Page 30 of Mine to Love

“We took it slow at first. It wasn’t until this winter that we got more serious. I wasn’t sure how you’d take it. And then Emerson and Holden got engaged...”

“In other words, you were worried because the two people closest to me have love lives and I’m the pitiful old maid.”

“You don’t seriously believe that.” He pats the seat next to him and I shake my head. He must realize what I’m thinking and uses the armrest to hoist himself to standing. “I was more concerned about how you’d feel about me with another woman who isn’t your mother.”

I cross the room to his side and help him get to his cane. “I mean, it’ll be weird, yeah, but I get that you need to move on.”

“It’s not moving on, sweetheart. It’s moving forward. Your mother will always be my first love. The love of my life. I’ll die with her name on my lips, her memory in my heart. But I also don’t want to die alone.”

“Dad. Seriously stop with this death talk. Is there something else going on I don’t know about?”

“No, no. That’s not what I meant. I’m doing well according to the doctors. I’m only fifty-nine. I have many years ahead of me, and I’d like to spend them with someone. Mariah is a widow as well and has two grown sons.”

“This is a lot to process.” I hug him and sigh. “I need to go back to work. I’m okay with you dating, Dad. I really am. But I never ever want to walk in on that again. When I get home from work, I’m burning that couch.”

He chuckles and kisses my forehead. “I love you, peanut.”

“Love you too. I gotta go.”

The afternoon is busier than the morning, which helps to pass the time and keep my mind off the thought of my father doing the nasty.

Sort of. I’m not ready to go home yet, and I figure my father can handle himself for a few extra hours. All this time I’ve been rushing home from work, feeling guilty about leaving him alone all day, and he’s been anything but alone. I send him a text telling him I’ll be home late and stop at The Beer Garden.

The outside area has too many happy people and couples, so I take a seat at the near empty bar and drown the image of a naked Mariah riding my father.

CHAPTER TEN

I’m exhausted after a ten-hour meeting with my lawyer and realtor. I won’t need much office space for my Maine headquarters and can do most of the work remotely from Austin. Still, a homebase for business meetings is necessary.

Now that I signed my lease, I’ll tell my family about my new endeavor. I’m pretty sure my parents—at least my father—has suspected something was going on with my frequent impromptu visits home.

Home. Home used to be Texas until Cami graduated from high school. Now, home is Maine, where my family is. The only connection I now have to Texas is Pierce Financials, and over the past twelve months, I’ve been slowly pulling away from my responsibilities, handing them over to Melinda.

A good chunk of the work I do is from my computers, and the other chunk is travel and business meetings. There’s nothing keeping me in Texas, and everything pulling me to Maine. Not things, family.

Not that I’ve been a family man. I love my parents and siblings and would move the world for them. I don’t care if I miss a holiday or birthday, but my family does, and the last thing I want to do is cause them disappointment. Moving my work close to Maine would make them happy. And so I made it happen. Simple as that.

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