Bad for You by Weston Parker

37

TRISTIN

While I’d stuck to my vow about staying at work, showing up every day, and putting my own stamp on American Aviation in the time I had left here, I was barely able to function. Being physically present in my office and doing what needed to be done didn’t mean that my head was in the game.

All I could think about was Brittany. She still wasn’t returning my calls, and I was starting to realize she wasn’t going to. Staying away from her was beginning to get old—and fast.

She still didn’t even know about the falling-out I’d had with my mother or the fact that I’d threatened to walk away from it all if she didn’t butt the fuck out of my life. We were still at a stalemate, with neither of my parents having made a peep about the showdown we’d had nearly a week ago.

In the meantime, I’d started looking for my own place, and I was pretty close to locking one down. If it had just been me I was looking for, it would have been easy. There was a killer penthouse available right in the center of the action downtown that the realtor had promised me wouldn’t be on the market for long.

I’d be lying to even think that I hadn’t been tempted. As a bachelor pad, I wouldn’t be able to find anything better. It had a bar, a balcony with a view over some of the best bars, a hot tub, a shower the size of a fucking room which was more than big enough to get up to some very interesting things in, and a few other gimmicks that would’ve been fun.

If only I was looking for a bachelor pad, but I wasn’t. On the contrary, I was looking for a family home. Things might’ve gone to complete shit between Brittany and me, but I wasn’t giving up.

The realtor had nearly fallen over backward when I’d told him no on the penthouse. He’d looked at me like I was insane, and then that look had intensified when I’d told him to find me somewhere I could raise my children.

If it hadn’t been for the budget I’d given him, I was pretty sure he’d have demanded my man card on the spot and walked out. But money talked, and he’d reined himself in fast. The very next day, he’d shown me two perfectly respectable options, but the one he’d taken me to the day after had been perfect.

It would be an epic fail if I ended up living there by myself, drifting around the six bedrooms I intended on filling with Lou and any other children Brittany and I might have together. But that wasn’t a reality I was willing to face just yet. Maybe not ever. Who knows?

A soft knock on my office door prompted me to sit up straight and wiggle my mouse so my computer screen would at least come on. Fake it ’til you make it, right?

“Come in,” I called.

Surprise had my brows shooting up and tugging together at the same time when my father’s head popped around the door. Unlike my mother, he didn’t march right in. “You got a minute?”

“Absolutely. Are you okay?” I got to my feet. “You haven’t been back here since your heart attack. What’s happened?”

I felt the blood draining from my face until I realized he looked completely healthy. Better than he’d looked since I’d been back, actually. It was like he was standing up straighter again, his shoulders pulled back and his color back to normal.

“I’m fine,” he said, waving his hand as he walked in. He sank his hands into his pockets and stopped in the center of the room, letting out a low whistle as he looked around. “It’s not as big as I remember it being.”

“What?” I frowned as I walked over to him, putting my hand on his elbow. “Come and have a seat. Should you even be here?”

He chuckled and lifted his arm gently out of my grip, choosing to go over and sit on the arm of one of the couches instead of at his desk. “I’m visiting my son, not reporting for duty. It’s fine that I’m here. The doctors even encouraged it. I have to say, that shrink they made me see for safety’s sake when they told me it would be best to retire was onto something.”

Joining him in the sitting area, I sank down on a couch and crossed my ankle over my knee, keeping my gaze glued to him for any sign of discomfort. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“There was a time when this office was my world,” he said, looking around incredulously again. “In my mind, it was larger than life. The shrink told me that once I’d taken a step back, I’d see it for what it is—just another office. A place to work as opposed to a place to live.”

I lowered my chin, my eyes narrowing as I swept them across his frame. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re being… weird. You love this place.”

“Used to love this place,” he corrected, then let out a sigh as he kept letting his gaze run over every nook and cranny of his office. “Truth be told, I let it consume me, and I shouldn’t have. When I was in here and that door was closed, I was the king of the world. Or that’s what it felt like, anyway. I let that power go to my head. That feeling of being invincible. Indestructible.”

Another chuckle escaped him before he shook his head. “Then, when I discovered I wasn’t indestructible after all, it wasn’t this place or that power that kept me alive. It was your mother. It was you. It was the feeling that I had more living to do because I’d let life pass me by while I worked.”

