“Me?” Ayda sputtered with surprise. Her hand tightened around mine, but her eyes were leveled on Eric.
“Especially you.”
I pulled her closer. I had no idea how to feel. Eric Tucker was my father, and I loved him because of that, but my world was turning upside down, and he’d been gone for so long, I was struggling to believe any of this was really fucking happening.
“How much time have we got?” I asked carefully, knowing for damn certain that him being in The Hut had to be a temporary thing.
His eyes assessed the room again. “Enough.”
“Let’s go.”
I was torn between telling my father to leave my girl outof it and wanting her by my side. I’d had some low points in my life, but that was turning out to be one of the lowest. It was selfish of me to want her there to draw strength from, but I tugged on her hand anyway. She followed me through the parted sea of my men, with my father not too far behind. The Hounds all made quiet rumblings of a greeting to him as he passed them by. I could only imagine the amount of questions they had. I knew for certain I had even more.
We pushed into my office, and I guided Ayda to the old battered sofa, dropping a kiss to her forehead before I turned and waited for my dad to walk inside.
When he did, it was like he’d never been away. He owned the space. He’d built it. This used to be his private place to escape the MC life. Whatever had happened to make him leave, disappear from my world and throw me into the deep end of MC life, it had probably been plotted in the very room we were standing in.
He turned slowly, looking around the place with a very faint trace of a smile tugging at his lips.
“Just the same,” I heard him whisper to himself.
“Not everything is.”
Eric glanced over his shoulder before turning fully. For a while, it was just two men standing in front of each other. Two men who could have been strangers but looked far too alike, despite the way they assessed each other.
“I can see that,” he eventually said. “I would say you look well, but the blood on your skin and the fact that you can barely see out of one eye makes it pretty clear that that would be a lie.”
I shrugged a shoulder and narrowed my eyes at him. “It ain’t easy being pres.”
“Now that I can agree with.”
“Some of us just don’t run away when the going gets tough.”
“I deserved that.” Eric shuffled on his feet before he crossed his arms over his chest and pushed his fists against the underside of his biceps. He raised his chin, looking at me like he owned the air around us all. It was then that I realized he stood exactly the same way I did. He commanded the space the same way Ayda told me I always had.
He was my double on the outside. On the inside, though, I knew we were different.
“I don’t blame you for the cool reception, Drew. If my father had done to me what I did to you, I’d hate him, too.”
“I don’t hate you,” I replied calmly. “You’re my father, and I love you. Nothing will ever change that.”
My admission seemed to catch him off guard, the surprise flashing in his eyes as they widened before he gained control of his face again.
That’s right, pops. I’ve no problem with the I love yous anymore.
“But that doesn’t mean I have to like it when you walk into my Hut after so long away and tell me you’ve been in talks with Harry all this time. It doesn’t mean that I have to like the fact that you knew my other father—the one who watched over this club while I was sent away for five years—was dying. It doesn’t mean I have to throw my arms around you and tell you I’ve missed you.”
“Have you missed me?” he asked quietly.
I worked the muscles in my jaw, copying his pose and raising my chin. “I needed my dad. I didn’t have a mom.”
“I didn’t ask if you needed me. I asked if you missed me.”
“Yeah, I fucking missed you,” I practically spat at him. I had. I’d missed the blood connection and feeling like I had an angel on my shoulder, even if he could be cold and calculating at times. I missed having someone like me who would understand me.
Eric’s eyes softened, his gaze falling to Ayda. “I’m sorry you’re having to meet me this way.”
Nodding once, Ayda sucked in a breath and finally found her words. “I wasn’t sure we’d ever get to meet, Mr. Tucker.”
