“Knock it off.”
“What?” I asked as I warily accepted the utensils from her. “I’m seriously worried about your intensions.”
She huffed. “Like I’d do bodily harm to you with all these witnesses around. I wasn’t born yesterday, kid. Now fill up your plate. We have some talking to do.”
All the levity leached from me. I knew I hadn’t even begun to make up for all my fuck ups with her.
Regret wasn’t a big enough word to encompass all my emotions over the situation. Guilt. Shame. Grief. Pain. Anger. So much fucking anger—both at me and my sperm donor.
So it was with a heavy heart that I set my plate down on the empty table Aunt Wendy had nabbed far from all the fun. I was only mildly concerned she wanted to punish me away from witnesses. Lord knew I deserved anything and everything she could want to dish out.
“Wendy, I’m so fucking sorry.” With my hands folded in my lap, I turned and faced the woman who’d raised me. The closest person I had to a parent that I could remember. “I apologized to the family earlier, but you deserve so much more. I know they’re just words I’ve tried and failed to use before, but it’s all I’ve got. I just…I really wanted everything he told me to be real. I wanted a father. And I was so stupid. I believed he’d changed. I regret it so fucking much. I can’t even tell you—” I had to stop because the emotion clogging my throat made it hard to talk.
“Oh darling.” Wendy’s arms came around me. “I don’t blame you, Dylan. You’re not responsible for his actions. And he’s always had a special power to make people believe him. How do you think he convinced my sister to fall for his bullshit and have four kids with him? He can be charming when he wants to be.”
She held me for a minute and rocked me like she hadn’t done since I was little. And I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I cried a little.
“I never thought he’d hurt anyone. And I busted my ass all over town trying to make up for all the damage he’d caused. But there’s nothing I can do that will ever get your restaurant back. I talked to a bank, but they wouldn’t approve me for—”
“What?” She pulled back and gave me a look like she doubted my sanity. “Now, why would you go and do that?”
“You lost your restaurant because of me. Because I testified for him. Because I brought him back into our lives. I just wanted to try to make up for it somehow. And it was the only thing I could think of. But they wanted thirty-k up front, and I don’t—”
“You foolish boy. That’s not on you.” She put a hand on my jaw and forced me to meet her gaze. “Look me in the eyes when I say it again. You are not responsible for his actions. What happened is not on you. I will be fine. I’ve taken some time off, but I’ll be looking for a new spot in a few weeks or so. I’m not giving up. Brian is going to help me out. He’s decided he’s ready to retire and wants to have his own permanent booth in my next restaurant.”
“You know what Judge Judy says:‘until you’re married, document any money transactions in writing.’”
Aunt Wendy laughed. She’d raised us on daytime tv, and Judge Judy had always been a favorite. “Will do.”
I smiled slightly, but despite her lecture on original sin, I still felt guilty. I’d probably always feel guilty about what had happened because no matter what anyone said, I had played a part. If I hadn’t spoken up at that parole meeting…
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Indy.” Aunt Wendy tapped her fork against her plate, her brow wrinkled in thought. “But I suspect I might be too late on that front.”
I finally looked up from my self-flagellation and found her gaze snagged on the girls’ table. Where Indy was currently staring at me with what could only be described as heart eyes. I grinned back at her and waggled my eyebrows. She blushed then grinned back at me.
“Dammit,” Aunt Wendy muttered.
“What’s wrong?” After one more grin at Indy, I turned back to my aunt.
“That.”
I blinked a few times. “I’m going to need more words here.”
“Just…” She sighed heavily and put her fork down. “That girl has lost everything—her home, the only person who raised her, everything she’d built here—and now you are the very center of her new world. You live together. You got her a job where you work. You two are together almost twenty-four, seven. And I suspect other things are going on too.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” I gestured with my fork. “You’re going into business with Brian. You guys live together. You do other things too. I don’t see the problem. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”
“And I appreciate that. I really do. But Indy isnineteen. She’s never truly been on her own. She went from her grandmother’s house to her father’s to yours. And now she relies on you for everything—food, shelter, work—her very well-being relies on you. The power imbalance between the two of you is insane.”
My stomach churned at her implication. “Wait, do you seriously think I’m extorting her? That I’m pressuring her to—”
“No.Never. That’s not what I’m saying, Dylan. I’m saying that Indy is young, and I’m worried that you two might not be together for the right reasons. She deserves to see what’s out there. To stand on her own two feet. She needs to know who she is as a person and that she can rely on herself.”
My heart sank.
Because she was right.
What she was saying reminded me of history class and reading about women’s suffrage, when women went from their parents’ house to their husband’s and had very little say in what happened in their lives.
