“I’ll ask you the same question that Edie asked me: are you happy?”
With a glance toward the door which leads into the house, a smile pulls at my lips.
“Yeah, I am,” I nod. “I know it probably doesn’t make sense, but if I try to think of a life where we aren’t a package deal,thatdoesn’t make sense tomeanymore.”
“It makes perfect sense,” he assures me.
As his car comes to a stop on what I can only assume is the driveway in front of his house, the ignition stops. Pulling the key from it, he crosses his arms over his chest, studying me. Take off the glasses and give the beard a closer trim, and in this lighting, I could be convinced that I’m looking straight at Nash, right now.
I won’t tell him that, though, even if it puts a knot in my throat. I’m not an asshole.
“I just spent the better part of four hours listening while a five-year-old girl relived the worst thing that she’ll ever see in her life,” he tells me. “So I am going to go inside and make dinner for my family, help Katie with her homework, and order a larger mattress for your bedroom. Assuming that all of you share a bed, of course.”
“I—” I hesitate, tapping my fingers against the front of my helmet. “Yeah. We do. You don’t have to do that. If they don’t want me to go out there, I mean…”
“Yourfamilyloves you and wewant to see you,” he tells me as he begins to climb out of his SUV. “However much of our lives they like to believe that they get to dictate, they don’t have any say in where you travel or who you see, and they certainly don’t speak for the rest of us.”
“Alright,” I concede with a grateful smile.
When I got on that plane all those weeks ago, I wanted…more. One last chance to try to connect with a dad it never felt like I had. A pat on the back. A fucking hug, maybe, for the first time in my life.
I don’t know if Brody and CJ know that together, they’ve formed a franken-dad for me. I know that I could never tell either of them that, because neither of them take compliments very well. I’ll just have to hope that what I show them is enough.
As we say our goodbyes and my brother goes into his house to decompress, I step into mine, met with a hard swish of a wiry tail and the jingling of a bell as Drumstick excitedly runs toward me for our daily catch-up.
Julia is bent over the dishwasher, pulling the last of the plates from their rack to rest them onto the counter. I reach forward to let my hands trail up the curve of her ass, forcing her to jump as she pivots to face me, her face melting into a warm smile.
“Hi Lovey,” she says. “Were the roads okay?”
My only response is to let my arms snake around her shoulders, pulling her tight to my body as my lips rest against the top of her head.
Her palms slide against my back as she returns the embrace, my fingers finding their way into her hair as I tighten my hold on her.
Thirty years wouldn’t be enough.
With either of them.
I want so much more than that.
Chapter 39
CONNOR
Julia’s fingers work the tie around my neck into a knot, her eyes moving to the band around my finger as I smooth the front of it when she’s finished.
The smooth black fabric of her dress hugs every plush, delicious curve of her body. The top half of her hair is pulled up and tied together in an explosion of long curls. The burgundy painted across her lips matches the silk of Tripp’s tie, the color of which makes his eyes burst with color, but when I told him that an hour ago, he shut me down with a gruff‘I don’t have eyes.’
“T-minus five if we wanna meet them,” he calls through the guesthouse that we’ve rented for the weekend.
Jules studies me with angel-soft features, her lips melting into warmth as she secures a clip at the edge of my tie.
“This is like a proud dad moment for you, isn’t it?” She asks. “The little girl you raised is out in the world doing big-girl things.”
“It’ll be different when it’s my kids,” I tell her with a shake of my head. Her brow ticks, surprise pulling her lips into a smile which she bites away, and my throat clears. “What I mean to say is, I just think about all of the things that I didn’t think she’dhave, growing up with me, and how happy I am that she’s proven me so wrong.”
Her lips part, ready for words to fall out of them, but she’s stopped by Tripp crossing the threshold, leaning his body against the door frame with his arms crossing over his chest.
“If we’re about to leave for this girl’s graduation and you’restillfucking talking about how bad you messed her up—”
