Thicker than Water

Chapter 6 (Josh)

I'm going to kill him. That's all Josh could think about during the drive home after talking with Lauren. Out of all the selfish, egotistical, self-gaining stunts that his father had pulled, this had to be the worst.

In fairness, his dad didn't exactly know that Josh had been seeing Lauren, but why had he gone after Shannon anyway? She wasn't his usual type. She was about 20 years older and had the intelligence higher than a fifth grader. What game was his dad playing?

He was going to find out. Hopefully, this relationship would fizzle out quickly, before any vows were exchanged. Most engagements lasted at least a year. Plenty of time to get sick of each other.

He knew his dad would be at work, so that's where he was headed. As he walked into the front door, Josh noticed his dad had replaced his secretary since his last visit. This wasn't unusual. Dan Riley had a short fuse when it came to what he considered "incompetence."

Josh didn't even bother to stop at her desk before barging into his dad's office. It was empty.

"Excuse me, can I help you, sir?" It was miss newbie shuffling in behind him, trying to keep up.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm Josh, Dan's son. Do you know when he'll be back? I'm assuming he's at a meeting or something?

"Oh no. He took the afternoon off."

"Excuse me?" Josh's dad NEVER left work early...not for anything—even his eldest son's birthday.

"Yeah. His fiancé came by this morning, and they left to make some wedding plans I'm assuming. With the wedding coming that quickly, I'm sure they are busy!"

"Quickly?" Josh hated that he sounded so confused, but damn, he was. 

"Well...yeah. I can't even imagine planning my wedding in two months!"

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"Were you planning on filling me in on your quickly approaching nuptials?" Josh said sharply into his phone while returning to his car.

His dad sighed. "Yes. Actually, Shannon and I were going to bring you and Lauren to dinner this week and discuss our plans."

"Why don't we just get this over with now?"

"If you insist. Shannon wanted to be sure that you kids would be able to come to wedding, so we planned it for Thanksgiving break...in Maui."

"Maui?!? You expect all your guests to fly to Hawaii with two months' notice?"

"Of course not. Since this is neither of our first marriages," Ha! Try number four on your side, Dad. "we decided to keep it small. Just us, you, Lauren and Ali."

Josh hung up the phone before he said something he would regret. He needed to get to busy. The chances of this relationship ending in two months was slim to none, but he had to try. He found the number in his phone and made the call.