“Laters, big man.” She offers me a small wave and begins to walk out.
I watch her even after she’s gone and wish I wasn’t always so fucking concerned with work and the fact that I’m the boss. I wish for once I wouldn’t think about what could happen after and not plan everything like I do in my head, over and over again. Because I really do want to fuck her.“So, you like this young girl?” my father questions while sitting opposite me the next day as we sit having our coffee. I’ve been sitting across from him in silence for longer than fifteen minutes, and now he decides to speak. I look up at him confused.
“Olympia?” I ask, and he nods his head. “She’s an employee.”
He shrugs. “Reminds me of how your mother was. She was open and talkative. I was lucky to be around and have her conversations all the time.”
“You don’t speak of Mom much.”
His eyes fall to his coffee, and he stares at it. “Speaking about her hurts.” He glances up to me and continues, “What do you want to know?”
“Did she love me?”
He laughs, shaking his head. “Love you… you were her world. Not even I could compete with you.”
Both our heads snap up to the sound of Charles waking. Dad gets up first and walks away, then comes back shortly after with a wide-awake Charles in his hands. “I would like to stay for a while to help… with him. If that’s okay?” He’s smiling down at Charles.
“Why?”
“Because I love him, and he reminds me of you. I was in too much sorrow with you and missed out on so much. I don’t want to miss this… any of my grandson’s life.”
“What about the farm?”
He purses his lips. “I have staff. They’re happy to run the place until I say otherwise.” He starts talking to Charles, and I sit back watching him. He’s changed so much since I was a kid—more open, more talkative, more like a dad should be.
“Ma is meant to watch him.”
“I know, I told her not to come today. Or the next.”
“Thank you.”
He looks up at me. “It’s what parents do. Even if they were shitty ones growing up. I still wanted what was best for you. That’s why I paid for that school. I’m proud of where you are now.” He walks away with Charles in his arms to go change him. He’s proud of me and not once has he asked what kind of establishment I own or how from a simple bar we have earned the type of money we do. All he knows is that it’s a bar, and it’s all he cares about. Just like Ma, he never pries.
“Yo, yo, yo.” My door is pushed open and in walks Falcon.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Relax, big man.” He winks as he uses Olympia’s nickname for me. “I came bearing gifts.” He hands me a coffee. I put the one in the sink I made in exchange for the better one he’s brought me.
“Now, why are you here?”
“Who should be my best man? That question is shit hard, don’t you think?” He sits where my father was sitting before taking a sip of his coffee. He watches and waits for my answer.
“Decide that shit for yourself.”
He shakes his head. “Ariel said the same thing, but I can’t. So, since you’re the boss, you decide.”
“No.”
“You suck! You really suck.” He taps his fingers on the table. “I mean, I could ask you. But considering how you wanted to kill my future wife, that might not be good karma, right?” I turn away to make Charles’s bottle as he says it. She was a liability at the time, and the way I handle liabilities is rid them from my presence. No one threatens my club. We have rules for a reason. Don’t expose the club, it’s elite not just because of its name. If you do, off with your fucking head.
“I didn’t kill her, though.”
“Semantics.” He waves at me and swivels around in his chair. “So, would you?”
Turning back to him, he’s still turning in my chair like a fucking idiot.
“Would I what?”
“Be my best man?”
“You should ask Creed.” They’re closer. Well, Creed isn’t particularly close with anyone, but he goes to Falcon the most.
“I did, he told me no.”
Of course, he did.
“So what, then you come to me?”
Falcon smiles that megawatt smile my way.
“Why not Echo?” I say trying to deflect.
“Well, once he heard I asked Creed, he told me not to ask him. So, you’re it.”
“I won’t give a speech.”
He stands and slaps my back hard. “Knew I could count on you. You should have been my first choice.”
“Fuck off, idiot.”
He does just that, walks to the door and goes through, then yells out, “How’s blue? She still got a job, or have you fucked and fired her?”