much a right-off as far as I was concerned. Until they learned to accept Patrick and me being together, they could stay on their side of the country.

When Patrick came back, instead of sitting down next to me, he went to his knees in front of me. This time, he leaned down and buried his face against me.

I carefully set my coffee cup down and then threaded my fingers through his hair. "Did you work things out with your parents?"

"Yes and no," Patrick mumbled. "Yes, we'll probably see them again, but no, they don't fully believe me about Peter. I was able to convince them to go talk to the district attorney though. Maybe if he shows them all the evidence they have against Peter, my parents might start to believe it."

Doubtful, but I wanted to leave Patrick with some hope, so I didn't say anything.

"So, you guys want to move that lunch to a dinner?" Jake asked. "Lucas said him and Kyue would meet us there."

"Yeah, that would be fine." Patrick lifted his head and then leaned up and gave me a quick kiss before getting to his feet. "When we get home, we can start negotiations again."

I lifted an eyebrow as I accepted the hand he held out to me. "I thought we had already negotiated a five year plan?"

"We did." Patrick winked at me. "I want to start negotiations for the next week's plan."

I got the feeling there would be a lot of negotiations in my future.

I wasn't complaining.

* * * *

I groaned as I flopped down on the mattress, barely able to move a muscle. I'd worked the emergency room at a Los Angeles hospital during a twenty-four car pile-up. It hadn't been nearly as exhausting as the last two days. Half our client list was down with the winter flu and they were all calling us. I was almost ready to throw in the towel and admit defeat.

"Hey." Patrick stretched out on the mattress beside me. "You alive?"

"No." I chuckled. "I died ten patients ago."

"Well, look at it this way, once winter is over we'll probably not get a single call until people start sun bathing."

I didn't even want to think about it.

"I do have a bit of good news for you."

I lifted one eyebrow, but not my head. "Oh?"

"Miles called. He said he spoke with the district attorney and after several more evaluations the courts have decided that Peter is too much of a danger to himself and others. He's going to be committed to that mental hospital for the rest of his life."

Damn, that was good news.

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