Chapter Two
Three years later...
“Mr. Ellison? Mr. Davis is ready to see you now,” the pretty blonde behind the unnecessarily huge reception desk said, nodding to a glass door off to the side of the room.
Rusty stood, stretching his arms high above his head, winked at the receptionist, and headed for the door she’d indicated.
L. M. Davis, it said in gold foil letters, vertical blinds blocking the view into the office. Every lawyer in the world seemed to have the same office.
Rusty went through the door without knocking, finding his father’s lawyer staring out the fifth-floor window at the harbor.
“Rusty,” Larry Davis turned to face him, his hair more grey than black now, his face tired as always. He’d been a figure in Rusty’s life for a long time.
What kind of man invited his lawyer to his kid’s birthday parties?
Well, Rusty knew the answer to that. His father.
Rusty sat in the plush leather chair on his own side of the desk, leaning back and throwing one leg over the other to make himself comfortable.
“Haven’t seen you in a while. I hear you moved back to Melbourne.”
“Mm,” Rusty said. They all knew why he’d moved. He doubted that Larry really wanted to talk about it.
“Nice place?” Larry asked, moving to stand next to his chair, but not making a move to sit yet. It was the only way he could be taller than Rusty these days, so it was probably meant to intimidate him.
“Works for me,” Rusty said. “Did you summon me to Sydney just to make small talk, or…?”
Larry rolled his eyes, finally sitting down. He opened his desk drawer and extracted a folder, tossing it across the desk.
Rusty reached out to take it, confused. His dad hadn’t died or anything, so he had no idea what all this was about.
“You should’ve told me you’d gotten married,” Larry said. “I would’ve sent a toaster.”
Rusty didn’t doubt for a second that he would have done exactly that, but he wasn’t…
He reached out for the folder, heart in his throat as he flipped it open.
Oh.
Shit.
“Shit,” he said aloud. “That wasn’t… they gave us a novelty certificate, it couldn’t have been… it was years ago, and we only just passed…”
“Marriage equality, yeah. Which means that not only is it legal in the US, it’s legal in Australia, now, too. I take it you and your husband aren’t together anymore.”
Rusty wet his lips.
“He was an artist,” Rusty said. He remembered Blake—how could he forget a man he’d chased as hard as that—but he hadn’t thought about him in a while.
Months, at least.
Maybe days.
He’d been hard to forget. That wasn’t the point.
“He’s a project manager for a construction firm,” Larry said. “You’ll find his address and place of business in there.”
Rusty flicked through the papers in the folder, his foot tapping nervously on the polished marble tiles.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Rusty asked.
“Your father’s tying up loose ends before he runs for parliament. You need to sort this out as quickly and quietly as you can. There’s a plane ticket and a blank cheque.” Larry nodded to the folder. “As well as divorce papers. Pay him off, get him to agree that you don’t owe him anything.”
“What? Why?” Rusty asked. He was used to being told what to do, but it was never anything like this.
“Because you’re an adult and you can mop up your own messes now,” Larry said. “This is for your own good. He could pop up at any time and take half of everything you have, everything you’ve built for yourself. It’s for your protection as much as your father’s.”
Rusty doubted that was the motivation, but he couldn’t deny that it was true. Blake hadn’t seemed like the type who’d do that, but Rusty didn’t know him that well.
Just well enough to marry him, apparently.
He really hadn’t thought it was serious. How serious could a ceremony performed by an Elvis impersonator be? He hadn’t even given a proper address.
Which… was probably why this was the first time he was seeing a non-novelty marriage certificate.
Larry was right. In the same way a stopped clock was right twice a day, but still. He was right.
That was almost the worst part of all this.
“This flight is for this afternoon,” Blake said, checking the confirmation details.
“Sooner’s better than later. You could be back home by the weekend if you leave today.”
Rusty shook his head. “No. I need to go home first.” He slid the flight papers back across the table. “Tomorrow afternoon, from Melbourne,” he said.
“Is that really necessary?” Larry asked.
“You want me to make a scene?” Rusty threatened. He didn’t have a lot of leverage here, but his father’s public appearance was important. To Larry and Rusty’s dad, at least.
“No.” Larry pursed his lips. “Fine. But you will sort this out. Quietly.”
“Quiet as a church mouse,” Rusty promised. “But you tell dad he owes me.”
Larry glared at him, and Rusty knew he was overextending his hand, but his father was in the habit of erring on the side of caution. He could get away with this.
“Got anything in mind?” Larry asked.
Success.
“I’ll keep this one in the bank,” Rusty said, standing. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
It was anything but a pleasure, but that seemed like the kind of thing to say. It made Larry’s eyelid twitch, which was what Rusty wanted to see.
“I’m so glad you’re reuniting me with my long-lost husband,” he added as he pushed his chair back in. “I remember him having a fantastic arse.”
Larry glared at him again. “Yeah, well… take care of this before it comes back to bite you in yours.”
“Glad we could catch up, Larry,” Rusty called as he headed back into the reception area, winking at the receptionist again.
The thought of facing Blake again after all this time made his stomach knot up with nerves, but he wasn’t going to let anyone else see that. The one thing he couldn’t afford around his father was weakness.
Hopefully, Blake wouldn’t hate him too much when he turned back up.