Still Here: A Secret Baby Romance Read Free Page A

would be sitting in my office, in my desk. Never fails. "I see you’ve been doing your best to cock everything up and destroy my legacy."
    He was always one for melodrama.
    “What in the hell are you talking about? The business is doing well. Solid. And I don’t have to try and pull any of your stunts. I call that a definite win. You can go back to Key West now, to your woman and your yachting around.” I wasn't going to take his crap, not when he wasn't here calling the shots. He wasn’t helping when I needed it.
    He just threw me in the deep end with the expectation that I could swim.
    Everything to him was life or death when he was here. It was like he didn't understand the ins and outs of the business.
    Except he did, and he used this as a manipulation tactic to try my patience and get exactly what he wanted.
    He was a shrewd business man, I had to give him that much.
    “You know for this to work you’ve got to get your hands dirty, shit like this isn’t going to work. Your profits are steady, sure, but you aren’t actually growing at the rate I’d expect. And you’re buying up land at twice the price-” I cut him off.
    “You’re retired.” I was starting to lose my patience.
    “Semi-retired.” My father leaned onto the desk. “You have permits you need to acquire for your farms. Judge McKean called me yesterday. Said he hadn’t heard from you.”
    I fought the urge to throw all the shit off my desk and kick his ass out. The last thing the employees needed to see was the two of us going at one another.
    That hadn’t happened for a long time.
    “I won’t bribe him for my water rights.” I wasn’t going to do what he told me. It wasn’t the right thing. I’d never been one to do business that way, and he knew it.
    Things were going just fine until he stuck his nose into my affairs. I was supposed to be running this place. He had a million other things to run, hell he had several business ventures brewing right now. He was too busy for this. Semi-retired and still empire building.
    Only my father.
    It didn't matter that he had too many obligations. None of it stopped him from coming in here and micromanaging every aspect of the day to day operations when he decided I wasn’t following in his footsteps, or some other garbage.
    “Then you won’t get them. At least not without making major repairs to the land.” My father’s square jaw clenched. “It’s a more expensive route to go, Wyatt. This would save us time and money.”
    “Cost of doing business,” I shrugged. “I’m not going to bribe a judge to save money only to find out the consequences of the water table are disastrous for the people who live around it.”
    Cutting corners might save money in the short term, but a bad well with contaminates could cost a lot of money in lawsuits. It could shut down the business.
    I didn’t give a damn if it was the way it was always done.
    “Fuck, Wyatt. Just contribute to his campaign for re-election. He’s got two fundraisers next month. Buy a table at both, bid on his shit.” I cringed at his use of language. He was always fast and loose, even with his mouth. My mother had never let him swear around me, and I made it a point to save those words for when I was genuinely angry. And right now, I was damn livid.
    I sighed. “I told you, I’m not going to play your little games. You have a business to run, dad. Hell, you have multiple.” It was the truth. This small agro-business was nothing compared to his factory and operations in Denver. He didn’t need to come up here every few months and try to tell me how to do my job.
    I was doing just fine before him.
    “Do it or I’ll fucking stay. You want that?” My father was an asshole. He cussed and swore and acted like a dick just to get what he wanted.
    “Fine, but if I do it it isn’t because of the water rights, it’s because I genuinely like his no-nonsense rulings. Usually,” I admitted. He was being unreasonable, and we both knew