Free Crushing On The Billionaire (Part 2) by Lola Silverman Page A

echoing. “She came here because she cares about you. We both do.”
    “Is this the point of the conversation when you’re going to tell me to start calling her stepmother ?” Shawn sneered.
    “Maybe we should all just sit down,” I suggested, my voice shaking. “Maybe in the den or the kitchen? I…I could ask the chef to make some lunch or something, and we could all do with something to drink.”
    “Very good, Loren,” Shawn said, clapping his hands. “You’ve slid right in to the role of stepmother and hostess. Do you live here now? Feels like home, doesn’t it?”
    “That is enough.” Patrick glowered at Shawn, and they were the doppelgangers once more, their expressions of wrath mirroring each other. I’d tried to diffuse this situation but failed miserably. It seemed like my very presence was riling Shawn up, and I wondered if it was a mistake to participate in the intervention. Maybe it should’ve just been a father-son talk. I was intruding and only making things worse.
    “Look, I only came here to figure out what’s going on with my credit card,” Shawn said, yanking out his wallet and waving the offending bit of plastic at his father. “The purchases aren’t going through, and the bank said I needed to take it up with you. Tell me what’s happening and I’ll gladly get out of your life.”
    “I don’t want you to get out of my life,” Patrick said. “That’s the last thing I want. You’re my son.”
    “Just…don’t.” Shawn held his hands up. “Don’t even start. I’ve come here on business. I have things to do, as I’m sure you do, too. Tell me what’s going on with the card and I’ll be on my way.”
    “I put a hold on the card,” Patrick told him.
    “A hold?” Shawn peered at him. “And why the fuck would you do that?”
    “What is this? Where is this coming from?” Patrick passed his hand in front of his eyes, like something might magically change if he looked at it in a different way. “Who are you? This isn’t the son I raised. This isn’t the Shawn I know.”
    “Are you only just starting to try to get to know me?” Shawn retorted. “You had your chance, old man. I don’t have the patience for you to try to be a father anymore.”
    This was getting too serious, too real, and I wished that I could leave. This wasn’t something I was supposed to witness, this battle between father and son. This was too personal.
    “How can you say that?” Patrick was asking. “Maybe your mother and I had you too young. But you were never unloved. I loved you—I still love you—very much. It’s something you can’t understand. You won’t understand it until you have a child of your own—a son. It’s something I can’t explain to you.”
    “Then explain why you’re sleeping with the girl I’m in love with,” Shawn suggested, eyeing me. “If you care so much about me, then why are you doing this?”
    “It’s not something I’m doing to hurt you, Shawn,” Patrick said. “Love just…happens. There usually isn’t a good explanation for it unless two people fall in love with each other. People have been trying for centuries to explain that.”
    “And me?” Shawn asked, thumping his chest violently. “What about me?”
    “One person fell in love, not two,” I said quietly. “Just one.”
    He looked at me like he forgot I was here. I wished I hadn’t spoken up, but I couldn’t be a bystander at this juncture of the argument. This was about me, and I had to defend myself and my relationship with Patrick. Patrick was the greatest thing in my life right now. He was keeping me motivated and keeping me strong, even as I struggled to cope with what Shawn was doing to himself. I wasn’t about to forsake this man or what he meant to me, even if it was hard for Shawn to hear. This had to be said, and he had to understand it.
    “You haven’t been the same person,” I said, tentative as Shawn continued to gape at me, trying to feel my way through the opening I