Page 22 of Father Knows Best (A Family Affair #1)

thirteen

. . .

geo

The Duo

Sutton is on the phone when I open the door to his office and close it behind me.

His brows pull together. “Sure, and that’s definitely something we’ll take into consideration as we move forward, but for now, please keep in mind the sales cycle for a home that size.

It’s not going to fly off the market the day it lands. ”

My son continues nodding his head, rolling his eyes to me, indicating that he’s likely on the phone with a jumpy seller. A moment later he says, “Okay, I’ll be in touch. Thank you.”

He replaces the handset and gets to his feet, but I motion with my hand that it’s not that serious.

“No? Then what’s up?”

“You need to find someone to replace Brandon Calhauser.”

Sutton sits back down, and grabs the edge of his desk, rolling himself beneath it. He sips from his late-afternoon coffee wearing an amused smirk on his lips. “What?”

“Replace him.” I realize we’re rebuilding, but nonetheless, Sutton has no reason to doubt that I hold his best interests at heart. I always have. Clearly.

He stops drinking his coffee, and sets it on the coaster before scratching his jaw. “Avery heavily relies on Brandon. She trusts him and he’s been working with her since before they became part of Mercer.”

I blink at my son. “I am aware of those things, Sutton. Remember? I met him the same day you did.”

His shoulders lift and drop, as if his hands are tied. “I can’t replace Brandon unless it’s Avery’s wish.”

I shake my head. “I would not make this suggestion unless I felt it was imperative.”

Sutton blinks, then brings his hand to his throat, adjusting his tie. “Imperative?”

I roll my neck, cracking out the discomfort that’s built up in the last few minutes. I glance over my shoulder, through the glass to the conference room where Avery stands, speaking to a table full of people. Sutton’s eyes follow me to her, and then our eyes come together.

“I saw him touch Avery’s hip a few minutes ago as they were returning to the office.”

Sutton lifts one shoulder, but I see he isn’t immediately shrugging it all off.

My boy. He’s like me. I know a part of him right now is on fire just imagining it, but he’s trying to stay levelheaded.

His dark eyes return to mine after a moment of floating over his desk.

“That’s… nothing.” He sees that I do not like his answer and adds, “Okay, what was the context?”

I shake my head. “Does it matter?”

Sutton’s lips collapse into a thin line. I let out a sigh. “She didn’t like it, Sutton, I saw it on her face.”

He gets to his feet, filled with the same immediate dislike that filled me when I saw her face. “Is she–”

“She’s fine,” I tell him, seeing that his brain went just where mine went. “It was just a hip grab, afterall,” I say, sarcastically using his words to show him that a hip grab is never just a hip grab.

“I just asked myself this—when was the last time Sutton touched Roberta’s hip in a playful conversation?”

My son retracts back. “I would never touch another woman in casual, professional conversation.”

We stare at one another as his words sink in. He buttons his suit jacket with one hand, coming around his desk to stand next to me, eyes locked on the conference room across from his office. I pat his shoulder. “Trust me, son. Brandon wants what's yours. And he’s a disease to the office.”

Sutton pops an eyebrow. “What does that make Chanel?”

The grin is slow to sweep my lips, but I can’t stop it. “Fine. Brandon goes, and so does Chanel.”

His lips twitch for a pensive moment, then he grins. “Are you serious?”

I shrug one shoulder. “Is there a reason not to be?” I take a step toward my son, and cup my palm to his neck and shoulder, giving him a singular squeeze.

My eyes hold his, and my chest tightens because seeing him up close like this always reminds me of her—during the good times, the best parts.

“Avery is indeed your better half. Hell, after you get married, she’ll be the best part of our little family. ”

He smirks. “I think Uncle Ford would disagree with that.”

I shake my head, because I didn’t mean that.

“Not our entire family, I mean our family.” I motion between us.

“What’s left of us without Mom,” I say, having not used that name to describe Margot in so long.

Especially not aloud. “It’s just the three of us, until you two, you know,” I tell him, somehow lost in the weeds, unable to say the words have children.

Sutton straightens some, as if the consideration of having kids has made him reframe my concern for Brandon.

“They’re together in these homes all the time,” I remind him, then take my hand away.

“If he touches her hip in your office, while you’re standing a mere three feet away, what would he touch if no one were there to see?

” I feel sick at that thought, envisioning him touching her.

My son’s fiancée. The sweetest woman. And in my heart I believe the reason that my son is back in my life with meaning.

“And what’s the reasoning for Chanel?” he counters, grabbing the door from behind me. I take a step out as we continue the conversation, the office around us in a quiet fog of clocking out haze.

“If you feel that she poses a threat to…” I trail off, suddenly unsure how to reframe this.

Brandon goes because he wants to fuck Avery, that’s clear and the one thing I’m not outright saying.

Chanel wants to fuck Sutton, but I’ve always been a close second.

And to be fair, I’ve let her paw all over me for the last few years.

She’s beautiful, and I’m not that complicated of an individual.

But if Sutton is calling for her to go, maybe she bothers Avery? I should have thought of that, shouldn’t I? It’s pretty obvious now that I look at it from a different perspective. “Our family,” I continue, deciding those words fit best. “Then she can go as well.” I shrug. “Call it downsizing.”

My son shakes his head. “If he touched her,” he says, almost as if a switch has been flipped and he’s only just now registering that a man he employs touched his fiancée.

“Harmless or not, colleagues in an office setting do not need to touch. A man should not touch a female colleague on the hip. Nor should it stand the other way around.” He rolls his lips together, nostrils flaring as he glares at the conference room, namely at the back of Brandon’s head.

