Alpha Billionaire Series
The Right Choice Chapter 6

GAVIN

Anice breeze blew over the back patio, cooling the heat of the day enough to make sitting outside to sip lemonade tolerable. The sun was high in the sky, and Mittens-my mother's shih tzu-hid under the table in the shade panting. His drool dribbled onto my sneakers, but I tried not to pay attention. If I wasn't covered in drool when I visited my parents' place, it was dog hair.

For the moment, I was enjoying the afternoon in peace. Mom was inside making another pitcher of lemonade and talking on the phone to her girlfriend from the beauty salon she frequented. We'd been interrupted by the call, and Mom left me to watch the dog while she took the call. I didn't mind. I was fulfilling my required duty as a son to keep her company while Dad was away on one of his many trips abroad for work. And I didn't have to listen to her nagging me for a few minutes. So, it was a win-win. I felt Mittens brush on my shoe and looked down to see him chewing on my shoelace. Without thinking, I nudged him away with my foot to discourage his bad behavior just as my mother walked out the door carrying fresh lemonade.

"Gavin Michael Carpenter!" Mom's scowl made me straighten in my seat. It was a funny thing about that look. Even as a boy the only thing she had to do was look at me and I would correct my behavior. "Be nice to Mittens." She turned on her baby talk, which she usually reserved only for her dog. "He's just a baby, isn't he?"

After setting the lemonade on the table, she scooped up the dog and held him like an infant, scratching his stomach and cooing at him. I was thankful he wasn't chewing my shoelace anymore. I was also thankful for more lemonade.

"So where is Dad this time?" I poured myself a glass and topped off Mom's too, then set the pitcher down. Condensation pooled in a ring beneath the large glass pitcher. To access the complete chapters for free, visit Jo b nib . com. "Oh, you know. Malta or Saint Marie or somewhere." She waved her hand in the air and turned Mittens over in her arms, then sat down. "I never ask anymore. It makes no difference to me where he travels; I just wish he'd be home more often." "Retirement is right around the corner, Mom." The breeze picked up, tossing a napkin across the table, and I caught it before it blew out into the yard. Mom settled Mittens on her lap and took a sip of her lemonade.

"Yes, retirement, and I have no grandbabies yet." Her narrowed eyes focused on me as I hid behind my glass, sipping it. "Now that you're available again, I'd love it if you would just try a date with Murielle's niece. She's so beautiful, and she is the director of operations at a consulting firm. Not sure what that means, but she's successful."

"Mom, I'm engaged." I bit my tongue, refusing to say more, but wanting to unleash on her. She hadn't liked Madison from the start, so it was no surprise to me that she was practically celebrating what was happening as if it wasn't affecting me emotionally. "Oh, you say that. But you know as well as I do that girl had some issues. I mean, she was so hung up on a dead man-"

"Mom, please have some respect." I set my glass down a little harder than I should have, and the table jostled. "Drew was never dead; he was in a coma."

"Same thing." She shrugged and set her glass down. "You know it doesn't matter. What matters is that you can meet Murielle's niece and replace out if you're compatible. I heard she just ended a bad relationship, so she is not only in the market, but also probably eager to get back on the playing field."

"Is that what this is to you? A game?"

Mom looked at me in stunned silence, batting her eyelashes furiously. "What do you mean?"

I tried to refocus my energy on the glass of lemonade, picking it up and having a long drink. I had always known my mother was a bit controlling and judgmental, but I hadn't realized how much she disliked Madison until right now. I just didn't know why. Madison was the best thing that ever happened to me.

"Just forget it." My glass empty, I sat it back on the table and watched Mittens scratch behind his ear, hair flying around and landing on Mom's slacks. She didn't seem to care one bit. That dog was her replacement for me since the time I moved out-a surrogate child. "Well, I spoke with Murielle, and Sammy, Sonya-" she touched her chin "-what was her name? Anyway, Murielle's niece will be available next weekend."

Mittens growled, staring out at the backyard where a stray tabby cat sauntered across the lawn. He was a guard dog in that aspect, chasing birds or cats or even squirrels off the lawn. In a split second, he tore off of Mom's lap and raced across the grass toward the cat. Mom launched to her feet, her chair sliding away from her.

"Mittens! Bad! Come back."

Mittens was just a dog, but at that moment I applauded him. He defended his property like the badass he was, barking and nipping at that cat until it climbed the old oak tree and hid high in the branches. I, however, had been a coward, allowing my mother to speak ill of my fiancé on more than one occasion. And it was time I rectified that.

"Oh, you bad dog," Mom scolded, shaking her finger at the mangy mutt whose chest was proudly puffed out as he mounted the steps and curled up by my feet, still growling as he stared out across the lawn. To access the complete chapters for free, visit Job nib.c o m.Mom sat down, smoothing her pants across her legs, and instantly her face was a beaming smile again. "So, next weekend?"

"Mom, I told you. I'm engaged to Madison, and I am in love with her. I'm not available to date Murielle's niece, or Lorna's daughter, or the sister of the neighbor lady's dog walker. I'm not available." I turned my glass on the table, spinning it in the moisture puddled on the glass top.

"Well!" She huffed, pursing her lips at me. "That woman has all but moved in with her ex-boyfriend, and you think you're still getting married? What on earth is this world coming to? Gavin Michael, I tell you, if you don't get some sense knocked into you, you will end up alone like an old miser."

