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Speaking of parents, I needed to check in with mine. Sure, I was a grown-ass man, but I knew how they worried, especially when I traveled. I sucked down the rest of my soda and reached into my pocket for my phone—
Dammit.
I groaned as I patted my pockets down and came up empty.
“Don’t tell me you forgot your wallet and need me to pay. I saw you put it in your pocket before we left,” Hudson said.
“Watching awfully close, weren’t you?”
“Hardly.”
“Whatever. I forgot my phone, so can I use yours?”
Hudson gave me a blank stare. “No.”
“I need to call my parents—you remember how they are. It’ll take two seconds.”
“Then I guess it’ll have to wait.”
“Wow.” I stabbed at the ice in my empty glass with a straw, amazed once again that I’d ever known this man. “I get that you hate me, but way to be a dick about something so small.”
Hudson polished off his burger and wiped his fingers off with a fresh napkin. “I’m not being a dick. My phone’s upstairs too.”
“Bullshit.”
“Why would I lie?”
“The better question is, why wouldn’t you bring your cell with you?”
“Because I’m not addicted to it.”
“Hudson, everyone’s addicted to their phone. What makes you so special?”
He took in a huge breath as he sat back and ran his hands through his hair, like he was summoning everything inside him not to react to my jabs. It must’ve worked, too, because after a moment he dropped his hands and said, “How are your parents?”
“Fine.”
“Drew… I’m trying.”
Trying not to kill you.Yeah, I understood the subtext.
I held up my empty glass gratefully as our waitress came around to refill it. “Mom’s still the head of the emergency department at Mount Sinai, and Dad’s itching to retire.”
“Oh yeah? How’s that going?”
I pictured the many heated discussions they’d had over the years that had gotten them nowhere. “Not well. He thinks they should get a condo in the Virgin Islands and live as beach bums, and I think Mom would go nuts without a million fires to put out every day.”
“Is that why you’re pushing so hard for the deal with Viper? To prove you’re capable of taking over?” The words seemed to come out of Hudson’s mouth before he’d even thought them through, and he instantly sat up. “Not that—”
“You think I’m not capable of handling E Group?”
“No, I didn’t mean to imply—”
“It sure sounded like that’s what you meant. And no, I don’t need a celebrity deal to prove to my dad I can run his company. But thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Hudson looked properly chagrined, his face flushed slightly as he looked down at his clasped hands on the table. “I’m sorry. It was a genuine question. I know how you used to feel about living up to his expectations, is all. But you’re right; you’ve proven yourself over the years, and I have no doubt you can handle it. If your dad’s keen to retire, he must feel the same.”
Guilt had me swallowing hard as I watched Hudson. He wasn’t wrong about my dad’s high standards, but he didn’t know about all the shitty things I’d done to win his favor. Oh, he knew about some things, just not everything. Maybe it was time to confess my sins and let him see that I really was the shit he thought I was.
