To My Arrogant Boss (The Inappropriate Bachelors #2) - J. S. Cooper Page 0,71

softly. “I don’t, but I did when I was younger. It was a good way to earn some money to buy clothes. Nothing wrong with earning an honest wage, right?”

“Right?” My mother tinkled and then looked away. “Willow, Willow, where are you? Have you chosen your gown for the ball yet?”

“The ball?” Jane mouthed at me.

“Debutante ball.” I rolled my eyes and she laughed.

“So Tate, will you be here on Monday?” My dad asked. “The governor is coming over for dinner and we thought it would be a good time to start running some polls to see how you’d fare running for Senator in the next election. You know the incumbent is stepping down, so this is the perfect time.”

“Jane and I have to get back to work. Jane works in my office.”

“Well Jane can leave and you can stay right?” He didn’t smile and I knew he was telling me what to do, as opposed to asking.

“No, we will both be leaving.” I shook my head. “We have to get back to work.”

“You’re not still on that foolishness with that startup?” He scoffed. “Come now boy, we have things to do. We need you back home. Your duty is here.”

“Dad...” My voice rose. “I’m not coming back home and I don’t want to be in politics.”

“I suppose he’s going back to California, so he can be with her.” My mom joined the conversation and shot a dirty look at Jane.

“We thought you had enough of that as a teen.” My dad said with a snarl. “Enough is enough, Tate.”

“That’s the pot calling the kettle black, dad.” I said and stood up. “Maybe you’d be happier if you lived your life for yourself and not your duties.”

“Tate, I’m warning you.” He growled and my mother’s face went white. Immediately I felt ashamed of myself. I didn’t want to hurt my mom. I knew why she was like this. I knew why she was hurting. I knew why, but it didn’t make it right. My head started pounding and I looked down at Jane. “Let’s go talk, okay.” I reached my hand down and pulled her up. “We’re going upstairs.” I said and walked out of the room with Jane. “I’m sorry about that.”

“There seems to be a lot of tension in the house.” She bit down on her lower lip. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” I sighed. “I want to explain.”

“You don’t have to.”

“No, I want to.” I felt my stomach clenching and I knew that as much as I needed to tell her, I didn’t want to. “Let’s go upstairs to my old room.” She walked alongside me in silence and as we entered my bedroom, memories hit me. These four walls had been my life for so long and yet, they felt so distant. I was a different person from the one I’d been when I’d lived here. I’d been a boy then, but now I was a man. I was a man that wasn’t afraid to speak up for what was right and I was a man that wasn’t scared any more. I was ashamed of who I’d been. I was still so ashamed and I knew that telling Jane about my history was just the first step in forgiving myself. “Have a seat.” I led her over to my old bed and then closed the bedroom door. “So I want to tell you a story.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me.” Jane said.

“No, I do.” I held my hand up. “I do.” I knew that if anything was going to progress with Jane she had to know who I had been, who I was, and who I was trying to be. I also knew that I wanted to talk about it. I’d never told anyone before. There were only three of us that knew the full story. One of them was dead, one didn’t talk to me, and then there was me. “Remember I told you that story about how I used to go to my granddaddy's farm?”

“Yeah,” She nodded. “When you were a teenager?”

“Yeah, most of the time I would go with Rose as Willow and Maybelle were never really interested. They were more girly girls. But Rose loved it.” I leaned back into the door and memories came crashing down as I thought back to those days. “I loved it, it was over one hundred acres, there were creeks and woods and I felt like an explorer in my own little world. Sometimes, I would