Possessive Best Friend

She frowns a little. “No, darling, I don’t think it was. But it does add pressure to this venture. It’s not just the two of you anymore. Shaun, Jacob, Brent, and Delia are all a part of this, whether you want them to be or not. Fortunately, they love you, and they’ll support you no matter what.”

Lora lets out a breath. “That just makes it harder.”

“Good.” Sylvia stands. “The best things are the hardest. And never expect praise, darling, it may never come.” She gestures at the room full of paintings, some of them quite beautiful. “Like these. I don’t paint them for praise, I paint because I like it. Your father would love to hear me talking like this, so please don’t tell him.”

“Your secret’s safe with me, mother.” Lora takes a deep breath. “Thank you. We couldn’t have done this without your help.”

“Well, not so easily, at least.”

Lora crosses the space, goes to her mother, and hugs her. I stand there frowning a little. Both women look like they’ve hugged a total of five times in their entire life, and it’s a little uncomfortable… but it’s nice. It’s really nice.

“Oh, go on,” Sylvia says. “I’m busy. I have a painting to finish.”

“It’s really nice,” Lora says.

“Out, both of you. Or I’ll call Archie and he’ll drag you out.”

Lora smiles, walks over, takes my hand, and we descend out of her mother’s tower together.21DeanThe next day, we stand outside of my father’s dealership together, holding hands and not moving.

“Okay,” Lora says. “Part two of the plan. You ready?”

“Yes,” I say, but don’t move. “You know, I had a good relationship with my father before all this.”

“Did you?” She raises an eyebrow at me.

“Okay, no. But I’m trying not to go into this hating him with a blind passion.”

“Afraid you’re going to do something stupid?”

“Yep.”

She squeezes my hand. “You’ll be fine. Just stick to what we discussed.”

I nod, kiss her, then stride forward. She hurries to keep up. I head into the dealership and smile at everyone I see. I mostly get smiles in return, but there are a few odd looks thrown in here or there, which almost breaks my fucking heart.

I worked with these people for years. I know it was my father’s company, but I thought of a lot of these people as my friends. Now, I’m realizing that I haven’t gotten a single call or text from any one of them.

I get it. They’re probably afraid of how my father will react to it. This job is important to a lot of them.

Even still. I thought I’d get a few messages from some of the guys that I was close with, but it’s been radio silence. Nothing at all.

Letting that wash over me makes this a lot easier. For some reason, I was still hanging on to what I had here, but that’s long, long gone now.

I made my decision and I’m not looking back.

I smile at Lora as we turn the corner and walk to my father’s office. I knock on the door and step inside, and of course he’s in there, he’s always in there this time of the morning.

He looks up with a frown, sighs, and leans back in his chair.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asks.

I shut the door behind me. Lora doesn’t sit, just lingers near the wall. I walk over to my dad and take a seat.

“I came to talk,” I say.

“Did you?” He laughs. “Not much to say, I think.”

“I solved my permit problem. And the zoning issue will be cleared up in a week.”

He frowns, looking surprised. Clearly, this isn’t the conversation he was expecting.

“How’d you manage that?”

“I managed it,” I say, not going into detail. “But here’s the thing. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the like time you try to fuck with us.”

“Dean, Dean, Dean,” he says, shaking his head. “You’re my son. Why do you think I’m so petty?”

“Because you are. And because you apparently want to be mayor. Frankly, Dad, I think you’re going through something right now, and I don’t want you taking that out on us.”

He stares at me and I can see anger flitting over his expression. “I don’t think you know what you’re saying.”

“Oh, I do.” I cross my arms. “I’m here to solve this, right now.”

“What’s there to solve?” He gestures at Lora. “You chose the Lofthouse family. You made your decision. I knew sending you to that fucking school on their dime was a bad idea. I thought I got you back when I refused to let you go to college, but clearly I failed.”

“No, Dad,” I say, shaking my head. “You lost me when you decided that this strange hatred of the Lofthouse family is more important than our relationship.”

He snorts. “Not how I see it.”