“If we fire him, I’m going to fucking tell him why.

” His eyes cut to mine, darkened with jealousy. “He can’t just touch my fiancée.”

I shake my head. “No, he can’t.” My point exactly.

Crumpling my napkin, I toss it into the empty styrofoam clamshell. “I ate too much.”

Sutton groans, tipping back in his chair as he tosses his napkin, too. “You overindulge yourself.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m sorry I’m not a robot that wants to eat a square of salmon over rice every day. I have taste buds that require diversity. Not all of us can be as simple of a creature as you, son.”

There’s a knock on the door, and before he can tell the person to come in, Avery rushes in. She closes the door behind her then splits a worried, teary glance between us. Immediately, I get to my feet and hook my thumb over my shoulder. “I’ll go.” They clearly need to talk.

Avery shakes her head, blonde hair curtaining her face as Sutton, who got to his feet when I did, comes around his desk and to her side. “You don’t have to leave, Geo,” she says to me, head tipped down, sniffling quietly. The hair on the back of my neck stands up and my spine goes rigid.

I don’t like Avery being upset.

I think part of me maybe dislikes it a tad more than I should, but maybe that’s only because Sutton and I are still on the mend. I’m holding a more protective stance of them both right now, I’m sure.

“What’s the matter, baby?” he asks, turning her body, allowing her to collapse against him. He must’ve suspected it, her silent foundering, her need to give herself over to him–to let him be her strength. He must support her this way when she needs it.

My entire body flushes with burning heat, and I feel inappropriately aroused by Avery’s breakdown.

The way her fingers climb his chest, searching for the beacon of his neck, so she can link her hands and let go emotionally, knowing his strong arms will be there to hold her up.

This is a private moment, and yet I don’t feel like a voyeur but more so, an alternate.

I’ve never held Avery that way. In the last month, the three of us have been eating dinner together a couple of times a week.

While I’m not her best friend, we’ve gotten to know one another much more personally.

The same goes for Sutton and myself. It’s been good.

And I do feel that if he weren’t here, I could provide her the support.

Something about that, the idea of holding her when she needs someone, that’s what arouses me. As much as I hate myself for thinking of my son’s future wife that way.

Finally, she lifts her face from his chest, the tip of her nose pink.

My heart does an out-of-sync flip flop at the sight of her ruddy cheeks and wet lashes.

“Brandon quit! Out of nowhere. Now I need a new Operations and Logistics Manager, and the wedding is in two weeks! I don’t have time to find someone! ”

I clear my throat. “I will personally see to it that you find a new assistant. Stay focused on the wedding, and I will have you a new OLM by the end of the week, okay?” I nod my head, certain I can fulfill this and make good.

I’m connected to the absolute best recruiter—a guy I went to college with.

Avery blinks at me in a way that makes it hard to breathe for a moment. I look at my son.

He looks down at Avery, taking her face in his hands, the gold of his watch glittering. “Do you hear that? Dad is taking care of it. If he says he’s going to, he will. Now please, do not cry. Seeing you cry is quite possibly the worst thing.”

“Worst ever,” I add, because it’s true. Sutton nods at me and I join him, and Avery cracks a smile, swiping at her cheeks.

She’s only happy for a moment, and I don’t like that.

“What?” Sutton asks, stroking the back of his knuckles along her cheek gently.

He’s a romantic, I should have known. I am, too.

Or, I used to be. I wouldn’t say I am anymore–I’m much more primal now, because romance is for men who are in love, and I can’t be a man in love ever again. It hurts too much when it goes awry.

“I don’t understand why he’d all of a sudden quit?” she says, shaking her head as Sutton moves his hand from her cheek to her hair, stroking his fingers through it.

“Sweetheart, don’t worry about it.” He dips down, and kisses her cheek softly. I force my eyes to my feet for a moment.

She nods her head and smiles, and he promises her we’re almost done, and that in a few more minutes we’ll be ready to go for the day.

Tonight is one of the nights we’re having dinner, the three of us. The car is taking us.

She smiles at me gently, warming the space between my ribs in a way it should not, and then she closes the door behind her.

I exhale guilt, knowing later when I lie awake in bed and revisit this, I’ll chalk it up to her being beautiful and sweet.

That’s all. Hormonally, of course I’m attracted to her.

The longer I spend time with them, the more that will fall away.

The more she’ll become my asexual daughter-in-law, a non-sexual appendage of my son.

I wish we’d hit that phase soon.

My mind can run away with itself after a long dinner with Sutton and Avery.

I face my son, and he says – “I plan on telling her. Later. After the wedding.”

I arch a brow in curiosity.

“That I fired Brandon. Today.” He sighs. “I told him he could tell her that he quit if he wanted, but I fired him today, and told him exactly why.”

Now both of my brows are raised. “Why did you wait nearly a month?”

He walks to his desk and retrieves a file from the middle drawer. “I wanted to pull contenders to replace him, so she wouldn’t be in a pickle.”

I shake my head. “That was thoughtful.”

He sits down in his chair. “After I really thought about everything you said, I wanted him gone. But at the same time, I didn’t want it to hurt Avery.”

I nod, feeling a little tug of jealousy in my gut, wishing that I had someone to do bold and noble things for. Just because I am no longer a man in love doesn’t mean that I don’t occasionally miss some of the perks.

“Anyway, I’m going to tell her after the wedding, and I’ll tell her why.”

Pride washes away my jealousy. “That’s good. You don’t want to mess it up with a woman like Avery.”

He shakes his head. “No. I wouldn’t recover.”