Page 23 of True Honey (The Hornets Nest #4)

COURTNEY

“ I ’m a teacher,” I said when asked what I did for a living. I wasn’t going to tell them I was a waitress no matter how long ago it was that I stepped inside of a school.

“Raising our youth!” Mr. Poly praised. “That’s not an easy job,” he said, “I was an asshole in school and I sure know Darby was too!”

“Teachers are glorified babysitters, Evan. There’s a reason we have to go to university to be taught by professors,” he sneered, his fat hands gripping an empty scotch glass.

“I can’t possibly speak for all of them but I’m sure most teachers would have to disagree with you, Mr. William,” I said, trying to hold my own but I could feel the nausea churning over in the pit of my stomach.

Seymour Shore’s hand felt hot on my lower back and there was no way to control the panic that spread across my chest from speaking up. Mr. William scowled at me, clearly not accustomed to women speaking in his vicinity and it only worsened the anxious monster that awakened inside of me.

I fought to keep it together.

“How about we have this conversation when you have kids of your own Ms. Courtney and you’re in need of daycare. Women these days, they get ahead of themselves and don’t understand how the world works.” Mr. William shot back and it took everything in me not to correct him.

“I look forward to that conversation, until then we can agree to disagree,” I said instead, holding steady and actively forcing myself to be polite.

These men were not fooling around, and neither had Silas.

He wasn’t wrong when he said that impressing them wouldn’t be easy.

It also made sense why they had put stipulations on his shares.

They were hyper focused on their sons and their money.

Everything with these men was about passing on a legacy and preserving the family name.

“Leave it to Silas to find the most headstrong woman in Harbor,” Mr. Poly said next and I held my tongue, grinding my teeth together to keep quiet. I was led to believe that it was somewhat of a compliment, but I could see the true meaning behind his statement. It was absolutely an insult.

“Mouthy is the word you’re looking for Evan,” Mr. William said and the lot of them laughed around me like it was the funniest joke they’d ever heard, leaving me standing there stiff and subject to their ridicule.

“At least it’s a pretty mouth.” I heard one of them say, and it was like I could feel their grubby hands all over my skin.

It was worse than any night shift spent fending off grabby drunks.

Here I couldn’t make a scene, I couldn’t stop them.

I had to pretend that I was none the wiser to their sick comments and belittling.

I could feel the tears stinging at the corners of my eyes but I refused to give them the satisfaction of reducing me to that and took a long, quiet deep breath to steady myself.

Not even tempted to search the room for Silas in need of help I just smiled like an idiot, playing the part of stupid, doting fiance the way I was supposed to.

“Like father like son,” Mr. Poly added with a sick smile.

My first two shifts with Susanna had gone well and it had taken me less than ten minutes with the woman to realize she was a gossip. I’d learned just about everything about everyone in the two shifts. Including every single thing she knew about the situation with the Shore family.

Charles Shore was a piece of work.

Josh Logan was a sweet kid despite what the papers liked to say. “He’s incredibly polite and never has a grumpy day. He’s all smiles in this office.”

Mrs. Shore was a kind woman, with an intense family history but she was spoken about in the highest regard, by just about everyone.

Silas was her favorite topic, her favorite boy , she called him. The most notable of compliments she threw in his direction, was that he was the one person who would drop anything to help someone else.

That spoke volumes about him and told me that he was nothing like his father.

“How is Charles?” Mr. William said, “I heard that the drug addict killed herself,” he added.

“Taking the easy way out,” Mr. Poly added.

Seymour was notably quiet. I couldn’t tell if it was because he condemned what his son was doing or if he just had nothing to add but there was a bright, playful smile stretched across his old face.

“She was disposable,” one of the other said, “Charles should know better than to fuck whores without protection. Now he has that bastard running around that could ruin your entire fortune.”

“Joshua has no interest in such a thing,” Seymour finally said, bringing his glass to his lips.

“You say that now but you should be nipping that in the butt,” Mr. Poly said with caution, “it takes one argument, one instance of you denying him something for him to change his tune and slap you with a lawsuit.”

“And to think all that stress over a bastard because Charles couldn’t keep his dick in Sylwia.” Someone hissed.

I hated how they were talking, especially in front of me. I didn’t want to be hearing any of this.

“You better keep your door unlocked and your legs on a hinge, Ms. Courtney. The Shore men are known to wander. Wouldn’t want you to have to share your inheritance with some mistress,” Mr. Poly teased me but I found no humor in the statement.

“If half of us had the balls that Charles had, we’d be happier men,” Mr. William said and I checked out of the conversation, glossing over until a broad chest pressed tightly to my back.

“If you’ll excuse us,” Silas said tightly, his voice low and commanding across the group. Most of them gave nods, allowing Silas to pull me back away from them and into the crowd. As soon as we were free from their scrutiny I could breathe again.

“Are you alright?” He asked me, handing me a glass filled with whiskey that even smelled too expensive for me to drink.

“Fine,” I said, taking back the whiskey in a controlled sip.

Silas stared across the ballroom, his eyes a cold, distant gray.

I could read every thought flickering across his face.

I had screwed that up back there and ruined his chances of making this work.

I would be the sole reason that he never got his hands on those shares.

