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“Please.” Jacob tugged off his black Prada bomber jacket and laid it over the back of the chair.
“Two coffees,” Ward said, nodding to a woman in the doorway. “Lunch will be served shortly, but I figured you and I were both the kind of men who would want to get straight to the point over a coffee first.”
He had an air of power about him. Much like Jacob’s cousin Daniel. It wasn’t something one could fake or force. It was either there or not.
Jacob was a wealthy man and knew he had power and influence even off the back of his surname, but he would never command the same presence as Ward or Daniel.
Few could.
Presidents did. World leaders did. A handful of filthy rich and influential philanthropists did.
Ward Montgomery did.
“So no small talk.” Jacob smirked.
“Whatever you want.” Ward leaned back in his chair. “I want you to feel comfortable.”
He let out a sigh. “Okay, let’s cut the shit. Surely you’re as pissed with my mother as I am.”
Ward lifted a brow.
“How I feel about your mother is my business. I have told her how I feel. This, right here, is between you and me. But let me make something clear, Jacob. I do not tolerate disrespect from anyone.”
Jacob lifted his own brow. Was this guy kidding?
He’d come here to build a relationship with the man, and he was bawling him out in the first five minutes?
They both stared darkly at one another as their coffees arrived.
“Guess that’s my first telling off then, Dad,” Jacob said, sipping the hot dark liquid, only just curtailing his anger.
“I heard you were a smart ass.” Ward crossed his legs. “You’re upset, I get it.”
He banged his cup down on the saucer. “Of course I’m fucking upset. For twenty-three years, I’ve made up stories about who my father was. I’ve asked Mom hundreds of times. And you lived five goddamn minutes away.”
Ward watched him, his face remaining passive.
Jesus.
“Five minutes, Ward. Why the hell aren’t you angrier? I realize you had a family and three boys of your own—”
“You are also one of my boys,” Ward replied, and those words slapped him across the face sharply.
Jacob stared at him.
His heart began to pound and emotions raged within him.
God, this was not how he expected it to go.
“No, I’m not,” Jacob said coldly, unable to accept that both his mother and birth father thought it was simply a matter of just announcing it. Then they all carried on with life. No, it wasn’t fucking happening like that. “Look. Let’s not pretend this is something it’s not—”
“Explain to me how this isn’t what it is, Jacob.” Ward arched a brow.
“This. Us. Just because you’re Blake’s father-in-law and I’ll be in your life at times, doesn’t mean we have to play dad and son. I...fuck, listen, I have no expectations of you. At all.”
Was that true?
What he was doing was giving the man an out. Jacob highly recommended he take it. Then they could carry on with their lives as if this never happened.
