I laughed, the sound escaping before I could stop it. “Yes, that came from her. Good job, Hazel.”
Griffin shook his head, a genuine smile spreading across his face. “Impressive lung capacity. She’ll make a great driver.”
“Is that all you think about?”
His smile faltered. “It’s been my whole life. Until now.”
“It doesn’t have to be one or the other,” I said softly. “You can be both a driver and a father.”
His gaze met mine, searching. “How?”
“The same way anyone balances multiple roles. With help, with compromise, with effort.” I shrugged. “And by accepting that you’ll sometimes get it wrong.”
Griffin ran a hand over his face. “I can’t afford to get it wrong. Not with her.”
“Everyone gets it wrong sometimes. Even perfect parents, which, newsflash, don’t exist.”
He snorted. “Tell that to Julian.”
I stiffened. “My father is far from perfect.”
Griffin studied me, his gaze suddenly penetrating. “Daddy issues, Princess?”
“I told you to stop calling me that.” I scowled at him. “And don’t pretend to understand my relationship with my father.”
His eyes widened. “Touched a nerve, did I?”
“You have no idea what it’s like,” I said, keeping my voice low for Hazel’s sake, “growing up with Julian Carter as a father.”
“Try me.”
The challenge in his voice was unexpected, as was my desire to answer it. Maybe it was the late hour, or the strange intimacy of sharing this quiet moment with a sleeping baby, but I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“He has high standards. He built Aedris from the ground up. You don’t do that by coddling people. I’ve spent my life trying to prove I’m worthy of the name, not just a beneficiary of it.”
Griffin’s expression sobered. “That sounds familiar.”
“Your father?”
He nodded. “Different methods, same result. Never quite good enough, always chasing approval that never comes.”
The irony. To him, I was still the golden child who had everything he wanted, when in reality, we were fighting the exact same ghost.
I’d never considered that Griffin Michaels, with his perfect record and golden-boy status, might understand what it was like to feel perpetually inadequate.
“We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?” I said, attempting lightness. “Daddy issues all around.”
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “At least Hazel has a fighting chance. Between your competence and my stubbornness, she might turn out okay.”
CHAPTER FIVE
GRIFFIN
“What the actual hell?” I froze in the doorway of my own kitchen, blinking hard to make sure I wasn’t still dreaming.
Cardboard boxes towered in precarious stacks. Foam peanuts littered the floor like strange snow. Half-assembled metal contraptions I couldn’t identify dominated every surface. My kitchen looked like a warehouse had exploded inside it.
Violet stood in the middle of it all, directing a delivery man carrying yet another massive box through the narrow path between towers.