All because I couldn’t play nice with some drunk old men for more than ten minutes.

“I’m sorry,” I said after a prolonged beat of silence. The anxiety was all consuming and spread across my chest like wildfire, unstoppable and burning every logical thought in its path.

“What?” He looked down at me finally, his brows crumpling together and his jaw tensing with a visible tick. His gaze lingered and I couldn’t tell if he was angry or not but it caused my heart to race.

“I could have handled that—”

“We’re leaving,” he said, his hand wrapping around my arm gently.

“We just got here, Silas.” I looked up at him, begging for him to clarify what the hell was going on inside of his head. He couldn’t be serious? We hadn’t even eaten and there had to be more people he needed to introduce me to for the sake of the will.

“And I’m done,” Silas sighed and moved around me to shuffle me out the door. We took the stairs back to the street but instead of getting the valet to bring his bike around Silas called for one of the drivers that was parked in the street. “Go home, Drew.”

Silas opened the door for me and waited for me to get inside.

“I thought you were coming?” I asked, holding on to the window instead of getting into the car.

“I needed to get you out here, I have to stay.”

To clean up the mess I made, no doubt. I nodded, not saying anything else before I climbed in and let him shut the door behind me. I had screwed everything up for him and now he was going to have to manage the fallout and come to terms with the fact that he might never get what he wanted.

The car ride home was silent. I wanted to text him, to ask if I’d done something to deserve that cold goodbye, but I already knew.

I knew what I had done and there wasn’t anything I could say to fix the problem.

I shouldn’t have slept with him but it hadn’t dawned on me until after I had found my head and come down from the high that Silas’s touch seemed to bring me.

Sleeping together had created a hundred more problems.

I’d been an idiot about all of this.

The house was empty when I got back, August nowhere to be found but there was a note on the counter about going to Hilly’s for dinner because Dean burnt whatever he was making. I was grateful that the apartment was empty, all I wanted to do was cry.

But like a bad omen my phone vibrated in my purse. I set it on the counter, pulling it out and answering the call before I even registered the area code. Shit.

“Drew?” A voice came from the other end. “Don’t hang up on me Drew, I can hear you breathing!”

“Bradley,” I acknowledged him. “What do you want?”

“I want to know why my son just sent me to voicemail!” Bradley’s voice was loud and dominating as I tried to collect my thoughts.

“He’s thirteen, Bradley. He isn’t always going to answer when you call, he’s not a dog.” I tried to curb my tone to avoid a fight.

“Don’t patronize me, Drew. What lies have you been spewing at him? The last time we talked he wouldn’t even give me your address for birthday presents,” Bradley snapped.

That’s because there was no address… I tried to stifle the groan that rumbled deep in my chest.

“Do you have a pen?” I asked him slowly, as I turned to look for the stack of mail that Silas left laying around. On the top was a letter addressed to him from the prison and it made me sad staring at it, knowing it probably came from his father.

“You’re in Rhode Island?” He hissed the moment I gave him the zip code.

“There was a job opportunity, so I took it,” I said.

“A job opportunity? Are you teaching again?” He asked me.

“I’m working with a college baseball team,” I said instead, deflecting the fact that I worked under the lowest paid person in the building as her assistant.

“Right,” Bradley only found that unbelievable because never once had I shown interest in sports and I still wouldn’t, but the pay was good and Silas …

I inhaled slowly, almost grateful for the bombarding from Bradley giving me time to forget how badly tonight went. The look on Silas’s face when he sent me away.

“You have the address, is there something else you wanted?” I asked Bradley to fill the silence.

“To speak to my son,” Bradley reiterated.

“Try his cell phone again,” I said calmly despite wanting to tear my own hair out.

“Good to know you’re useless as always Drew, have a good night,” he snapped before the line went dead.

I set the phone on the counter, closed my eyes to breathe, and peeled off the dress, leaving it crumpled on the floor.

Then I stepped into the shower and let the hot water drown out the noise in my head.

Closing my eyes I let the sound of the high pressured stream wash over me and create a veil of white noise that cut off the world entirely.

I pressed my forehead against the cool tile wall and tried to breathe through the violent panic that filled me. I’d fucked up bad tonight it was only a matter of time before Silas got sick of me and August as charity cases. I couldn’t do a single thing right for him.

I could feel the disappointment in my bones, heavy like cement in my veins.

And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

August’s heart would be broken. My head was so foggy that I hadn’t noticed the temperature change, freezing against my hot skin.

I stood there as long as I could before I finally submitted and turned the water off, wrapping myself in a towel to find some pajamas.

I wandered back into my room to find a box on my bed that wasn’t there before. I looked over at the door, still locked and wondered if I had missed it when I came in but the dress I had left on the floor was also gone.

The note on the top was signed ‘ Mom sent over a few things as a welcome to Harbor gift. Silas’, but looking inside the box it was clear that he had gone out of his way to pick all of its contents.

There were two new sets of dark silk pajamas, a brush, two bottles of shampoo that probably cost more than three tanks of gas, new makeup brushes and makeup, along with tons of snacks I’d never seen before.

With tears streaming down my cheek I rubbed the fabric between my fingers, unsure how I felt about the gifts when I hadn’t done a single thing to deserve them.