Page 44 of Last Resort

I nod. It’s all I can do because my focus is on after this meeting. On the wrath I’m more than certain my dad is going to lay upon me—or threaten me with—that will be way worse than my brothers’ dismay.

“You’re family. The three of you will be all you’ll have someday,” my father says. “So yes, it is your responsibility to pick each other up and carry each other when the other falls.”

“You’re right,” Ford defends, “we are family. And sometimes when family fails because they are too busy with their head up their ass partying and getting laid, you let them fail and learn the hard way instead of enabling them by babying them.”

“Dad, in their defense,” I interrupt, even though it’s probably best for my own sake to keep my mouth shut— “it’s not right to blame them for—”

“See?” our father says, pointing at me. “That’s exactly what you two should be doing. Defending him like he’s defending you right now. That’s what family does.”

“With all respect, sir,” Ledger says, the derision in his voice not masked particularly well. “Where was this lecture when I was failing undergrad? I believe the words you told me were don’t be an embarrassment to the Sharpe name. That if I couldn’t figure my shit out, I might as well get a new last name.” His eyes harden. “I’m not hearing any of that right now.”

“I love you and treat you all the same,” he says and not one of us believes it. Not even him.

“No, you don’t,” Ledger says angrily. “If this were Ford or me dropping out of Wharton, you’d have kicked our asses out and threatened our inheritance. We would have heard the endless no one embarrasses Maxton Sharpe bullshit. But it’s not us. It’s Callahan and he can never do any wrong in your eyes.”

I stand there more than ashamed and hating that with each passing second, the weight on my shoulders that had lifted by finally dropping out of Wharton, is being piled back on with every one of Ledger’s and Ford’s words.

Our father’s sigh is heavy. “I expect to see your up-to-date grades on my desk by tomorrow morning.”

“You mean Ledger’s and my grades, right?” Ford asks. “What is it that you’re requiring from Callahan to keep his place and prestige in this family and company?”

“I think I can handle my own son,” he says, making it clear the conversation is over. He lifts his eyebrows, welcoming the challenge, but neither Ledger nor Ford do. They’re well versed in this, and I fucking hate that I’m in the middle of it. “You’re dismissed.”

All three of us visibly release a sigh of relief.

“Callahan, sit down.”

Fuck.

I guess it’s deserved though considering I am the one who dropped out of one of the best business schools in the country. One my brothers—my equals—are kicking ass at.

The weight of his stare is unnerving as he waits for the room to clear. The door clicks. The dread hits.

“Explain yourself.” Two words and fucking endless possibilities.

“I can’t learn like that, Dad. If I read one more textbook or create one more spreadsheet, I’m going to stab my eyes out.”

“That’s a bit dramatic, son.”

“I’m hands on, Dad. I always have been. School is a lesson in futility, and in learning that if you stroke a professor’s ego long enough by filling his head with how great he is, you’ll ace the course. Why am I forced to regurgitate facts and statistics when I can be out in the world creating my own?”

“You need the foundation though. You need the structure and the—”

“Fuck the structure,” I say and then wince, waiting for the reprimand, but when I look at him, I’m shocked to see a soft smile on his lips and affection in his eyes.

“You’re just like her.”

I don’t ask who he’s talking about because I already know. Mom.

“She was spontaneous and hated convention and bucked the system more times than not. She was . . .”

I’ve heard it all before but let him talk anyway. I know the words he’s going to say and the adjectives he’s going to describe her with, just as I know how his eyes are going to fill with tears he only ever cries for her.

He may have had many girlfriends since her death, but our mom was the true love of his life. I truly think he never got over her death and so sometimes he looks to me to remember her.

She was his soft spot.

As I am now.