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This was a hot button topic for me. I should’ve stopped, but I didn’t often meet someone in a similar situation as me.
“No. My uncle was there my entire life. He taught me everything from catching a ball to flying a plane. He was there at all my games.”
“How does he feel about you being here?”
When he shrugged, his shoulders didn’t quite settle with his stiff posture. There was a little slump there. “I didn’t tell him. He’d probably call his brother and give him hell.”
My eyes widened. “Oh, this is your father’s brother.”
“Yes.”
“Let me get this straight. Your uncle chose to be in your life when he didn’t have to. He was there for you in all the ways that a dad would be. Yet you’re here. Let me guess. Money. You’re here for the money and I wouldn’t have thought that.”
“Thought what?” he snapped.
“I assumed you were comfortable in your own skin and didn’t need money as a measurement for the size of your dick.”
“You’ve seen my dick. I don’t need money for that.”
I waved him off. “You know what I’m talking about. Let me tell you, I wish I had an uncle like yours. And I wish I didn’t know my father. My life would be so much better without him and his money. Don’t you know money comes with strings attached? The last thing I want to be is someone’s puppet.”
The conversation was going sideways, but I couldn’t stop. My own issues were coming to a head.
“Yeah. Sounds like you have a shit dad. The man I’m here for humiliated my mother, not only once. There’s at least another time I know about.” He paused to breath for a few seconds to contain the anger I saw simmering under the surface. “I dared to want to go to college. I got offered scholarships, but not any that covered the full tuition. I came home one day and overhead Mom asking him if he’d pay for my school. He had more than enough money to help even a little. I couldn’t hear what he said, I only saw her reaction. She cried. Mom doesn’t cry easily. She’s made of tougher stuff.”
“What about your uncle?” If one was rich, it stood to reason the other brother was too.
“The reason my parents met was because my father came to town and got my uncle to sign away his rights to the family fortune. Still, I knew my uncle would help me financially with school if I asked. My father’s rejection made me want to make my own way. So that night, I announced I enlisted in the Air Force. They offered money for college. I knew how to fly. Win-win.”
He stood up so abruptly, the table shook. “All of that judgement made me lose my appetite. Excuse me.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face. Did I really do that? Crap. I pushed my hair back from my face. Why was I so harsh? His situation was totally different from mine. Besides, just because I would have handled his problems differently, didn’t mean my way was right.
The problem was I’d felt so comfortable with him, I spoke my truth. That didn’t give me a right to judge him.
My legs were stiff when I stood from all the tension in last few minutes. I grabbed his plate of cake and ice cream and headed to the bedroom. I knocked but he didn’t answer. Lucky for me, when I turned the handle, it wasn’t locked.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have judged you,” I said. “Don’t miss out on this yummy cake.” I set the peace offering on the bedside table. He didn’t look at me. “By the way, I saw your brother and his wife in the hospital. They have a son.” I left with my tail between my legs.
Back in the living room, I curled up on the sofa and stared at the TV, not really watching. I’d totally bungled everything. This was why I never had a boyfriend. Not one for any length of time. I was far too jaded, and I had my parent’s history I’d heard from Mom over the years to thank for that.
When I woke up the next morning, I was dressed in the same clothes I’d fallen asleep in. Though my shoes were off, a pillow was beneath my head, and a blanket covered me. Liam had taken care of me.
Had I completely screwed things up? Because the attraction was still there. It was probably the reason I sabotaged things so I wouldn’t admit to him I was still very much into him. I guess time would tell. After his comment last night about me ghosting him, that morning I left him a note before I left for work.
Eight
Liam
Snow was coming down hard when I got up late in the morning. I didn’t want to think about Natalie and if she’d made it to work okay, but I did.
