Dash looked over his shoulder at his father. His dad looked back, a mixture of emotions on his face.
“Thanks for being here, Dad.”
A shine came to his father’s eyes before the man squeezed his shoulder. “Where else would I be, son?”
Dash bit the inside of his cheek, fighting back a wave of emotion. They’d never been overly expressive with one another. That was as close to an ‘I love you’ as he’d get from Daniel Keller. And it was enough.
His papa leaned forward and hugged him around the neck.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
“We love you,” his papa whispered against his ear, as if knowing Dash desperately needed to hear those words.
“I love you, too.”
37
After Aspen leaned back, Emerson wrapped a protective arm around Dash’s shoulders, sensing his mate was growing weary already. He wasn’t sure if the pregnancy was causing him so much fatigue, the cardiac episode, or the combination of both. What he hadn’t needed was another explosion detonating in his life. He could strangle Tolliver McCreary for causing another blow to Dash’s recovery—yet it was a secret Dash’s family deserved to know, he supposed. The timing was just shitty.
“I hope that asshole hasn’t fucked this up for us,” Dash whispered to Emerson.
“Tolliver?”
“Yeah,” Dash whispered. “He had no business sticking his nose in. Things didn’tneedsmoothing.”
Emerson nodded.
The courtroom doors opened behind them and Emerson glanced over his shoulder. His gaze met his father’s first, before realizing his entire family was walking through the door. Emerson rose, turning to face them. Dash rose beside him, eyes wide. They exited the row and stopped before the crowd of Walkers.
“What’re you all doing here?” Emerson asked, eyeing all of his siblings before his gaze fell on his parents.
“Moral support,” his father said before offering Dash a hug. “Good luck.”
Emerson watched his father walk over and shake Daniel’s hand while the rest of his family gave Dash hugs or well wishes. Harrison approached and wrapped an arm around Emerson while Raimy and Cassidy moved to Dash to introduce themselves since they hadn’t been at the hospital to meet him there.
“No rush in coming back to the office,” Harrison murmured. “Take all the time you need.”
“Replaced me already?”
“Sort of,” Harrison said. “Dad hired us a new guy.”
Emerson eyed his brother.“Oh.”
“He’s an experienced investigator out of Erieberg, so it’s just a matter of watching his process to ensure he’s got the skills and getting him acclimated to our way of doing things. If all goes well, it shouldn’t be long before he’s on his own.”
“Good to hear,” Emerson muttered. There already wasn’t enough work for the pair of them. They’d sit around twiddling their thumbs with a third. Maybe it was time to ask about moving back to a station.
Lucas and Fitz walked over to them and shook Emerson’s hand.
“Good luck,” Fitz said.
“Yeah,” Lucas added, appearing uncomfortable.
“And… we’re sorry if we didn’t seem supportive at the hospital,” Fitz added. “It was just an unexpected shock.”
Emerson smiled wanly. “Yeah. I get it.”
So what if it took his alpha brother a little while to warm up to the fact he was alpha-attracted? It was better than them cutting him off. He was willing to give them time.
