“No,” I answer, taking every ounce of my strength to form that one syllable.
He smiles, but it’s bittersweet.
“I learned what my daughter sounds like when she’s happy. It’s been a long time since I saw that look in her eyes. And even longer since I heard it in her voice. She’s in love with you.”
I rub a hand over my jaw to distract myself from the deep drag of despair pulling at my gut.
“And I’m in love with her.”
He leans back in his chair, swirling the brandy in his glass.
“So now I have to do what a parent has to do.”
He meets my eyes, the same glassiness in his that I’m sure is reflected in mine.
“I have to let my little girl live her life. Because seeing her today I realize how lost she’s been. Jenny died. But Halliday…” His face screws up with emotion. “Halliday… she stoppedliving. We didn’t just lose one daughter that day. We lost them both.”
I give up trying to hold back the tears that are misting my eyes. Instead, I swipe one away as it breaks free. Hallie said she thinks she was really the one who needed me all along. Hearing the same from her father is almost too much to handle. Because I know she’s changed my life since she came into it.
And he’s telling me I’ve changed hers too. For the better.
The universe knew each of us needed the other.
“She loved Jenny. She’s been the driving force that’s motivated her to create what she has,” I say. “They’re both an incredible testament to you and Julie.”
“No.” Garth shakes his head. “They’re an incredible testament to themselves. Both of them. When you have kids, all you can do is prepare them the best you can. But after that you have to?—”
“Let them go,” I say.
Garth sighs. “Precisely.”
I can barely breathe. My chest is on fire. My heart is on fire. My soul is on damn fire. The sound of it all raging inside, tearing through me fills my ears.
He’s leaving the choice with Hallie.
He’s letting her choose.
She has their support. Not receiving it was what she feared the most. It’s whatIfeared most. Not Rory. Not what could happen to her business.
It’s what her parents would say about us.
Because they held the key to whether she would find it impossible to live in another country, away from them. They could have made the decision for her, made it impossible for her to choose any other way. I know Hallie. She wouldn’t have been happy without their blessing. The pressure it would have put on their relationship would have broken her eventually. She wouldn’t have been happy, no matter how hard I loved her every day.
I signal the bartender. “Can you bring the bottle, please.”
I take another mouthful of cognac as I look her father dead in the eye and level with him.
“I’ll give her everything. I’ll love her with all I have every second of every day, I promise you.”
The bartender places the bottle down onto the table and Garth pours himself a generous serving.
“But this is her choice. It will always be her choice,” I add.
“I know.”
He sips his drink, his face weary. He looks like a man who knows that he’s about to sacrifice a part of his own happiness for the love of his family.
He looks like a father.
