“What the fuck?” Chris asked.
“Mallory has been the scared little kid before. You probably should have listened to her instead of storming off last night and making her feel like shit. If you didn’t want her involved in you and Lily’s lives you shouldn’t have asked for her opinion on any of it.”
“That’s not what I came here to talk about,” Chris pointed out. He picked up his mug and finished his coffee.
“Are you that dense?” Dan asked. “Pay attention, because I don’t like repeating myself.”
Chris took a few steps forward until they were nearly nose to nose. He opened and closed his fist several times as he fought the urge to hit him. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to, man?”
Dan was about the same size as Chris. With more of a swimmer’s build, he was obviously in shape and carried the confidence of someone who could hold his own in a fight. If Chris had any plans to fix things with Mallory, he couldn’t get into an actual fight with her best friend. He reminded himself of that before taking a step back.
“Are you ready to listen to what I have to say?” Dan asked.
With a heavy sigh, Chris gave a small nod.
“As Mallory tried to explain to you last night, you don’t want me to break that trust. Being a teenager is hard and she opened up to me. If she ends up here permanently, it’ll be good for her tohave someone safe to talk to. And if I repeat what she told me, it won’t just be me that she’s mad at. Is that what you want?”
“No,” he choked out, feeling like a jackass.
Dan was right. He knew he was. The fact that Dan had to spell it all out like that was embarrassing. The only thing he could chalk it up to was stress. The stress of possibly making the wrong decision about things that didn’t just affect him. Two people were currently depending on him to do the right thing.
“I didn’t think so. You need to fix things with Mallory. She’s loyal to a fault and will support you through everything. But you need to fix it. She wasn’t trying to judge you, she was trying to help you. We were all children before, but Mallory’s childhood was difficult, so it’s never far from her mind. She’ll be good for Lily to be around.”
“I know. I’ll talk to Mallory. It just hurts that Lily doesn’t feel safe talking to me about everything. We were always close,” Chris admitted.
“I know. She’ll talk to you when she’s ready. In the meantime, fight for her.”
Chris thanked Dan before seeing himself out. He could tell Mallory hadn’t been exaggerating about him saving her life. He headed to work feeling eternally grateful that both Mallory and Lily had him in their lives, even if deep down he wished he was the one they could turn to. His feelings of anger were replaced by relief. Relief that Dan was strong enough to be what his daughter needed.
Chapter 24
MALLORY
Mallory went to take a quick shower after texting Dan what she wanted from the Thai restaurant. It was date night with Dan, but she didn’t feel like cooking. Avoiding Christian was exhausting. It had been an entire week since he stormed out of her apartment, and she’d managed to avoid him other than the short time it took to let Lily in or to see her off. During the week, he usually showed up to pick Lily up a little after she left for work, so that helped.
He’d asked a few times if they could talk, but she just wasn’t ready. It had taken a lot for her to give her input, and his reaction reinforced her original plan to keep her distance, not from Lily, but from Christian. She enjoyed the time she spent with Lily independent of her relationship with Christian. If things got more serious between her and Christian and then they broke up, she knew that would be the end of being in her life. If she stepped back now, she could continue the way things were. That’s what she told herself, anyway.
Since she never felt the need to impress Dan, she threw on a pair of sweatpants and a tank top. A low-key night of eating takeout in front of the TV was exactly what she needed. Her stomach growled as she ran the brush through her hair before putting it up in a ponytail.
When she walked out of her bedroom and into the kitchen, she was shocked to find Christian placing various takeout containers onto the kitchen island.
“Hey,” he greeted, his voice barely above a whisper.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Setting dinner out …”
Unamused, she rephrased her question. “What are you doinghere?”
“We need to talk, but you keep avoiding me,” he answered simply.
“Yeah. Because I don’t have anything I want to talk about.” The fact she kept avoiding him should have made that painfully obvious.
“Oh no you don’t,” he said gently. “You aren’t running. Tell me why you don’t want to talk.”
After selecting a container, she sat down at the island to dig in. She may have been avoiding him, but she was hungry. It was possible to ignore him while eating. The food was delicious, and when she closed her eyes and enjoyed her first bite, she nearly forgot he was there. As she let out a soft moan, she opened her eyes to find him staring at her.
“Did you come here to stare at me while I eat?”
