He could see what it might look like from Austin’s point of view, though. He hoped Paula and her new husband didn’t feel the same.
Even Austin’s air of teenage ennui took a slight hit when they came around the corner of the house. The backyard was truly lovely at this time of year, full of spring-blooming trees whose sweet scent filled the air. Petals drifted down to adorn the fresh spring grass with drifts of pink and white. Lissy was gazing up in delight into the tree branches.
“What kind of trees are these, Dad?”
“Uh ...” Tyr had to fight the urge to pull out his phone and start looking things up. “That’s a—cherry, I think, and some of these are apple. Probably,” he added under his breath.
“Wow, Dad,” Austin said dryly. “If you’re going to run a greenhouse, you’re gonna have to learn a little more about plants.”
“Knock it off,” Tyr said, giving him a playful shove. Austin elbowed him back, and for a moment, a wonderful moment,they were just a dad and his teenage kid, roughhousing in the yard.
Then Austin recollected himself and there was another uncomfortable moment. Fortunately it was hard to feel too awkward with Lissy skipping around under the trees in delight, scooping up handfuls of flower petals.
“She’s a really happy kid,” Austin said, sotto voce. “Don’t mess this up for her, Dad. Don’t get her hopes up and then disappear again.Don’t.”
Tyr could have said a lot of things. He could’ve said he was trying to protect them for all those years he was gone, that he hadn’t had a choice. But what it came down to was that there was nothing he could say in his defense that wouldn’t be an excuse. He had missed most of his oldest son’s childhood. He’d left Paula and the kids alone. He could never make up for that; he could only try to rebuild what he had left behind, and make a new life for himself now.
“I won’t,” he said quietly. “I promise.”
Austin looked skeptical, but just then a car horn honked from the front of the house.
“It’s Mom!” Lissy exclaimed, straightening up with both hands full of pink and white petals.
“Your mom’s here to pick you two up. C’mon,” Tyr said. “Pretty soon you can come out overnight. I’ll have your rooms fixed up by then.”
Paula’s mud-splashed car was parked in the driveway. She was standing with her hands on her hips, looking up at the old Victorian-style house.
There was a part of Tyr that would never really be over her. She wasn’t his mate, but they had been married for years, and they had truly cared for each other with the wild abandon of a first young love. They’d had two kids together. He was glad she was happy with her new guy, but he couldn’thelp being a little glad that she hadn’t brought Dan along with her to pick up the kids.
“Wow, Terry,” Paula said. Like everyone else in town, she still called him by his human name, the only name she’d ever known him by. “This is—something.”
“It looks like the Addams Family house!” Lissy said, pulling on her mother’s hand. “Doesn’t it, Mom?”
“I, uh.” Paula looked like she was trying not to laugh. “Maybe a little bit.”
“It’ll look great with a nice coat of paint,” Tyr said. He hoped. “Both the kids have their own rooms when they’re here, and, well.” He waved his hand in the general direction of the greenhouses. “There’s an attached business.”
They both regarded the sad, dilapidated greenhouses for a minute. Paula put on a bright smile.
“I can’t believe you own the Tender Shoot now,” she said. “It’s been here ever since I was a kid.”
“It looks like it,” Austin said under his breath.
“Honey, be nice. This place is a town institution. My mom used to come out here and get Easter lilies and flower baskets for the porch in the spring.” She smiled at Tyr, the heartbreakingly lovely smile that belonged to someone else now. “I can’t wait ‘til you get it fixed up and we can come out here and buy Easter lilies again.”
“Me too,” Tyr said, making a mental note to find out exactly what an Easter lily was and how it was different from tiger lilies and other lilies. “Hey, kids, make sure you’ve got all your school bags and stuff.”
The kids collected their book bags and piled into their mom’s car. Paula hesitated, looking around at the spring flowers and the trees with their new leaves rippling in the wind.
“It really is a nice place, Terry,” she said. “I hope you’ll like it here. I’m glad you’re going to be closer to the kids.”
“Me too.”
For a minute they looked at each other, the weight of all that history lingering between them. It never could have worked out for them, Tyr reminded himself. She had her mate now. He—probably didn’t have a mate, most likely. Many griffins didn’t, and on top of that, he was a broken griffin, an exile. Under the sleeve of his jacket, his damaged tattoo itched.
“Say hi to Dan for me,” Tyr said.
“I will.” Paula flashed him another of those heartbreaking smiles and got into the car.
