Contractual Obligation

Chapter Four

Doug sat in his car in a public parking lot three blocks from the convention center. Around him, five o’clock traffic had built as people fled their offices for the day. Total gridlock. At this point, it would take close to an hour to get to his parents’ home in Temple Terrace.

He turned the air up to full and pointed the vents straight at his face. As of right now, he was unofficially hired. The preliminary background checks had all come back fine, as he knew they would. He’d met with Harper one more time. She told him her attorney would draw up the papers for her that night. He could come by the next morning at ten to meet her and Gorden for coffee in the lobby at her building and sign all the papers.

What the fuck am I doing?

By signing those papers, he was essentially saying a huge “fuck you” to Tate.

He was selling out. Shouldn’t he at least try interviewing with the other companies?

Who was he kidding? No one would give him the deal Harper Wells offered him. And if he refused and she found someone else willing to sell out in a heartbeat, he would have thrown away the opportunity of a lifetime.

Mom and Dad won’t lose their house. His younger sister wouldn’t have to leave the only home she’d ever known.

He laid his head on his steering wheel and cried. He was, he supposed, technically bisexual, but when he’d met Tate at school he’d fallen in love with him. The hardest thing he’d ever done was come home for spring break three years earlier and come out to his parents after he and Tate started dating.

They, and his sisters, had embraced him and Tate.

Welcomed Tate as family.

And now…

He couldn’t even tell them—any of them—why he had to break up with the love of his life.

He looked at his phone, which he’d put on silent earlier. He saw the missed call from Tate. The voice mail icon was displayed.

He played the message and cried again as he listened to Tate’s voice. How the hell was he supposed to tell him? Instead of deleting the message, he saved it.

He didn’t have the heart or the balls to call him back.

With a heavy heart and a sad sigh, he took a deep breath and headed home.

When Doug arrived home, he was surprised, as well as worried, to see no other cars in the drive. He got out of his car and went inside the house after collecting the mail from the box by the street. He was just about to call his father when he heard a car in the driveway. When he looked out the front window, he saw his dad racing around the front of the car to the passenger side, where—

“Mom!” Doug hit the front door at a run and made it outside to help his dad get her out of the car and into the house. She used a walker, stubbornly resisting the wheelchair the doctor suggested she use. “Where’s the girls?” Doug asked him.

“They’re in Tina’s car,” his dad said. “They’re right behind us.”

“I can make it, Carl,” his mom argued as she ineffectually tried to swat away his father’s helping hand. “You don’t have to fuss over me.” But she let the two men help her inside and get her seated on the couch, her right leg propped up on a pillow on the coffee table.

Doug was glad a thick layer of bandages hid her wounds. She’d been lucky that the doctors had only amputated two of her toes and not her entire right foot.

“Can I get you anything, Mom?” Doug asked.

She looked at him and motioned him close with a sad expression on her face. She gave him a one-armed hug. He noticed her other arm still bore an IV port for medication. She was supposed to go back to the doctor the next morning for follow-up tests and IV antibiotics. “You and Tate are welcomed to move in here if you want, but I don’t want you ruining your life over us.” She patted his cheek. “You need to live your life. We can handle ours.”

He grabbed her hand, once again shoving back his guilt. “But that’s just it. Mom, I got a job today, a good one!”

His dad stopped and turned. “You did?”

“Yeah, listen to this!” He outlined the basics, the part of the story that Harper had said could be made public knowledge. He’d be working as an executive administrator, with super-crazy hours at really good pay. He left out the cash bonuses and the part about their mortgage being taken care of. Harper had assured him she would have her attorneys send out a legit-sounding letter telling his parents that their mortgage had been bought by an investment company as part of a special program for people who had previously had good payment histories and fell behind through no fault of their own.

At their afternoon meeting, Harper had also instructed Doug to get as much information as he could about his mom’s medical bills, and she would take care of those as well.

As if he hadn’t had enough incentive to make him agree to this deal.

Now, he couldn’t think of saying no, even if he would be breaking Tate’s heart as well as his own in the process.

His mom started crying and hugged him again. “I’m so proud of you, Douglas!”

His dad wiped at his eyes, which suddenly looked too bright, before clapping Doug on the shoulder. “Me, too. That’s great news, son!”

He could almost sense the weight of his dad’s worry lifting. “Dinner’s on me,” Doug announced. “Pizza fine with everyone?”

Tina and Eileen walked in at that moment, carrying their mother’s things from the hospital. “Pizza’s always fine with me, bro,” Eileen said.

That was another worry. Eileen, a junior in high school, got good grades. By all rights she should be able to get scholarships to cover her tuition, or at the very least pick up a few grants or low-interest loans for school. She wanted to be a nurse and had already applied to USF there in Tampa. Living at home would save her money.

His job would insure he could pay for her education even if everything else fell through. And he could help Tina pay off her student loans.

This is for my family, he insisted. At the end of the first year, he’d see if Harper would let him tell Tate the truth. If Tate was even still single.

And if Tate would ever forgive him for selling out like this.

After his sisters and mother had gone to bed, Doug sat at the kitchen table with his father. It was nearly ten o’clock, and he’d taken the chicken route and called Tate earlier, when he knew his lover wouldn’t be able to hear his phone in the noisy sports pub. With his own phone on silent, he could claim he didn’t hear it. Tate was an early riser, so not calling him late would be believable. All he’d told Tate was that he’d gotten a job, his mom was home and doing well, and that he missed him.

And that he loved him. Although he was sure Tate would hate him pretty soon.

His dad smiled at him. “I’m so proud of you, son. You have no idea.”

Doug felt a little sick inside. If his parents knew the truth, they’d never let him do it. He also imagined they would most likely be ashamed of him for selling out the way he had.