“What are you doing here, Dad?” I asked, realizing he hadn’t just dropped by to get all philosophical on me. “It’s good to see you, but let’s be honest, we’re not exactly at a popping in for a casual chat stage.”

“No, we’re not.” He shut his eyes, a pained expression that almost had me leaping to my feet passing over his features. “Don’t. I’m fine.”

When he opened his eyes again, he focused on me so intently that it felt like he was looking clear through me. “We need to talk.”

“Okay,” I said cautiously. “What would you like to talk about?”

“Your mother’s appalling behavior,” he stated without so much as flinching.

I, on the other hand, couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. The corners of his eyes crinkled on a smile when he saw my expression, but he didn’t acknowledge it in any other way before he carried on.

“I’ve had a talk with her, but I regret not doing it sooner. I should have, and for that, I truly apologize.” He exhaled a deep breath, his eyes brimming with remorse where they remained steadfast on mine. “I was silent for too long, letting her run things the way she saw fit while I concentrated on the business.”

“What are you saying?” I asked after a brief pause.

“What I’m saying is that I should’ve been in your corner, and if I could turn back time, that’s exactly where I would go. However, for all the incredible advancements we’ve made in this very company, we haven’t invented a time machine. Not to my knowledge.”

He laughed a little at his joke, his shoulders moving beneath the impeccable suit that was well on its way to fitting him properly again. I frowned at him, wondering if he was in the middle of some kind of mental break.

“Since time travel isn’t an option, I can’t go back and live my life any differently.” The humor faded from his eyes. “What I can do is to live it differently from here on out, and that’s what I’m going to do. As such, you should know that you have my full support.”

“Your full support in what?” My heart started galloping in my chest, but I didn’t want to hope for too much too fast.

Dad shrugged. “Everything. You have my full support in absolutely everything. I’m proud of you and what you’re doing in the business. I don’t want you to resign. As I’ve said before, if this job isn’t what you want, then we’ll make a plan, but if it is what you want, don’t let your mother drive you out of it. My father and I built this company, and what happens to it is up to you now.”

I turned what he’d said over in my head before I replied, wanting to understand everything he was saying clearly. “I do want to be here. I’ve always wanted to be here, to continue building what you and Grandpa started, but I’ve given you my terms. As you now seem to have realized, this is a workplace. So yes, it’s our legacy, but I don’t want it to be my life.”

“Nor do I want it to be your life.” He dragged a hand through his hair, giving his head a shake as he blew out a breath. “I wish I’d seen it like you so clearly do right from the start. But I can’t go back. All I can do is to give you my support in doing it the way I should’ve.”

“You said you’ve spoken to Selena. What does she have to say about this?” Even as I asked the question, I couldn’t stem the hope being pumped through my veins with every beat of my heart. “Is she willing to accept those terms?”

“It will take her some time to come around to the new way of doing things, but I’m not going to let her try and manipulate you anymore. It’s gone on long enough, and I’m sick of sitting back and watching it happen. I had my suspicions way back when after Brittany broke up with you, but I left it alone. Rightly or wrongly so, I believed it might be for your own good since it meant you were free to enlist.”

“So what now?” I asked, relief so powerful it was making me dizzy coursing through me. “What I mean to say is thank you.”

Getting up before I could change my mind, I went over and pulled my father into a hug. He held me close for a long time, his grip tight before he released me. “Could I offer you some advice?”

I grinned as I stepped back, cocking an eyebrow at him. “I was actually just about to ask you for it.”

“If you want to get Brittany back, find a way to remind her why she loves you and why you love her. Relationships take work, every last one of them. But every once in a while, one has to go back to the basics. To remember why and how you fell in love with someone and continue to love them every day. That part, waking up and choosing to love someone despite what life throws at you, that’s a choice. It’s one you have to get her to make again.”

I rubbed the back of my head. “That doesn’t sound easy.”

“Nothing worth having ever is, is it?” He clapped me on the shoulder and stood up. “I’ve taken up more than the minute you said you had for me, and you have a lot to think about. I’ll leave you to it.”

As I played his words over in my head, an idea popped into my mind. Just as he reached the door, I called out to stop him. “Do you happen to know what Mom did with all my old stuff when she redid my wardrobe?”

He turned slowly, a massive grin spreading across his face as he nodded. “I just might. Care to tell me what you have in mind?”