His mother paused only briefly in her typing but whatever she might have said was drowned out by his father’s bellow.
“Boy, get over here and tell me what happened!”
Hunter saw his mother flinch at the outburst and her eyes quickly dropped back to the computer screen. A tug of disappointment went through Hunter at the move but he pushed it away and forced himself to walk back to the desk his father was sitting at.
“Well?” his father shouted.
“He didn’t say much,” Hunter admitted which was mostly the truth since the brief conversations he’d had with Roman hadn’t been about what he actually thought about the land.
“God, I knew you’d fuck this up,” his father snorted. “You were gone less than two hours – no way you showed him everything!”
“His calls-”
“Were a fucking ploy! Probably to get away from you and your sniveling.”
Sadly, Hunter suspected his father was right. Roman’s excuse had sounded pretty lame and then he’d thrown in that last remark about the night before…
A stapler bouncing off his chest ripped Hunter from his thoughts and he automatically stepped back when he saw his father reach for his crutches to pull himself upright. “You better pray he calls me!” his father snarled as he got in Hunter’s space.
Hunter managed to stand his ground and nod but he dropped his eyes since he knew it was the fastest way to diffuse his father’s anger. Well, one of the fastest ways. “He will, Dad. He did…he did mention something about how refreshing it was to be working with a realtor who knew what he was doing for a change.”
The trick worked because his father’s chest puffed out somewhat. His father finally eased back a bit and Hunter murmured, “I thought I’d head back to school tonight. I’ve got a paper due on Monday.”
“No,” his father interjected. “You’re not going anywhere. If Blackwell wants to see the property again, you’ll need to show him. Dr. Meyers says I’m out of commission for another week at least.”
The idea of spending even another day in Dare had Hunter saying, “I can’t afford to miss any classes-”
His father’s palm cracked against his cheek before he could even finish the statement. “You will do as I fucking say, you hear me?” Another slap followed and Hunter bit back the tears that threatened and nodded quickly.
“Now get in back and finish cleaning out that storeroom.”
Hunter stepped back from his father and turned to head towards the back room. A glance at his mother showed that she was still focused on the computer screen, her thin fingers moving tirelessly over the keyboard. He wasn’t surprised that she didn’t even look at him once as he passed.
***
Hunter enjoyed the soothing sound of an owl hooting somewhere nearby as he tossed another piece of wood onto the fire before laying back down on his sleeping bag. Even with the temperature dropping into the mid-forties, he didn’t regret his decision to spend the night at the lake for even a second. The cloudless sky meant he’d sleep under a blanket of stars tonight and the sound of the forest coming alive as the nocturnal wildlife went about their lives was a hundred times better than listening to his father rant and rave about whatever trivial thing he’d decided was unacceptable in the world that he thought only revolved around himself.
It hadn’t taken much to convince his father to let him leave the house to hang out with “friends.” For some reason it had always been some kind of badge of honor for his father that Hunter had managed to become one of the more popular kids in his high school. As long as Hunter hung out with the kids his father deemed “the cool ones,” Hunter was golden. But if he’d dared gravitate towards the wrong ones, his father had never hesitated to let him know it in the only way he knew how. And for the most part, Hunter had managed to follow the unspoken rule…until the one day when his inner need had overshadowed his fear. One weak moment when he’d given in to the desperate craving he couldn’t ignore.
It took Hunter a moment to realize the owl and all the other inhabitants of the forest around him had gone silent and he automatically sat up and reached for the rifle sitting next to his sleeping bag. It wasn’t unheard of for bears to show up at the lake in search of food but he would have expected his fire to keep them at bay for tonight. A light off in the distance flashed through the trees and fear tripped through Hunter at the thought that his father had finally discovered his sanctuary. Fuck, there’d be hell to pay if he had.
“Hunter?”
The sound of Roman’s deep voice had Hunter climbing to his feet with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.