Not much flew by him without him taking notice, storing it away for later in that file cabinet of a mind he had until the relevant time came around to extract the file and lay all of the evidence out on the table for both parties to see.
There was a reason not many people fought him on how he ran this place back in the day. I’d simply ridden in on his coattails and maintained the status quo.
“My apologies,” I said, stepping away from him. “We’ll let you get back to it.”
Marlow’s smile turned tight. “Yeah, of course.”
Don’t fall into it. Just turn around and walk away.
“It was nice to meet you, Marlow. I hope I’ll be seeing more of you later this evening at the bonfires.” My granddad’s tone was pleasant, betraying nothing of whatever was swirling around in his mind—theories, questions, evidence pointing toward a particular opinion.
My head snapped back around to him. “You’re staying that late?”
He chuckled. “Planning on kicking me off of the property soon?”
My cheeks grew hot from embarrassment. “No. Not at all. Stay as long as you’d like. You know you’re welcome to.”
Not to mention my entire staff would riot if they found out I booted our former owner off the property. This man had done everything for this place, birthing it into existence from nothing and turning it into something incredible. I’d never be able to face myself in the mirror if I did something as stupidly selfish as sending him on his way in order to avoid accountability.
Whatever lecture was on the horizon for me, I’d have to take in stride. Hopefully, I could cover my own ass and make all of this seem like one giant misunderstanding, depending on what the hell kind of vibes he was picking up on.
“We should get going.” I looped my arm back around his. “Ready?”
My granddad threw one last amused smile Marlow’s way before letting me tug him away from the docks.
The farther we got away from here, the better.
I needed to put as much distance between me and this man as soon as possible before I did something stupid, like invite him back to my cabin to join us for dinner. The last thing I needed was for him and my granddad to share a dinner table like I was bringing him home to meet the family.
“See you soon!” Marlow called after us.
CHAPTER 16
Marlow
My headache stabbedat me from right behind my eyeballs, threatening what little breakfast I was able to force down my throat before heading down for roll call this morning. I’d been fighting the nausea ever since—my penance for getting blasted all weekend with my friends with no cares as to what Monday’s future held.
In a rather dramatic bit of irony, meeting Blake’s grandfather felt like divine timing.
Had I known such a bigwig was going to be cruising around the campgrounds with Blake trailing after him, I would’ve tried to look a little bit more presentable. As it stood, they got the best efforts I could manage for the time being.
Honestly, it was a miracle I didn’t throw up right on Blake’s shoes the moment he got close enough for me to touch him.
He was stiff in my hold, his body growing rigid the second my arm fell over his shoulder in a way that was mostly insulting to my ego, considering seventy-two hours prior I had him contorting under me as he came.
This new tension between us wasn’t sexy at all.
In fact, it was downright exasperating.
Look, I was no stranger to regret. Had my fair share of it in my thirty-four years on this spinning rock in space more times than I could count. College had been filled with those. Each experience a steep learning curve from the last that finally culminated into a nice little portfolio of ‘no’s and ‘hell no’s that I still followed to this day.
There was no shame in realizing that the decision you made the night before was best left untouched in the future and to not fall into the trap of it being repeated again once the dust finally settled.
But for Blake to clearly be that remorseful over what we’d gotten up to hurt my feelings more than finding him gone from my bed Friday morning.
Had he woken up with that sick feeling in his gut that told him to run? Or did that come much later, after he’d finally gotten back to the safety of his own cabin and the events from the night before had finally hit him?
I wanted to know, yet at the same time, the answer was definitely going to force me to drown my sorrows in booze like I had all weekend with Silas and Avery. Tossing back drink after drink until I was numb from the rejection and could no longer remember why I was so damn beaten up about it in the first place.
