He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“I will not.” Calvin huffed. “But I’d like an explanation as to why you don’t think my baby girl is good enough for you.”
What the hell is happening?Hunter felt like he’d been dropped into an alternate universe where everyone spoke English, but none of the words made any sense.
“Wh—” He had to stop and clear his throat. “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. Grace istoogood for me.She’s smart and funny and brave and beautiful. She’s the most wonderful woman I’ve ever been lucky enough to know. And she deserves the world. Which, unfortunately, I can’t give her.” He shook his head. “Wait. Did she tell you I broke her heart?”
Hope expanded in his chest as he remembered that thing she’d said in the hospital about it being impossible to know him and not love him.
Had she included herself in that statement?
His hope deflated, however, when Calvin said, “Not in so many words. But I got eyes in my head. Now, what’d’ya mean you can’t give her the world? Do you love my daughter or not?”
Hunter flopped back on the mattress. Every single one of his muscles ached from thirty-six hours of travel. Closing his eyes, he thought about how he should respond.
He must’ve thought for too long because the man’s big, booming voice sounded over the line. “You still with me, son? Did I lose you?”
“I’m still here,” he replied quietly. “I’m just trying to figure out how best to explain.”
“To my way of thinkin’, a man can never go wrong with the truth.”
He smiled, thinking how much Grace’s father reminded him of Grace herself. Calvin Beacham had passed down his no-bullshit, in-your-face honesty to his children. “I don’t know if Grace told you anything about how I grew up.”
“She said you got a rocky start. So poor you didn’t have a pot to piss in and a coupla deadbeat parents who preferred booze to their own boy.”
“Mmm.” Hunter nodded even though Calvin couldn’t see him. “So here’s the thing. My whole life I felt like I was living in a dark room. Which was fine. I’m comfortable in the dark since it’s the only thing I’ve ever known. But even still, I was always feeling along the walls for the light switch. And then as the years went by, I started to think maybe there wasn’t one. Maybe I didn’thavea light switch.” He swallowed because his voice had gone hoarse. “And then I met Grace and she’s the brightest light I’ve ever seen.”
For long seconds, silence echoed from the other end of the call. When Calvin finally spoke, his voice was hoarse too. “So what the hell are you still doin’ in Chicago, son? Why the hell aren’t you here tellin’ Grace what you just told me?”
“Because she deserves so much more than I can give her. I owe it to her to step aside so she can find a man who…” He trailed off and tried again. “Abetterman. A man who’s whole.”
“I reckon the only thing you owe Grace is the right to choose her own path.”
“I can’t have children, Calvin,” he blurted since Grace’s father didn’t seem to be picking up what he was laying down. “I’m sterile.”
Once again, there was nothing but silence coming from the other end of the call. But eventually Calvin cleared his throat. “Sterile don’t mean impotent though, right?”
A startled snort shot out of Hunter. “No, sir. It doesn’t.”
“So I don’t see the problem, then. There’s artificial insemination or adoption. Hell, plenty of kids in the foster care system need good homes. And—” Grace’s father cut himself off. “Wait. Has Grace ever even said shewantskids?”
“Well, no,” Hunter admitted, thinking how surreal it was to be having this conversation. “But she’s said a few things that make me assume she—”
“Never assume, son,” Calvin interrupted, his tone heavy with censure. “You know what they say about it.”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. Get your ass to North Carolina and tell my baby girl all that stuff about being stuck in the dark.”
Click.
Hunter was left to stare at his phone.
36
Beacham Residence
Two days later…
