I narrow my eyes. Here’s that sense again. “You’re lying.”
He winces. “A little.”
“God. Fucking. Dammit. Dad! Give it to me straight and quit bullshitting!”
He rushes, “Once I found out he fell in love with you and wasn’t backing down, I?—”
Dad doesn’t need to bullshit anymore.
The pathetic pieces fall into place.
Right before my eyes.
“You told him tomarryme.” I can’t see through my tears. “So, it’s a lie. This wedding. Our marriage. Our love. It’s a lie.”
“No, Alena, it’s not.” Dad reaches for me. “Loch loves you. He fought for you. Literally. He and Axel almost killed each other over you.”
I look away.
I can’t reason.
Loch and Axel? He means Loch and Michael, my first. They fought over me? It doesn’t make sense. Michael, I mean, Axel doesn’t love me.
Dad reads my confusion, explaining, “Axel told Loch if he loved you, he had to commit to you. He wouldn’t let him walk away and break your heart, and I…”
That’s why.
Axel didn’t want to break my heart. He gave me a pity fuck, and so now. What? Am I Loch’s too?
“And I agreed,” Dad confesses. “Nadine too. I didn’t want your heart broken. And even more, I wanted you safe, and no one else, other than me, can protect you like Loch.”
Protect me? That’s all this is about. Not love. It was never about love; Loch did it out of loyalty.
I mutter, “So he lied and became a ranger because youtoldhim to.”
“No”—Dad shakes my head—“he’s into all that nature shit too. I mean it; he loves you. You’re a perfect match. And trust me, as your father, who still sees you as a little girl in animal pajamas crawling into my bed during every lightning storm, and not because they scared you, but because you wanted me to listen to them with you… I hate to admit it”—Dad tugs my hands—“but Loch loves you as much as I do.”
“No, he doesn’t,” I choke out. “Love is a choice, Dad, and you didn’t give him one.”
“A choice?” Dad huffs, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, sweetpea, but you’re wrong. I don’tchooseto love Vale. I can’t fight it; I just do and always will. And you don’t choose to love Loch; you just feel it. Right?”
Right?
I don’t know what’s right, much less what’s real.
“I can’t believe this.” I close my eyes, tears dripping from my jaw. “I’ve lost my best friend and my fiancé in the same night.”
“Don’t say that,” Dad murmurs, his voice choked with emotion. “Vale loves you. She’ll always love you, and…” He surprises me, fighting back tears. “It’s what I love about her most. And Loch too. That goddamn shithead loves you too.”
I can’t reason about Loch, it’s too overwhelming.
But Dad and Vale? I guess I’ve always felt their connection, but now I see it, and I show my dad the maturity he denied me for so long.
“Do you really love her, Dad?” I ask. “Like this isn’t someage-gap kink that’s going to run its course and then I have to choose between my dad and my best friend? Because right now? I don’t like your chances.”
I want my best friend and my dad to be happy. I just wish I could be.
Dad makes his promises to me, telling me all the secret things he’s done for Vale to protect her, how he wants a family and a future with her.
