With that, she swept off toward the kitchen.
“Do you need help?” I called.
“I’ve got it!” she called back.
“Dad’s coming?” Dair asked Davi.
“Apparently, they had a very civilized dinner at The Dome after Dad told her Blake’s plan to stop Signe from further embarrassing herself, and Mum realized Dad was stepping up for ye,” Davi replied. “They’ve hashed everything out. They’re getting a divorce. But we’re all still going to be one big friendly family.”
I watched with concern as Dair’s head slowly turned toward where his mother disappeared.
Distracted, he looked down at me. “Wine or a cocktail, darling?”
“Whatever’s easiest,” I said.
He nodded, glanced at his sister’s glass because he was a gentleman, and gentlemen ascertained the need for drink refills before they left a room, then he followed his mother.
I moved and sat in the armchair next to Davi’s.
“Are you okay with this friendly family stuff?” I asked.
“Not even a little,” she told me. “I think Dad should squirm for as many years as he made Mum put up with his cheating.” She shrugged. “But it can’t be denied he went all out to help Dair deal with Signe. So I guess he’s still a dad.”
He did go all out.
And he’d always be a dad.
Last, the thing with Signe was good and over.
I’d had a peek, and when I saw she’d taken all the videos down on all her platforms that had anything to do with Dair, I’d shown him we’d won.
This victory was sweet.
I let my questions about Bally coming to dinner go, and Davi and I made small talk for a few minutes before Dair came back.
After handing me a glass of white wine, with his Scotch, he sat on the sofa cattycorner to Davi and my armchairs, both that faced the lit hearth.
The two sofas that flanked the fireplace were smaller than couches, bigger than loveseats, and presently, Dair was glancing at the space beside him, that glance came to me, then he pointed a finger at the space beside him.
With a long-suffering sigh, I got up and sat next to Dair.
He draped an arm around my shoulders and tucked me to his side.
Okay, so it was worth putting up with his bossy.
“Bloody hell, he’s such a man,” Davi grumbled, but her eyes were bright and happy as she watched us.
“Mum says she told Dad to be here half an hour after we got here so we can adjust to the fact he’s going to be here,” Dair announced.
“Are you okay with that?” I asked him.
After Hale left, and I’d unearthed some pictures of us when we were kids someone (not Mum, for certain) had put in a scrapbook, and arranged for them to be overnighted to his dad, while I was on enforced rest on a heating pad, he’d told me his thoughts had grown even more confused about how he felt regarding his father.
I could see why it would be difficult to wrap your head around loving a man who was as protective and supportive of you as ever, the same man who had done what Bally had done.
“This is who we are now, I reckon,” Dair answered me.
I wasn’t fond of his answer.
