1 Chapter 1

1

Alec Savage stared up at the two-story house through his dusty windshield with a mélange of fear, anger, and excitement churning in his stomach. Considering his father’s child support checks had arrived like clockwork for the past twenty-four years, he shouldn’t have been surprised to find out the neat Victorian tucked away in a suburban DC neighborhood belonged to the man he’d never met. The owner of this house had plenty of money and no need to brag for everyone to know it. The lawn was impeccably tailored with twin rows of low hedges soldiering along the stone path that wound its way to the front door, while white paint and hunter green trim seemed fresh enough to have been put on last week.

A fairytale house if he ever saw one. Too bad its owner was anything but a prince charming.

“In and out. This won’t be so bad.”

In spite of saying so out loud, he didn’t believe it for a second. He’d spent the entire drive from Miami trying to convince himself he was the bigger man in this situation. After all, he could have responded to William Savage’s request to come see him so they could celebrate Alec’s twenty-fifth birthday together with an emphatic, “Go to hell, you absentee son of a bitch.” Instead, Alec put aside any resentment he might have and agreed to meeting, with the option of sticking around for birthday shenanigans if he decided he wanted more time.

His friends were split on his decision. Some told Alec he was doing the right thing, excited he finally had the opportunity to come face-to-face with the man who’d abandoned him and his mother right after he was born. Others tried saying he was better off ignoring the invitation. He’d lived this long without having him in his life, so why should now be any different?

The whole ride up, Alec fluctuated between the two, depending on how tired he was. Now that he was on his father’s doorstep, he leaned toward wondering why he’d ever thought this would be a good idea.

As he reached for his door handle, Imagine Dragons blasted from his phone, startling him into sitting back and pulling it out of his pocket.

“Well? Is he everything you dreamed about and more?”

The breathless question was so over the top, Alec laughed, dispelling some of his tension. “You jumped the gun, Zander. I haven’t even met the man yet.”

“Oh.” Clear disappointment came over the line. Zander Ivey had been firmly planted in the Meet-Your-Dad camp from the instant Alec shared the e-mail with him. The two had been friends since college when Zander had answered his ad for a roommate. Alec hadn’t been sure of him at first—Zander was six years older and coming back to school after messing up the first time around—but when nobody else remotely suitable showed, he decided to give it a go. Theygrsquo;d developed an easy friendship and, in the five years since, dated occasionally, but at this point in their lives, Alec saw him more as a confidant than the boyfriend relationship Zander made it clear he wanted. Thankfully, Zander wasndrsquo;t a prick about Alec keeping him at armmrsquo;s length, though he was quick to hop into bed whenever Alec got too drunk or too depressed to remember their boundaries. Alec prided himself for not succumbing to baser desires for months now when using Zander to get off was far too easy. He wanted to be a bigger man than that, and besides, Zander deserved better.

“Well, why not?” Zander said. “Please tell me you didn’t chicken out at the last minute.”

“I didn’t chicken out. I’m in front of his house right now.”

“So what are you waiting for?”

“Some idiot called me before I could get out of the car.”

Zander laughed. “Fine, fine, I’m going, but don’t forget to let me know how it all went down, okay? I want all the juicy details.”

Alec let him go with a promise to call later. Zander’s interruption was the reminder he needed. He wanted this meeting, no matter how scary it was.

Whistling under his breath, he headed for the front door, focusing on the mundane details like how lucky it was the weather hadn’t turned nasty yet in Washington, and whether or not his father was the kind of guy who decorated his house for the upcoming holidays. In the grand cosmic scheme of Alec’s life, imagining Christmas lights wrapped around the banister of the front porch was infinitely easier than dwelling on what a huge deal this was.