AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It happened a lot, keyboard warriors doing and saying shit they shouldn’t. It wasn’t that big of a deal.
And again, the particular emails that raised alarms had stopped coming.
“You’re busier than ever, son. Running yourself ragged,” Tom remarked. “I’m concerned. But we’ll talk. Not now, at dinner.”
“I’m fine,” Hale assured.
“I don’t agree,” Tom returned.
“Okay, we’ll talk about it,” Hale gave in. Then asked with unhidden disquiet, “Have I been blowing you off?”
“You’ve canceled the last three times we’ve had plans. I haven’t spent any quality time with you in months. And Christmas doesn’t count, because I had to share you with everyone else, but I’ll note you were only in Prescott for two days during the holiday.”
Tom lifted a hand and curled it around the side of Hale’s neck in a gesture that was beloved, and familiar.
Because Tom had done it before.
Often.
And someone else had too.
Once.
“You’re my boy, Hale,” Tom told him. “I don’t allow any of my children to be disconnected for this long.”
Even though he knew those words were true because Tom had proved it time and again, Hale had to clear his throat before he replied, “Promise. I’ll be at your and Mika’s table before I have to leave town.”
Tom gave him a squeeze, murmured, “Good,” and let him go. Then he said, “And yes to the drink. Could you get Mika one too? She’s on champagne.”
“Got it.”
Tom moved to find Mika.
Hale’s eyes moved to find Elsa.
And he saw her cozied up to top-ranking tennis player, Dougal Baldwin, with Baldwin’s arm extended (the one he didn’t have wrapped around Elsa), taking a selfie of the two of them.
The arm came down, but the other one didn’t leave her waist as he turned to Elsa and handed her the phone, but neither of them moved away. Dougal was up in her space, smiling, and it was clearly flirtatious.
Fucking hell.
Hale headed straight to the bar.
The next two hours were excruciating, and not only because he hated events like this. He didn’t like the restriction of a tuxedo. He didn’t like pressing the flesh. He didn’t like being openly available for anyone to get a piece of him, be it someone who wanted to bend his ear about some business shit, or a woman who wanted to hit her knees and suck his cock for bragging rights or whatever she’d do with the experience.
And that night, he didn’t like watching Elsa work the room with expertise, Dougal, who happened to be her dinner partner, at her side most of the time.
It was after dinner and the live auction, when the silent auction was closing, and before Justice Lonesome and Stella Gunn were going to entertain them with an acoustic set.
This was a massive coup Mika scored, because Stella was front woman of the Blue Moon Gypsies, and Justice was a solo artist, and although they’d toured and performed together in the past, they’d never done an acoustic set like this.
People were milling about, dessert dishes were being cleared by staff, the bartenders were busy setting up guests with their next round, and even though he didn’t want to miss Justice and Stella, Hale was wondering if anyone would notice if he took off.
This was when it happened.
His mood was foul because he wanted out of there, and he still had hours left to endure.
And he wanted to get away from Elsa, who appeared to be having the time of her life, but hadn’t bothered in all her schmoozing to get anywhere near him.
