Brazen Bossman: A Hero Club Novel, стр. 40

Nathanial

Today was going too well, even with the horrifically stressful situation happening with Mrs. Kingston. I have felt too centered, too happy. It was only a matter of time before something shot that to hell.

“Hello?” I answer the call over Bluetooth in my car as I drive over the Brooklyn Bridge in the height of rush-hour traffic.

“Nathanial.”

My father’s deep, gravelly voice makes every muscle in my body tense.

“Dad.” It’s all I can say because I cannot remember the last time he and I had a conversation that my mother didn’t mediate.

“Would you like to explain what you were doing in my office without permission today? Off hours, might I add? What are you trying to pull here?”

As if I needed anything else today, the universe lays this in my fucking lap.

“Dad, you know that I work there now. We told you this months and months ago.”

“That’s bullshit. You’re not welcome there.” His tone is volatile and angry.

“Where is Mom? You need to put her on the phone now.”

“Don’t worry about your mother. I am talking to you. I don’t need her butting her nose into business.”

“Carlson?” I hear my mother call out on the other side of the phone. “Who is that?”

“Your son, who is about to explain why he broke into my office on a weekend.”

I grip the steering wheel tightly. “Dad. I didn’t do anything. Calm the fuck down.”

I know I shouldn’t be this hard on him, but my patience level where he is concerned is slim.

“Don’t talk to me like that, you little shit.”

I don’t need to hear anything else. I click the end button on my steering wheel.

Dealing with my father now is like spinning a wheel on a game show. Some days, you’ll land on calm and understanding. Others, you’ll get horrific and cold.

But today, I was lucky enough to land on the version who never told me he loved me once in my entire life.

***

I wish I could say I have calmed down by the time I find parking outside of Kingston’s, but that would be a huge fucking lie.

I’m on edge, completely amped up and in a horrific mood.

I pause for a moment, once the engine is off, and release a heavy breath in the ringing silence of my car.

There is no one in my life who can rile me up the way my father can. He makes my blood boil fire hot and I become a different human being.

I let my eyes drop closed, trying so hard to find some kind of calm before I go in there with Piper’s family, who have never done anything to deserve my rage.

Honestly, I’m almost there until I receive a text message from my mother, asking me to please stop fighting every time we speak, because I will regret it when my father isn’t here any longer. As if I have any control over that. I’m not going to allow him to speak to me however he wants just because he’s sick.

I stare at the message, my father’s sickness descending like a dark cloud over my head, when a rapid knock on my driver’s side window startles me back to the here and now.

“Jesus Christ.” I turn my head to see who it is and I’m met with the perfect, beautiful eyes of Piper Kingston.

“Gonna sit in there all night, or are you going to come inside?” She smiles sweetly at me, arching her brow in that way she always does.

I roll down the window and try my best to shut everything else out except her.

“Is there pasta?” I ask, knowing the answer, but wanting to keep things as light as possible.

“Does Bradley Cooper have the voice of a god?”

“Um… should I know the answer to that question? Because I have to say… I do not.”

“The answer is yes, Lennox. The answer to both of those questions is always yes.”

She opens my car door for me and I climb out, instantly wrapping her in my arms and breathing in her scent. She smells like sweet vanilla and a hint of garlic. I let it swirl into my nose and sink into my soul as much as I can allow, but it doesn’t heal that boulder forming in the pit of my stomach.

She must sense that. “Are you all right?”

“It was a long day.” I don’t divulge more than that. I don’t want to talk about it.

“Are you sure that’s it? Because I can tell that it’s not,” she pushes.

I take a step back from her. “Piper, I said I don’t want to talk about it. Stop pushing. I know you won’t, because you never do, but right now… stop pushing.”

Honestly, I don’t mean to be as harsh as I am, but everything is on high alert and has me teetering on the edge of an explosion.

“I was wondering when you’d be back.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was wondering when the part of you who’s an asshole would show his face again. Now come on. Mom made lasagna for you. Maybe try to find the guy I saw this morning and leave the other bullshit at the door, because whatever it was has nothing to do with us.”

She crosses her arms over her chest and stalks across the street toward the restaurant without me, but I shove my hands into my pockets and follow closely behind with her words ringing in my ears.

The dinner service is moving forward at full speed when I step back into Kingston’s, a stark difference from the emptiness that was present this morning.

Every table is full, save for a large booth in the back corner. Every patron is smiling wide, talking, drinking wine, gorging on pasta, and Mrs. Kingston is making her rounds, speaking to each and every person. To the right, I see a group of college-aged twenty somethings, having drinks and dinner, clearly enjoying their time here, and on the left, I see a family with three small children in tow, each covered in pasta sauce,