“Sugar, I’m so fuckin’ proud of you.” Daddy swept me off my feet—I was literally dangling—and pressed a firm kiss to my mouth. After his first quick one, he returned for a longer exploration. The second time, his tongue slipped into my mouth and curled around mine. Our breaths mingled and hearts worked in unison. Never before had it felt like I was part of a team, a partnership.
He was my person.
“I love you, Daddy.”
The words slipped out before I could stop myself, but I wouldn’t pretend it was an accident or that I didn’t mean them. They were true, and I did. That he might not feel the same didn’t matter because I got to feel what I felt, and didn’t need permission for it.
“You don’t have to say it back, but I’m not gonna apologize for it,” I said with a defiant head shake. “I get to feel how I want.”
And that’s that.
Knock. Knock.
“Jasper, maybe you should be with your guests instead of in the closet.” My dad’s voice floated through the closed door.
I heard the exasperation in his voice and was immediately annoyed. The door had been shut for less than thirty seconds. Barely long enough for a quick happy shimmy and clearly not long enough for us to properly kiss. And even if Hank wanted to declare his undying love for me, Dad interrupted before he had the chance.
Lectures weren’t needed, dammit.
“Hey, Dad, sorry. We just needed a moment,” I said as I slipped the door open and walked back into the reception area. Fortunately, I guess, he’d already slipped away and was giving himself a tour of the downstairs area.
Critical observation was his specialty, and it felt like no stone was left unturned when he examined something. Every nook and cranny, from the purple front door to my little “little” corner, was review, judged, and cataloged. I held my breath because I suspected what was coming, but I wanted to be wrong. I desperately wanted to be wrong. Hell, I wasn’t religious, but I’d pray for it too.
“I see you cut a few corners with the paint over there,” Dad said as he examined the reception area where my check-in counter was.
“You think so? I thought I did a pretty good job with the paint.”
“It’s not bad. It’s just a little wobbly.”
I took a deep breath before I said something I’d regret. It wasn’t his fault that his standards were so fucking high and mine were…adequate. If I’d had a secret hope that my dad would come into the room and declare everything was gorgeous and he was proud of me, I guessed I’d have to keep waiting. That shit wasn’t gonna happen.
It would’ve been easier if my dad had gotten mad at me. Anger was easy. Even yelling would’ve been fantastic. Instead, he just gave me the look of disappointment. It always cut me to the bone that I was the last link to Mom and the biggest disappointment. As far as I could tell, my brothers didn’t give a shit about disappointing him. But then again, two of them had followed him into medicine, and one of them did whatever the hell he did with numbers. That left just me, the perpetual screwup, waiting for his chance to fail again.
“I’ll take a look at it later and see if I can’t make it look better.”
“Son, I didn’t say it looked bad.”
Then why did you say anything at all?
“Where is my baby brother?” was shouted from across the room.
Internally, I cringed. I tried to keep it off my face, but I knew I hadn’t when I saw a few of the smothered laughs around me. It was hard to be mad at someone like Gage, even if he was being obnoxious, and he knew it. He was funny and confident in a way that people never felt sorry for him. I was sassy and confident, too, but it was usually a front. I did it so nobody would ask a lot of questions. He did it because he actually thought he was that amazing.
Gage swaggered across the room, and everyone scurried out of his way like he had a right of way through the entire space. But I was just as guilty of giving in to him. I quickly closed the space between us, and when I was within two feet, he lunged forward and grabbed me up in a gigantic bear hug. My feet dangled at his shins, and I looked like a child next to him. Goddammit.
“There is my baby brother.”
“Oh my god, shut up. You could call me by my name.”
“Baby brother, what’s the fun of that?” He whispered in my ear so that nobody else would hear. “I am so fucking proud of you.”
I pushed his shoulder so he’d let me down and hissed, “Let me down, you dumbass.”
Rather than listen to me, Gage twirled me before setting me down. Of course I was dizzy, and I stumbled. This was not the impression I wanted to make as a serious business person. I hadn’t spent all of these evenings listening to podcasts and doing spreadsheets to fall on my ass in front of everybody. I straightened my clothes and held my chin up. I was not going to let myself get derailed. I was going to be the professional. “Thank you, guys, for coming down. I wasn’t sure it was gonna happen.”
“Jasper, you’re out of your goddamn mind if you thought I was gonna miss your big day,” Gage said with a wink. “It’s not every day my baby brother gets himself a new profession.”
“Actually, I’m pretty sure he gets one every couple of months,” my dad added as he came to join us. “Comfort is kind of far from the city. San Antonio is like forty-five minutes away. Is that gonna be close enough to sustain a bed and breakfast?”
