I fought to breathe through all the heat and chaos.
Shit. I couldn’t take this noise. All the noise, noise, noise, noise,noise!
I pressed my fists into my eyeballs and jolted when a hand tightened on my arm.
“Come here.” Dad tilted his head toward the back of the house and led the way, hair grey, shoulders stooped, walking slow. Jesus, when did I last see him? A couple months ago? I racked my brain until it came back. Drew’s birthday. Spring. Had I really avoided my family since then?
Probably.
He led me into his office, which was off-limits to the kids.
“Sit down.” Dad liked playing the big man, ordering me around. I didn’t mind. It was his place, his family. He was a good father. Wanted us happy.
I sat in his big, beat-up armchair and watched him pour scotch into a couple glasses. He handed me one and clinked his against it before settling into the chair opposite mine.
Brownie’s tail thumped on the carpet when Dad bent to give her a quick rub.
“What brings you here today, son?”
I opened my mouth to say something about Christmas, but it wasn’t the answer I needed to give.
“Met a woman.”
He nodded slowly, sipping his drink and looking like he knew shit I’d never understand.
“Where is she?”
“At her grandmother’s.”
“And you’re here.”
I opened my mouth and shut it. Took a big swig of the smoky booze, enjoyed the burn in my belly. “I freaked out. Left.”
“That good, huh?” His smirk was all-knowing.
“Her?” I couldn’t help but grin in return. “She’s amazing.”
“Why aren’t you with her, then?”
“Only met her a couple days ago.” That didn’t seem right.Wasthat right? Christ, it sounded like a lie after what we’d had or done or shared. I’d known her for centuries. A lifetime.
His brows rose. “You giving her space or something?”
“Hell if I know.” Another slow sip, letting the booze warm me. I bent forward. “That story you always tell about you and Mom. How you knew the night you met her. Is that true?”
Dad leaned back in his chair and grinned up at the ceiling. “Yeah. Had a girlfriend at the time, too.”
“No shit.”
He nodded once. “Jeanette or Jean or something. Didn’t matter. Met your mother. The real deal. Called the girlfriend the next morning to break it off. Felt like cheating just knowing that your mom existed.” He leveled me with his hard, bad-ass dad stare. “What’s this woman’s name?”
“Christa. Evans. She’s um…” Jesus, now I had to find words to describe the woman who’d felled me in two days? I exhaled, long and low. “Guess she… Well, she looks like the woman in those Australian murder mysteries mom loves so much.”
“Ha!” Dad shouted out a laugh. “Miss Fisher?”
“Yeah. Kinda acts like her, too. Not embarrassed to be…herself.” I couldn’t help a smile, though my chest hurt. “Jesus. We just walked in on her grandmother making out with an old guy.”
Dad barked out a laugh. “And you left her alone with them? What’s wrong with you, boy?”
