I can tell George is itching to hold my hand or cup the back of my neck as he makes me walk next to him up the sidewalk to one of the apartments, where an EPU officer stands watch outside.
Casey opens the front door for us before we even reach the stoop and we head inside. Sure enough, Aussie is in the living room with her brothers.
Fear slams into me, all those old demons of mine screaming the taunts that gut me every time.
Not worthy.
Not good enough.
Faker.
And…worse.
Muchworse.
“G-governor Forrester,” I softly say. “I don’t mind waiting outside in the car.”
George smiles, gently cups the back of my neck, and guides me into the living room. It hits me the apartment smells delicious and something’s in the oven, so apparently Casey and Aussie have been here for a while.
The boys stand to hug their dad. Ryder’s twenty-one, and Logan’s nineteen. They’re carbon copies of their father, hints of Ellen’s features in their face, but with George’s height and build and his killer blue eyes and light brown hair. I slowly edge backward, trying to melt into the kitchen. Except I bump against Casey, who snuck up behind me.
She plants a firm hand between my shoulder blades and shoves, hard. “Get in there, boy,” she mutters.
I’m frickingshaking. I’ve been set up, and I know it.
Without even looking, George reaches behind me and scoops his arm around me, drawing me in. “Aussie’s already talked to them,” Casey says from behind us. “About Ashleigh.”
George sighs, even as he tucks me against his side. “I wish you’d waited for me, honey. I wanted to be here.”
Aussie shrugs. “I knew Aunt Case would kick their asses if I needed her to.”
“True story,” Casey, Ryder, and Logan say in unison, which prompts laughter from all of them and a nervous smile from me.
“Boys?” George asks. “We okay?”
The brothers nod. “Duh,” Ryder says.
“She’s our little sister,” Logan adds. “Just want her to be happy.” Both boys have glanced my way with more than mild curiosity, but I don’t sense outright hostility.
Yet.
“Good,” George says. “I’m proud of you.” He takes a deep breath. “There’s no comfortable or easy way to say this. You know I loved your mother. I never thought I’d be able to survive losing her.”
He looks down at me, a sad smile on his face. “We never left anything unsaid, though. One of the pitfalls of being with an attorney is thinking about the future. We had a lot of conversations over the years.”
He focuses on them again. “If I’d died and she’d survived, I would have wanted her to find someone else, someone who made herhappy. I would have given her my blessings, no matter who it was, as long as they were a good person and could love her. And I know she felt the same way about me. We just never thought that was something we’d have to face this…soon.”
George’s hand on my shoulder gently squeezes. “Long story short, I’m in love with Declan. I feel about him the way I felt about your Mom when I first met her. I’m not asking for your blessings, although that would be appreciated. All we’re asking for is your promise not to tell anyone about us right now.”
Logan’s and Ryder’s eyes widen, nearly identical shock on their faces.
“Wait,” Ryder says. “Dad, you’re saying you’re…gay?”
“Flexible,” Casey pipes up as she steps forward to flank my other side. “Doesn’t matter, though. Same as whoever you’re in a relationship with doesn’t matter. But like you cannot talk about Aussie and Ashleigh, you absolutely cannot talk about your dad and Declan. To anyone. Are you understanding me?”
She delivers that last sentence in a very firm Ma’am tone that has me wanting to drop to my knees in front of her. It’s a tone I haven’t heard as much of as I’d like lately.
I’ve known these kids most of their lives, Aussie since she was a toddler. I know they’ve always looked up to me as a big brother. When George was still missing and presumed dead, I was one of the people they leaned on during the process of arranging their parents’ funeral, all of it.