"Good grief." Raking my hand through my hair, I pushed my chair back from the table and leaned forward. The way Mom raised her voice drew attention from the neighbor who sat on her back porch a few dozen yards away, knitting. Her eyebrows rose as she gawked at us as if she had nothing better to do than to eavesdrop. I wondered if that was Murielle.

"She is just out for your money anyway. That much is clear. She doesn't even have a real job. And why would she start dating you if she was in love with someone else anyway? She sounds like a gold digger to me." Mom fussed with her hair, brushing it back out of her face. "Please tell me you didn't get her pregnant. That's just what this family needs, a scandal about an unwed mother using you for money. No woman will ever date you again."

"Christ's f*****g sake, Mom!" I stood, not caring what Murielle, or the neighbor or anyone else had to say. "You're talking about the woman I love."

I stepped away from the table, offering the neighbor a glare, and she rose and gathered her things, disappearing inside her house. Then I turned back to Mom who shook her head, eyes raised.

"I taught you better than all of this, Gavin."

"Yes, you taught me to see the best in people, which is what you're refusing to do with Madison. We are getting married, like it or not. And if you want to see your grandbabies, whether that be in nine months or in two years, you will be nice to her."

Turning to face the backyard, my back to my mother, I took deep breaths to calm myself. I usually let Mom do her thing, go off on me and lecture. It made her feel better or something. But Madison was the woman I loved more than anything. I planned to marry her because I was not doing this over again, dating and risking my heart just to have it stomped on the way my ex-girlfriends did.

"Oh, dear. You know I'm watching out for you, right?"

I felt Mom's hand on my back before I even heard her coming. Frustration kept me so distracted. She had poured another glass of lemonade for me and held it in her hand, offering it to me. I took it but didn't look her in the eye. I was sick of her pushiness, the insistence that I provide grandchildren for her because I was "38 and not getting any younger."

Sipping the lemonade, I listened to her reasoning and justifying her poor behavior. The dog waddled around the grass, sniffing things and marking his territory. Part of me felt like she had deserved my blow up, but part of me felt ashamed.

"Gavin, you know, your Grandma Jean never liked me either, but the moment you came along, everything changed."

She spoke of my father's mother, who I could tell was a bit of a handful at times. I'd seen her act more controlling, nosy, and overbearing than my own other.

"You literally called Madii a gold digger." My jaw set, I gave her a side-eye.

"Well, now. You can't blame me for worrying about you, Gavin. Since you were about five years old and the little kid who lived down the street made fun of you and made you cry, I've just always worried that someone would take advantage of you. You have such a kind heart, and you're so compassionate. Remember that tiny bird you found one year? You wanted to bring it in and nurse it back to health."

It was just like my mother to lay it on thick. Her "mommy dearest" act was her go-to performance every time she irritated me, or I lashed out. It was her way of smoothing things over without really taking responsibility for her actions or the hurtful words she spoke to me. It frustrated the f**k out of me, but there was no use in trying to change her now. The best I could hope for at this point was that she would adjust to the fact that Madison was the woman I wanted to be with the rest of my life. And as she said, maybe things would change once Madii finally gave her what she wanted-a grandchild.

"I have to go, Mom." Thrusting the half-drank glass of lemonade into her hand, I took her by the shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. "Please tell Dad to let me know what day and time he is getting in. I'll drive you to the airport to pick him up."

"Oh, Gavin, please don't rush off. We were just having a lovely time here." She snatched my wrist as I tried to walk away. Her eyes large saucers begging me to stay with her. Even Mittens came running up to the patio, his dog license on his collar jingling like a cat bell.

"Actually, I have a game of basketball planned with Nick and Jiles. They're expecting me at the court in about 45 minutes, so I'd like to get home and change to be there a few minutes early. I'm not as young as I used to be and I need to stretch before we get too active."

I winced as the words came out of my mouth, realizing they were the same words Mom always used to pressure me into settling down with her friends' nieces or children. Time was of the essence to Mom, but to me, it was love that mattered.

"Oh, well, then have a good game." All the melodrama in the world couldn't outdo my mother when she turned on the act of a wounded parent. I wasn't sure how my father survived so many years with her.

"I'll see you later this week. When is your hair appointment?" I'd found that the only way to outmaneuver her emotional manipulation and passive aggressive tendencies was to pretend I didn't notice.

After producing a large sigh, she said, "Wednesday at 3:30."

"Alright, I'll stop by around 2:45 then and we will get you to the salon on time. But I'm not taking Mittens this time. He covered me in hair last time."

Mom rolled her eyes. "Fine."

Turning to go, I ignored the tiny foot stomp of disapproval and kept walking. Mom always crossed the line, but never like she had today. She had upset me, but what upset me more was the fact that I was there defending Madison to my mother, and Madison didn't seem to care. If she was going to be my wife one day soon, she was going to have to start acting like it. Maybe Nick and Jiles would have some advice for me, on how to let Madii know I was serious.

Or maybe we would shoot hoops and talk about Nick and Jiles's relationships and they'd let me off the hook. Either way, a serious talk with Madison was on the cards for the next time we got together, which would be in just a few days. Since the moment she had invited me for dinner, I had been planning exactly what to say to her. This insanity needed to stop. She was mine-not Drew's. We were getting married, and if I was going to defend her against my mother's verbal attacks, I needed to know she was still in it for the long haul. Time to put an end to the games.