Chapter 308: Frank Reyes’s Matchmaking Services

By ten in the morning, I had come to a significant realization.

My dad was out to ruin my life, plain and simple.

There really wasn’t any other reasonable explanation for everything that had unfolded. I’d woken up in Damien’s arms, muddled through an awkward breakfast, seen him take a mysterious call that instantly killed the good mood, and somehow found myself at the kitchen table while the two most important men in my life chatted about Damien’s plans as if I didn’t even exist.

The coffee in front of me was already lukewarm, and that bright morning light streaming through the window felt way too cheerful for the quiet little conspiracy happening across the table.

Dad took a sip of his tea and turned to Damien. "So, when are you heading back to the big, fancy city, son?"

Damien gave him a glance. "I don’t have to go back soon."

Dad’s face lit up. "Good...good."

I slowly raised my eyes from my coffee and glared at the both of them. Good? What the heck was good about that?

Dad kept going as if he hadn’t just dropped a bombshell at my breakfast table. "You’re welcome to stay here at our house for as long as you like."

Damien’s expression softened. "Thank you."

I looked back and forth between them. No one was looking at me, no one asked for my input. It was like they’d completely forgotten that this was my house too.

I set my cup down with a soft clink that sounded way louder than it should have in the stillness of the kitchen. "That’s interesting."

Dad turned to me, feigning innocence. "What is?"

"The fact that you two are making plans for Damien to move in here permanently without so much as a word to me."

"We’re not making him move in permanently, Ollie." Dad said casually, as if that made everything okay.

Damien’s mouth twitched.

"Not yet," I muttered.

Dad chuckled and Damien seemed characteristically pleased. I shot him a look. "Don’t look so happy."

Leaning back in his chair, Damien looked entirely unfazed, with the morning sun catching his jawline in a way that felt downright unfair at that hour. "I like being here, it’s...really peaceful."

That wasn’t supposed to affect me, but it did. I found myself staring into my coffee, suddenly fascinated by the swirl of cream that had already mixed in.

"Fine, he can stay...or whatever."

Damien smiled, and I instantly regretted giving in so easily.

Something felt different about the vibe between Damien and me that morning. Maybe it was because of the night before.

Maybe it was because he finally told me the truth or because we slept next to each other, and I woke up with his arm around me, momentarily forgetting that four years had gone by. Whatever the reason, I could feel it.

The tension was still there, just transformed. Instead of the sharp, prickly kind that made me want to flee whenever Damien got too close, it was now soft and warm, and somehow scarier because I found myself starting to enjoy it.

I was still contemplating if that was a good thing when Dad cleared his throat. "I need a few things from town."

I focused on him right away. "What things?"

"Just a few things."

That alone set off my suspicions. "Well, what the fuck are those things?"

Dad waved a hand dismissively. "Some groceries, medicine and something for the television."

"What does the television need?"

"Something."

"Dad."

He grinned. "Don’t worry about it."

I narrowed my eyes. "You’re hiding something."

"I’m an old man. I’m allowed to be mysterious."

I opened my mouth, then shut it again and Damien let out a soft laugh, the sound warm enough to almost shrink the kitchen around us.

Dad pointed to the door. "You’re heading into town anyway, right?"

"I suppose."

"Good. You can pick everything up."

I nodded. "Fine."

Damien stood up immediately. "I’ll come with you."

I shot him a look. "No."

He blinked, surprised. "No?"

"What are you? A lost puppy? You don’t have to come with me."

"But, I want to."

I stared at him and Damien stared back, Dad just smiled into his tea.

I turned to my dad. "Are you seriously going to let him follow me around?"

Dad shrugged. "He’s a grown man, let him do whatever he wants ."

"So am I."

"Then you ought to be able to handle a trip through town with another grown man."

I gaped at him, "That’s not the fucking point."

"What is the point?"

I didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t sound stupid. Because the point was I was beginning to enjoy being around Damien again, and that was exactly the issue.

I sighed. "Fine."

Damien grabbed his jacket. Dad looked suspiciously pleased, and I caught that. "Why are you smiling?"

"I like seeing you two get along."

"We’re not getting along."

Damien opened the front door. "Come on, Sunshine."

I glared at him. "Fuck off."

The walk into town should’ve been completely ordinary.

But it wasn’t.

Mainly because it seemed like Damien had decided to spend every possible second within a three-foot radius of me since he’d been gone for four years.

At first, I tried to ignore it. We walked side by side down the familiar road toward the town center, and for the first few minutes, neither of us said much.

The morning air was warm but not unbearable, and the streets were getting busier as shops opened and vendors set up their stalls.

The scent of fresh bread wafted from a bakery in the distance, mingling with the faint smell of freshly cut grass from a small park we passed.

I noticed Damien was walking on the side closest to the road.

I didn’t think much of it.

Until a car sped a bit too close to the curb.

His hand grazed my arm, nudging me to the side, then I looked at him. "You know I have eyes, right?"

"I know."

"I can see the road."

"I suppose you can."

"So why did you move me?"

He shrugged. "Habit."

That response left me speechless.

Habit.

Some things still hadn’t changed.

We kept walking.

A few minutes later, I began to suspect that Damien had quietly appointed himself my personal bodyguard, although I couldn’t figure out when exactly the position had become available or why he seemed so determined to fill it without receiving a salary.

Whenever I slowed my pace to look into a shop window or avoid a particularly enthusiastic pedestrian, he slowed down with me, and whenever I picked up speed because I suddenly remembered that we had actual errands to run, he adjusted his steps to match mine.

At first, I tried to ignore it, mostly because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing I had noticed, but his behaviour became increasingly difficult to overlook when we reached the busier section of town, where the sidewalks were crowded with people going about their morning business.

Damien moved slightly ahead of me whenever the crowd thickened, subtly guiding me around people who were walking too close or stepping into my path, and even managed to position himself between me and the road whenever a car passed a little too near the curb.

It was all so instinctive that I couldn’t help wondering whether he had always been this protective or if four years of being away had somehow made him forget that I was a fully functioning adult who could cross a street without requiring a personal security detail.

The worst part was that he did it so casually, without making a big deal out of it or even seeming aware of how often he was doing it, which made it feel as though we hadn’t missed a beat during all those years apart.

Apparently, while I had been busy learning how to live without him, Damien’s protective instincts had been sitting patiently in storage, waiting for the opportunity to make a dramatic comeback.

I eventually let out a long-suffering sigh and glanced at him. "You’re doing it again."

Damien looked down at me, his expression perfectly innocent. "Doing what?"

"Hovering."

"I’m literally just walking, Oliver."

"You’re hovering while walking, which is somehow even more irritating because I didn’t know that was a thing until you started doing it."

He cocked his head slightly, looking genuinely amused by my complaint. "I don’t think that’s physically possible."

"With you, anything is possible. I’m beginning to suspect you have some kind of secret superpower that allows you to be irritating in multiple locations at once."

His lips curved into a smile as he turned his attention back to the road. "I bet you missed arguing with me."

I scoffed. "I have not, asshole."

"You’re sure?"

"Completely."