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I shook my head and threw back the last of my whiskey. When I raised my hand, Thomas came to me with another glass on a silver tray for me––this was my usual, and everyone around here knew it.
“Thanks, man,” I said to the young server.
“Sure thing, Mr. Steele,” Thomas said before disappearing again.
“You know that’s not my thing,” I said, returning to the conversation. “I’m not dating anytime soon.”
“Why not?” Noah asked. “Don’t you want something serious?”
I snorted. “After what happened the last time? I’m still dealing with the aftermath of that relationship––no way in hell I’m getting into a new one.”
I’d been serious with a girl in college. Back then, we’d all had stars in our eyes, ready to take on the future, and since a legacy to pass things down to was all our fathers ever talked about, I was looking for my Mrs. Steele––the woman I would build an empire with.
Sabrina had been everything I’d thought I could ever want. She’d been smart and funny, she’d been studying to be a doctor, and she had excellent family ties. Even my dad approved of her bloodline. The Emersons had old money, passed down from one generation to the next, and it was a good family to eventually marry into.
Until she’d dumped me because she found someone else. Maybe, that would have been okay. Sure, it hurt like a bitch because I’d fallen for her, but shit happened, right?Wefell in love, but it didn’t work out. There was a difference between a first love and true love. At least, that was what my dad always said.
Since she’d left, I believed him about first love, but I was skeptical about true love.
Sabrina hadn’t told me when she’d dumped me that she’d been pregnant with my baby. I would have done the right thing and been there for her. I would have stepped up to the fucking plate because that was what real men did.
I’d found out about the child when she’d left him on my doorstep––Benjamin had only been a few months old then. She’d left him there with a note, like you see in the movies, and disappeared. I hadn’t been able to trace her at all.
So, I’d done the right thing. I’d stepped up to the plate. I didn’t shrug him off to someone else, or put him up for adoption. It wasn’t his fault his mom was pathetic and didn’t want him. He didn’t deserve a fucked up life in the system, passed from one home to the next just so the families could benefit financially from raising a child that wasn’t theirs.
I gave him what he deserved––a home, a loving father, and a shot at a damn good life.
I didn't want it if that was what it meant to be in a serious relationship. I had enough going on in my life between Ben and my demanding job, and I didn’t need a woman to accept the package deal I became the moment Sabrina had decided to shuck her responsibility.
“How’s business doing?” Noah asked, changing the topic. I was glad to get away from talking about women.
“Fine,” I said. “I think I’m finally getting where I want to be. Dad doesn’t always think I can figure it out, but we’re getting there. I––”
I cut myself short when Richard walked into the Cavaliers HQ. He glared at me before he moved to the bar where Dad and Landon––another Cavalier––discussed the banking world. Dad clapped Richard on the back with a warm welcome and bought him a whiskey.
I snorted. “So, as you can see, Dad thinks Dick is better at the job than I am.” My words dripped with bitterness, but I wasn’t going to do anything about it. I’d always lived in my brother’s shadow. He was three years older than me and the perfect son––my parents could have stopped trying for another kid after they had him. What was the point if they thought he was better than me at everything, anyway? Since Ben had appeared in my life, it had only made things worse. I was the black sheep of the family, the kid who had a child out of wedlock, who didn’t want to marry, who had to be handled with caution because my life wasn’t cut-and-paste perfect the way a Cavalier’s life had to be.
“It can’t be that bad, man,” Gunner said.
“No, you’re right. It’s worse.”
Gunner and Noah glanced at each other, preparing to lecture me that no one was the same, that I would impress my dad in my own way…blah, blah, blah. Noah was the one to talk––he’d been a problem in his dad’s company as the lawyer who always fucked around until Ava had come into his life. It was only in the last couple of months that things had turned around for him.
I wasn’t going to point that out. It would just be looking for trouble, and now that Dick was here, I was in a bad mood.
“I have to go,” I said, downing my second glass of whiskey before setting it down on the low coffee table in the middle of our couches.
“Come on, so soon?” Noah asked. “One more.”
“Ben is waiting for me.”
“Your mom knows you drink late sometimes. She offered to watch,” Noah pointed out.
I shook my head. “You have Ava at home to look after Warner. I don’t have that luxury. I saidBenwas waiting for me, not my mom.”
Noah held up his hands in mock defense.
“See you guys around,” I said and left the Cavaliers without saying goodbye to my brother or my dad.
