His Love

“I’m confused,” I admitted with a chuckle.

Patti eyed me for a few moments then relaxed in the chair and crossed one leg over the other. “I’m guessing it’s impatience.” Her tone was calculating, and her probing stare made me squirm in my seat. “Today’s the day, isn’t it?”

“Pardon?” I watched her warily, wondering what she thought she knew. She couldn’t possibly…right?

“She turns eighteen today?”

I gaped at her in silence.

“When are you boys going to realize that I know everything?” she asked smugly.

I laughed and shook my head because she was absolutely right. I didn’t know why I deluded myself into thinking she didn’t know what was going on.

There was nothing that would stop me from fulfilling my plans, but Patti’s opinion did mean a lot to me. It was why I’d hidden my feelings for Blair from her. I was afraid she would tell me that I was too over the top, that my obsession with Blair was unhealthy. That said, it wouldn’t stop me, but her disapproval would sting.

“Yes, today is her birthday,” I confirmed.

Patti was quiet for a minute, watching me with an unreadable expression. Then she smirked. “You remind me of Don.” Don was her husband, and it was a huge compliment to be compared to the man she adored. “I never told you how we met, or what our courtship was like because I wasn’t sure how you boys would take it.”

I almost blanched at the tiny bit of nervousness in her tone. But I managed to keep my expression neutral. She was nervous about our approval? My chest warmed at the thought that she wanted our respect as much as we wanted hers.

“You’ll have to get Don to tell you his side of the story. I’m sure it’s very different from mine,” she tittered. “My version is that he came, he saw, he kidnapped.”

Well shit. I was hooked. I stopped playing with my pen and leaned on the desk to listen intently.

“Don was an intern at my father’s firm. They’re both architects. Anyway, he saw me bring my dad lunch one day and according to him, he fell for me right that moment. He asked my dad about me, and my father thought I was too young for Don. I had just barely turned eighteen, and Don was fifteen years older than me. So Dad wouldn’t give him any information about me or a way to contact me.”

Patti’s complexion pinkened as she continued, and I was hanging on her every word. “The next time I showed up with lunch, Don was ready. Apparently, he’d been focused on nothing but me for weeks. He caught me at the elevator and dragged me into an empty office.” She cleared her throat and sat up primly in her seat. “We’ll skip over that; it was the boring part of the story anyway.” Her blush and sly smile said otherwise, but I stayed quiet so she would continue. “Fast forward from there and the next thing I knew, I was in Don’s car and we were driving to a house he’d rented on the beach in Connecticut.”

Patti held out her hand and admired the diamond and gold wedding set on her hand with a soft smile. “He had me running down the aisle less than a week later. Much to my father’s frustration. But, after he saw the way Don loved me, he came around fast.”

Her point didn’t escape me. “You think Blair’s dad will come around?” I asked. It was something else that had bothered me, but since it wouldn’t change my decision, I hadn’t dwelt on it. Still, I wanted my girl to be happy, and it would be hard if her dad wasn’t supportive of our relationship.

Patti stood and leaned across my desk to pinch my cheek. I rolled my eyes but took her hand and kissed the back before she took it back. “Don’t tell Don I did that,” I hurried to say. I may not have known that whole story, but Don’s possessiveness and jealousy when it came to Patti was no secret.

“I know you, Justice. If you didn’t love this girl with all that you are, you wouldn’t be interested at all.” She straightened back up and padded over to the door, then paused and looked back at me. “Just be you and love her with everything you’ve got. What other people think isn’t important. Blair is the only one that matters. If you love her like she deserves, if you put her first, her dad will come around.”

She stepped through the door but popped her head back in when I called her name. “Thanks.” She smiled brightly and nodded. “Now, go get your girl and stop being such an ass around here. Two years is long enough to deal with your Oscar the Grouch routine.”