Fuck.He’d wanted to mend his relationship with the Lamars, but this…this he couldn’t take. He was so goddamn tired of not being good enough for them.
Kate lifted her chin. “What’s done is done. We did the best we could for our son, and now we want him to return to Missouri with us.”
“He’s eighteen. He can stay here if he damn well wants to.” Ryan heard the anger in his voice. This wasn’t what he’d wanted, not at all.
“We know that,” Gary said, “but we need you to stop filling his head full of whatever rubbish you’ve been feeding him since he got here. We want him to re-enroll in Missouri College for the fall semester. He belongs back home with us, not clubbing and riding zip-lines here with you.”
“I can’t make him re-enroll any more than you can.” Ryan drew a deep breath, trying to rein in his temper. “Trent’s an adult, and as you well know, he isworkingfor me at Off-the-Grid, not playing around on the zip-lines. It took some doing, but I got him off his cell phone and putting in some good, hard work out there, and I won’t apologize for it.”
Kate’s chin lifted. “Trent’s held jobs in the past. He’s not an irresponsible kid.”
“Frankly, he’d still be in college if he hadn’t been so set on coming out here to findyou,” Gary said.
Ryan’s pulse roared in his ears as his control snapped. “He dropped out of college because he wants to become a DJ. And it is fucking insulting—pardon my French—that you two continue to judge me by the way I acted when I was eleven. I was a kid! I’d just lost my mother. Yeah, she was a junkie, but she was all I had, besides the baby brother you were so hell-bent on keeping me away from. And you know what? Despite all that, I think I turned out pretty damn well. So you can take your sanctimonious act and shove it because I’m done listening.”
“How dare you speak to us that way!” Gary roared, his face as red as a lobster fresh from the pot.
Ryan turned away, disgusted. “You expect me to keep being polite when you’ve done nothing but insult me in return? I’ve had enough. You want Trent to come home with you, you’re going to have to convince him yourselves.”
