"I have no idea what you're talking about," I replied before turning to Winter and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Sweetheart, do you have any reason to be unhappy tonight?"
She ignored my father completely and stared at me for a moment before shaking her head slowly back and forth.
Silently simmering.
Okay, so Winter was definitely not happy with me, my father, this whole public farce apparently, but she wouldn't say so. No, she'd been trained at the same charm school we'd all had to suffer through as children. Never let them know how you really feel. Smile, and put on a front that everything's wonderful, even when life is shit.
I needed to get her alone, somewhere quiet where we could talk, and I could reassure her that she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to do.
"If you gentlemen will excuse me, I see a friend I want to say hello to." She turned heel and left us both watching the back of her as she went, the skirt of her black gown swaying gracefully with each step of her sexy pink shoes. I could almost see the anger radiating off her in waves.
Ouch.
"Trouble in paradise so soon?" He raised a brow as if entitled to the information, making my blood boil.
"You need to back the fuck off if you want this to happen. I already told you her family doesn't know about us yet."
"Why don't they know? What are you waiting for? Get this situation nailed down and settled, or I'll settle it for you." Do your job and get her pregnant. It shouldn't be this hard,
son." He got a little gleam in his eye and laughed. "But maybe that's the problem for you. Your cock's not hard enough to get the job done. Do you need some help from another cock perhaps?" he scoffed, finding humor in his own fucking joke.
I had to choke out my next words because all I wanted was to get away from him. "Are you even human, because sometimes I wonder."
"Are you even my son, because sometimes I wonder. Be a man and fuck your baby into that Blackstone bitch and be done with it." He narrowed his eyes at me like a snake about to strike. "My God, the senate announcement is in less than two months."
"You know, Dad, if you want to fool the voters into thinking you're a loving family man, you're gonna need to work on your game and have an ounce of patience. Winter is already mine and you'll stay the fuck away from her."
I slapped him hard on the back in a fake show of affection before leaving him standing alone. I did it to let him know he wouldn't have an easy time pushing me around. And most certainly not Winter, either. To anyone who witnessed our exchange, it probably looked typically normal. Just a father and a son having a conversation, happy to be in each other's company.
If they only knew…
But it had felt so good. The surprised look on his face was worth any retribution I'd just earned for myself down the road, because my father had a memory like a steel trap. He forgot nothing. Still wouldn't trade it, even though I knew it would come back to haunt me at some point.
I needed to find Winter and see if I could repair whatever the damage between us was.
Annnnd then Jan Thorndike appeared. Fuck.
I hadn't made it ten steps before she accosted me. She had something seriously wrong in the head and was so far off the rails I didn't think anything less than a straitjacket and a padded room would do her any good at this point. The girl was obsessed with Caleb. She'd called me a few times begging me to be messenger, because he wouldn't take her calls.
Bitch, he's blocked your number, and so have I. I still hadn't forgotten how she'd shown up at my door and offered to blow me five minutes after breaking up with her boyfriend—who just happened to be my best friend. I even called him that night to let him know she'd stopped at my place. She sent Caleb a picture of herself with her lips around some random dude's cock five minutes after that. At the time, Caleb believed the picture was of me, but I set him straight. Janice Thorndike has never had access to my dick, and she certainly didn't get near it that night, so she had to have already taken the picture from her phone before Caleb broke it off with her. She probably had a whole album of porno selfies saved on the thing. God.
I stared at my forearm where she'd sunk her claws in to stop me. I wanted to bust out in a fuckin' sprint to get away from her. She looked crazed. "James, I need to talk to Caleb alone. Go get him and bring him to me. You have to make him listen to—"
"I am not his keeper."
"Well, you're his best friend and he listens to you." Her eyes appeared strangely vacant, as if she was on something.
"So? He's done. Even if you hadn't cheated, he'd be done."
The crocodile tears started flowing in a desperate attempt to gain sympathy. "That was a mistake—a one-time thing," she cried, fisting handfuls of her hair and creating a mess. This girl had always been pure drama.
"For Christ's sake, stop embarrassing yourself with this shit!"
"But I can't help it, James. I'm so in love with him."
"Right." She was fucking certifiable. Not happy with cracking him in the eye with her shoe, she ran to me hoping to make him jealous by fucking me. Who does that? "Because all the sick shit you did to Caleb just screamed love, didn't it?"
"James, please, I didn't mean any of that. I was very upset."