Page 135 of Northern Stars

“They call me the gravedigger. I’m good at digging up information on people,” he said, slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder. “You got a spare room for a few days?” Without thought, I pulled him into a hug. He grumbled. “The hug thing was only for Christmas Day.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve had a shitty go at things. I could use the hug.”

“Fine. Only this once.” He hugged me back, and I was thankful for the comfort. The moment he let me go, he stood tall. “So what do people do in Wisconsin other than freeze their ball sack off?”

“Cheese curds?”Damian asked as we sat at the counter of the local bar. “You deep-fried cheese?”

“You’ve never had a cheese curd?” I gasped. “Your life is about to be forever changed. These are the best ones in town. They make their ranch homemade, too. Trust me, that matters.”

Damian picked up the cheese curd and pulled it apart, showcasing some solid cheese pull action. Then he dunked it into the ranch and tossed it into his mouth. He sat back in his chair, a bit amazed. “Well, fuck,” he moaned. “I didn’t know your food had drugs packed in it.”

“What can I say? We do a few things well. The Bucks, cheese curds, and Spotted Cow beer. You won’t find this goodness anywhere else.”

“Speaking of good.” He snapped his hand in the air. “We are going to need more of these cheese balls and more Spotted Cows, stat.”

Damian turned to me and gave me a bit more serious look after he tossed a few cheese curds into his mouth. He wiped his hands off and his brows were knitted as he looked my way. “Rumor has it that your father’s a dick.”

“How did you find out?”

“Hailee reached out to me on social media. She said you might need a brother, so here I am.”

Of course, she did.

“She’s the best person I know,” I confessed.

“That’s funny. She said the same thing about you,” he said. “I am sorry about your father. I honestly don’t know why he’d even go that far to keep it a secret.”

“He knew he would’ve lost the best thing that ever happened to him—my mother. Turns out all these years later, he still lost her.”

“Karma catches up, no matter how long it takes.”

“I hate him. He watched me throughout the years struggle with Jake and still made these choices. He’s the only reason I even did this acting thing, because I wanted to make him proud. I dreamed of him being my biological father my whole life. I thought I was making it up that we had characteristics that matched. I was convinced that I was insane for thinking those things. Now, when I see him, all I feel is hatred.”

“I get it, man. My dad was a dick and played mind games with me, but it led to me finding Stella, so I’m kind of thankful for him, too, the asshole.”

“Are you two closer with one another now?”

“Nah, he croaked,” he said with a deadpan expression.

“Oh shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“How would you know? We’d just met.”

It didn’t take long for me to realize that Damian was a very straightforward guy. He was the opposite of his best friend, Connor. Yet a little more like Jax. The three of them were such an odd pairing, but somehow it seemed to fit together. They balanced each other out completely.

Damian took a drag of his beer. “The way I see it is if the old man didn’t croak, I would’ve never met Stella, so it feels like an even trade. An asshole father drops dead, and then you end up with the love of your life? Sign me up.”

I sat there completely stunned by his comments.

He looked over to me and released a weighted sigh. “I went too dark, didn’t I? Stella always tells me my dark humor would be the death of me. At least if I died, I could join my dad in the great downstairs and tell him how big of a dick he is. My biggest regret is not telling more people to fuck off.”

I snickered a bit and held my glass up. “Hear, hear.”

“Most people would tell you that time heals all wounds and that you should forgive your father. But do you want my advice?”

“Shoot.”

“Fuck him. You owe him nothing. Not your kindness, not your forgiveness, and not your presence in his life. He made his bed, and now he gets to sleep in it. A father isn’t defined by blood, it’s defined by the man who does right by you. Still, you can silently thank him for the things he did give to you. Like your mother.”

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