Free Blown Away by Cheryl Douglas

gun to her head and force her to go.”
    Brent didn’t
know if he could ever let go of his animosity for the man who’d
lured Brent’s mother away. He was rich, so Brent had to be richer.
He was smart, so Brent had to prove he was better and smarter and
more powerful. That man was the fuel motivating him to succeed, and
Brent didn’t think he wanted to let the hatred die.
    “I didn’t come
here to talk about him.”
    Jerry pointed
to a worn chair next to his recliner. “Take a load off. Tell me
what’s botherin’ you.”
    Brent didn’t
even know where to start. Sitting down, he laced his hands between
his bent knees and leaned forward. “There’s this girl. We met in
college. She moved to Europe. We didn’t see each other for a long
time.”
    “Go on. I’m
listenin’.”
    “We hooked up
last night.”
    Jerry rolled
his eyes. “Is that your way of tellin’ me you took her home? That’s
what you young people call it, isn’t it? Hookin’ up?”
    Brent couldn’t
believe he’d been stupid enough to talk to his father about this.
But Jerry had done something that had alluded Brent his whole life:
he’d learned to trust another woman after his wife left. He’d
fallen in love with Bernice ten years ago and lost her to breast
cancer three years ago. She had been his neighbor, and the two
always maintained their separate residences, but their genuine
affection was obvious.
    “We were… uh…
kind of together back in college.”
    “Does that mean
y’all slept together?”
    “Jesus, Dad,
I’m forty years old. I’m not talking to you about my sex life.”
    “Fine.” He
chuckled. “What about this woman has got you cuttin’ out on work
and interruptin’ my TV time?”
    “I have
feelings for her.” He was afraid to define what they were, but he
knew they’d started back in college and time had only intensified
them.
    “Does she feel
the same way?”
    He assumed Ava
felt something for him. She wouldn’t have made love to him
otherwise. “I think so.”
    “So what’s the
problem?”
    “She’s too damn
independent, too stubborn…” Brent drew a shaky breath. “She’s
making me crazy.”
    “Because you
can’t control her.”
    That was the
crux of his problem, but he wouldn’t admit it aloud. “I want to
protect her.”
    “You want to
own her.”
    His father was
starting to sound like Ava. He was supposed to be on his side. “No,
I don’t. I want to have a relationship with her.”
    “On your
terms.”
    Brent sighed.
Didn’t anyone want a mutually exclusive relationship anymore? “I
don’t think I’m being unreasonable. I just don’t want her to see
anyone else.”
    “How long have
y’all been seein’ each other?” When Brent didn’t respond, his
father asked, “Weeks? Months?” He snickered. “That’s what I
thought. You’ve got to give it time, boy. You can’t rush these
things.”
    “Rush it? I
wanted to be with her ten years ago!”
    “Obviously she
didn’t feel the same way. If she did, y’all would be married with a
couple of kids by now.” Maybe the knowledge that Ava had cheated
him out of the life he believed they could have had together was
what hurt Brent the most. His father leaned forward and gripped
Brent’s forearm with his arthritic hand. “Ya can’t force a woman to
love you, son, any more than you can try to hold on to a woman who
doesn’t love you anymore.”
    Brent looked
into his father’s pale blue eyes, trying to understand how he could
have let the love of his life fall for another man. Why hadn’t he
tried harder to keep her where she’d belonged, with her family?
“I’m never going to let that happen to me.”
    “It already
happened with Jamie.”
    “That was
different.”
    “Why? Because
you didn’t really love her?”
    “Dad, that’s
not fair.” It was accurate, but it wasn’t fair of his father to
call him out on it. His ex-fiancée had cheated on him, not the
other way around.
    “Is that why
you’ve never let yourself