“And you two went on a nice father-daughter outing?!”
“Man, if everyone had such a detailed and well-drafted relationship contract, their divorces would be a lot less messy,” Cian stated aloud. “And hey, Mr. Clark, long time no see.”
Gareth groaned loudly, his dad extended his hand to a grinning Cian, and Penny sighed.
“Cian, could you please step outside?”
“Yep, no problem,” he replied. “I wanted to make a quick call anyway. Penny, can I use your phone? My battery is dead.”
“Sure,” she replied and handed it to him.
“Great.” He waved the folder and disappeared down the hall toward the entrance.
Naturally. Just when Gareth could have used him as a buffer, the guy disappeared!
“What the hell is going on?” his father demanded. “Isn’t it enough to have to retrieveonechild from a holding cell in your lifetime?” he asked, gesturing at Penny.
“Hey, that’s not fair. I saved rhesus monkeys. Gareth just fought like a Neanderthal!”
“Thanks, Penny,” Gareth said drily.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s true. And I bet Dad thinks what happened with Hazel is worse than your fight. You really didn’t do a great job there, Gare.”
Her father sighed heavily. “Penelope, don’t be so mean to your brother.”
Penny gasped. “He started it!”
“By fighting?” he exclaimed in disbelief.
“By sleeping with Hazel without telling me!”
“Like you told me about when you slept with Jack West?”
“That was completely different.”
“No, not really,” her father grumbled.
That silenced Penny.
“Okay,” he said firmly, folding his arms. “What exactly is going on? Gareth, you know how important it is to keep your personal and business lives separate.”
“I know that, Dad!” he growled, annoyed. “Maybe you haven’t realized.” He spread his arms in the cubicle where he stood. “But I’m not perfect. Even though you and Mom seem to think I believe I am.”
Darron Clark sighed. “You approach your job with an unhealthy arrogance, Gareth. We all know that.”
“Unhealthyarrogance,” he said, forcing his voice to sound calm, almost laughing at the expression. “What makes it unhealthy?”
“The fact that you think you can do it better than the others and therefore refuse to share your responsibilities,” his father replied stoically. “You have staff, Gareth. A team. You just don’t use it.”
“What?” He stared at him, puzzled.Thatwas the point?
“You’ve always been a perfectionist loner and we’re worried that by being so brilliant at everything, you’ll overextend yourself and…”
“Jesus.” This day had been too damn long! “I’m notbrilliantat everything! I’m a lousy loser. I’m obviously not the chocolate bar connoisseur I thought I was. I can’t operate a photo booth, and I have no sense of style or tact. People tend to dislike me, and I tend to forget their first names. But shit, Dad, I’m a damn good businessman and an even better lawyer. Iknowthe Hawks. I know every player in the league, if only by their damn last names! I’ve been preparing to dothisjob since I was five. So stop telling me I’m not doing itwell, or that I’m undertaking too much, that I’m…”
“Of course you’re doing it well,” his father interrupted, irritated. “That’s not up for debate.”
Gareth’s mouth fell open. “What? Then what the hell is this about?”
