“The woman who tried to take Andi.”
“You hit her?” I repeated, heart beating painfully hard.
His cheek rubbed against my chest when he nodded.
I held him tighter. Being a parent didn’t come with a manual. It was hard to know what to do and what to say. Especially when you just wanted to protect them, when you loved them no matter what.
“I’m supposed to control my temper. I’m not supposed to fight. And she was a girl.”
“What was she doing when you hit her?” I asked, holding back the urge to tell him it was okay. I mean, itwasokay. That fucking hag hurt my daughter. But in order to give him the acceptance he truly needed, I had to listen first.
“I told her to back off. To get away from us. She wouldn’t listen and was causing a scene. She grabbed Andi’s arm, made her spill her ice cream.”
My stomach twisted. Against his back, my hands balled into fists.
“She dragged her out of her chair and onto the sidewalk. No one touches my sister,” he said, lifting his head until those bottomless black eyes gazed right into mine, his short dark lashes nothing but a punctuation to that penetrating stare. “No one hurts my sister.”
“I know.” I agreed. “And then what?”
“I tackled her. Sacked her just like I would a player on the field. She went down hard, and when I got up, she grabbed my hand. I smacked her off me. Then I got Andi and London and got out of there.”
His eyes slid over to the side. “I didn’t speed. Even if I did want to.”
Drew’s shoulder lightly brushed mine when he stepped forward. “I trust you.”
“We’re proud of you,” I repeated. “You did exactly the right thing. Violence is never the answer, but sometimes it’s necessary. You had to protect yourself and the girls.”
He glanced up, and it was like staring down at that five-year-old from so long ago. “Really?”
“Yeah, really, bud,” I said, dragging him into another hug. It didn’t even matter that he didn’t use his arms because he sank into me with his whole body. I dipped my face. “I’m proud of you, son. I’ll always be on your side.”
His body moved with the force of his relief as though the worst of the storm was over and now he could breathe.
I looked at Drew, my anchor in every storm. A beat passed between us.
He came forward, wrapped his arms around us both, and squeezed.Ah, that’s the stuff.
“So is no one going to acknowledge the kid used the moves I taught him on the football field to bring that woman down?” Braeden disrupted the quiet.
I looked over my shoulder.
The entire family was sitting there in the living room.
There was no privacy in this place.
“Whotaught my son how to play football?” I inquired.Me, that’s who.
B made a face. “Uh, his coach.” He pointed to himself. “And for the record, Trav, I don’t think she counts as a girl. She might identify as a woman, but from where I’m sitting, she’s a criminal. Her pronouns are delinquent/dangerous/asking for it.”
“You aren’t even sitting,” Ivy muttered.
Drew snickered.
“Baby, if you wanted me to sit down, you could have said so,” he told her, going over to the couch to pick her up and sit down with her in his lap.
“Uh, Dads?” Travis called.
I glanced down at the teenager still squished between us.