“Thanks, Dad.” He took a deep breath. “Um, about me and Tate living here—”

His dad nodded. “No problem, as long as you like. Seriously.”

“It’s not that, Dad.” He studied his hands, unable to look his father in the eye. “Tate’s not going to be moving in.”

“Why not?”

“I just…” He tried another approach. He wasn’t ready to break it to them that he’d be moving out, too. “It’s not going to be fair to uproot him. I’m literally going to be on the road weeks at a time, sometimes a month or more,” he fibbed. “I’m hardly going to be home.”

“So? He’s family. We’ll take care of him.”

His dad wasn’t making this any easier on him. “I think the only fair thing to do is to take a break from our relationship for a while, at least until life settles down a little. Besides, he’s got a decent job for now, has health benefits and everything.”

“What are you saying, son? Are you breaking up with him?”

“I don’t want to—”

“Then don’t!”

“Dad, please.” He stood. “This is my life,” he said, even though it really felt like a fib now. He was beholden to Harper Wells for a year. “I don’t want to discuss this anymore.”

His dad slowly nodded. “Okay,” he quietly said. “You’re right. I respect your wishes.”

Doug walked into the lobby at ten minutes till ten the next morning. He passed the bank of elevators just as the doors to one car slid open and Harper and Gorden stepped out.

Her expression brightened when she spotted him. “Perfect timing!” She held out her hand with a cheery smile. He forced a smile of his own as he shook with her. “Glad to see you didn’t decide to chicken out overnight,” she joked.

“No, I know a darn good deal when I see one,” he said.

He held the coffee shop door open for her and Gorden and followed them inside. She picked a quiet corner booth. After a waitress came over to take their order, Harper opened a folder she’d had in her hand and pushed a stack of papers and a pen across the table to him.

He glanced through them and started to pick up the pen. Gorden laid a hand over Doug’s, stopping him. “Son, read through them, first. In fact, if you want a few hours to take them to an attorney, we’ll understand.”

He shook his head. “That’s not necessary.” He did read them, though. It took him twenty minutes, and Harper and Gorden didn’t speak or interrupt him while he did. When he finished, he signed everywhere indicated and pushed the papers back across the table to her.

She now owned his ass for a year. He supposed he shouldn’t think of it as pimping himself out, because she’d clearly said she wasn’t expecting sex from him, but it all boiled down to the same thing, didn’t it?

He still hated himself for what he had to do to Tate.

He’d even been so chickenshit as to call Tate this morning at nine o’clock, when he knew Tate was working and couldn’t take personal calls.

He studied Harper’s face as she leafed through the folder and removed another sheaf of papers. He’d found out from Gorden she was only twenty-eight, just three years older than him. She’d come to be the CEO of her father’s company because the man literally lost a bet to her. Ever since she’d graduated Magna Cum Laude from USF in Tampa, she’d bugged her father to give her a larger role in the company. She’d been working part-time as Gorden’s intern since she graduated from high school, and to shut her up more than anything, her father had made a bet with her one night in front of Gorden and several of his friends.

Harper had twelve months to turn around their newest acquisition, a struggling Miami company they’d purchased in a hostile takeover. If she did it, he’d make her CEO of their entire organization.

Her father had never expected her to be successful.

In less than eight months, the new company was not only in the black, it was turning the highest profit it had in years.

And Harrison Wells was never one to welsh on a bet.

She smiled as she handed the papers over. Doug realized that she was genuinely happy over this arrangement. She wasn’t trying to use him unfairly. He’d agreed to this crazy, albeit generous and highly profitable, deal.

Her smile made her look a little less careworn. “These are for you,” she said. “Some basics about the company. If you’re not busy today, I’d like to send you out with Gorden to get some stuff. It’s going to take us a week or so to get you a corporate credit card. My father is going to be here later today, and I want to introduce you to him.”

“You want me to look my best.”

She laughed. “Exactly.” He realized there was nothing mean or hurtful in her laugh. Even her hazel eyes had faint smile lines around them. “Believe me, you deserve it,” she added. “I’m more than happy to spring for a shopping spree.”

For a moment, it looked like her demeanor slipped before she strengthened her smile. She lowered her voice. “Doug, you have no idea how much I appreciate what you’re doing. I realize, yes, you benefit from this, but I cannot begin to tell you how much this means to me.”

Now he felt like a double shit. Here was a nice woman in a tough situation of her own. Gorden had told him her father wouldn’t hesitate to follow through on his threat to remove her from the company if she kept pushing herself as hard as she had. He suspected there was more to the story, but Gorden either wouldn’t or couldn’t elaborate further.

Harper tried not to stare at Doug from across the table. He was definitely easy on the eyes. And single. How lucky am I? Maybe she could eventually talk him into her bed.

She wouldn’t mind that in the least. Yes, she wouldn’t deny it’d be nice to have a real boyfriend instead of a vibrator or shower massager.

If she could even convince him to stay. Someone as cute as him surely couldn’t have any problems getting dates if he wanted them.

Quit thinking like that, she chided herself. This is business.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to it,” she said. She grabbed her folder and stood, shaking hands with him before turning to Gorden. “When is Dad due in?”

“Three o’clock.”

“I’ll be in my office and waiting for you.”

Gorden smiled. “You’re not wasting a second of time, are you?”

She patted him on the shoulder. “What? Even my father said I needed to get on the ball and find your replacement.”

The sound of his laughter followed her out of the coffee shop. She had the elevator to herself as she rode up to her floor. She paged through the folder. Douglas Allen Holt. Had turned twenty-five only four weeks earlier. She closed the folder, leaned against the elevator wall, and tapped the folder against her thigh. She smiled.

Dad will never know what hit him.