“Why do you smell like camping?” Reagan Ann wrinkled her nose and peered up at the woman they stood in front of. Freddie squeezed her hand a little tighter, hoping she would come to her senses on her own. Most of the time, she was a very well-behaved, polite little girl. He didn’t know what was getting into her.

“Excuse me?” the woman asked, offended. There was a sharp tone in her voice that Freddie didn’t like, and he stepped in right away.

“She’s probably smelling the barbecue,” Freddie said. “I’m sorry if it came out wrong. She didn’t mean any harm.”

The woman flicked her gaze to him, her eyes slightly narrowed. There was something off about her energy that was unsettling, and the longer they talked, the more Freddie was coming to realize what it was. In her, he saw Luke — his eyes, his lips, his smile — but Luke’s features were distorted by ugly intent. Where Luke was kind and openhearted, his sister, Mel, was bitter. Freddie didn’t know what to make of the difference.

“Well, it came across wrong,” the woman snapped. “What are you doing bringing your kid out here if you can’t control her?”

Freddie was gobsmacked. He blinked a few times, totally taken by surprise, then responded with more hostility than he should have. He’d barely met the woman, and already she was getting on his nerves. “Reagan Ann is a very respectful child. If you don’t like her asking innocent questions, then I think it’s better that you don’t talk to her anymore.”

Mel’s face twisted with anger, further distorting the features Freddie was so used to seeing on Luke. It felt wrong, like someone was compressing Luke’s face in a photo manipulation program. He pulled Reagan Ann a little closer.

“Really?” Mel asked. “You’re going there?”

“You’re a grown woman.” Freddie wished desperately that Luke was there to diffuse some of the tension, but he’d been cornered by his mother and dragged aside for a stern conversation after she’d caught sight of him with Freddie. Every now and then, she glared in Freddie’s direction. “She’s a little girl. Why are you trying to cause trouble?”

“Because no one invited you here,” Mel said. Freddie could barely believe his ears. Mel was in her twenties, and there was absolutely no excuse for behavior like that. “You’re ruining the barbecue.”

Freddie couldn’t put up with much more mistreatment. Since the time they’d arrived at the barbecue, they’d been treated with near constant hostility. Luke’s father was nice, although slightly detached, but his mother and sister were a nightmare. Freddie struggled to understand how someone as genuine as Luke had survived a family as toxic as his own.

He was beginning to wonder why Luke had invited him here in the first place. If he knew his family was so unaccommodating, why would he have wanted them to meet? It didn’t make sense.

“You’re free to think what you want,” Freddie said. He set a hand on Reagan Ann’s shoulder and gently guided her away. “I’m not here to change your mind about me or my daughter... but I’d like to ask you not to approach us again, please. We don’t need your kind of negativity in our lives.”

Mel rolled her eyes like she was a high school student with a grudge. Freddie was determined not to pay her any more attention. He steered Reagan Ann around her and went to find somewhere else to stand — hopefully somewhere they could be alone.

“Daddy?” Reagan Ann asked as they walked. “Was that lady okay?”

“I don’t think so,” Freddie admitted. He brought her to stand under a tree. The backyard where the barbecue was hosted was spacious, but offered little shade. The one tree in it had already attracted a small crowd, but Freddie stood on the other side from them. “Sometimes, you’ll meet people who are having a bad day, or who don’t think respecting other people is as important as it is, and you’ll have to move on.”

“You used a mean voice on her, Daddy,” Reagan Ann admitted. “Are you angry at her? Are you going to get her into trouble?”

“No.” Freddie didn’t want anything more to do with her. “We just need to move on with our lives. If we let her use up any more of our time, we’re only going to make ourselves unhappy... and we don’t deserve that.”

Reagan Ann nodded, her face serious. Freddie was glad she was taking it in stride, because he was starting to lose his cool. He liked to think that he was a calm, collected individual who usually led by example, but right now, Reagan Ann was his pillar of strength.

“Look, Daddy,” Reagan Ann said. She tugged at his shirt. Freddie looked over his shoulder to follow her gaze — Luke was on his way over.

“Hey, you guys,” Luke said. He sounded as cheerful as ever. “I’m sorry that I got pulled away... it’s... well, it seems like my family isn’t having all that great a day. I’m sorry if they’ve come across as hostile.”

“We just met your sister, Mel,” Freddie said, trying not to sound terse. “It didn’t go so well. She went off on Reagan Ann for a non-offense.”

Luke winced. “I’m sorry.”

“Why did you ask us to come here?” Freddie asked. He didn’t have time to beat around the bush or play nice. He’d wanted to come to spend time with Luke and get closer to the ones who were most important to him, but so far, it had been a disaster. He got the feeling he wasn’t welcome. If he wasn’t wanted here, he could go home and focus on his business. Since the fire, business had been slower than usual, and he was working more slowly than ever. Stress had really started to eat at him. He felt antsy enough taking time off, not knowing if he’d be able to pay the bills at the end of the month, but to attend an event where he was loathed? He didn’t have the patience for that.

Luke looked him in the eyes, his own so sincere that it was almost painful. Freddie’s heart skipped a beat, and he regretted his clinical tone immediately. “I wanted you to meet my friends and introduce you to my family,” Luke admitted, crestfallen. “I’d told them to expect you, and how we are together now... I thought that they’d be more welcoming than this. I’m sorry they’re giving you a hard time, Freddie. It wasn’t my intention.”

Freddie dropped his gaze to stare at his shoes. He felt terrible. After everything that had happened, he didn’t feel like he had the patience he needed to roll with the punches. Everything was an assault, and his options were to either fight or flee. There was no more in-between.

“I know it wasn’t,” Freddie admitted. “I’m... stressed out, and I’m not taking it well.”

“I think we both are.” Luke laughed half-heartedly. “My mom just chewed my ear off. Of all the ridiculous things she could be upset about, she’s irritated at me because you have a daughter. Can you believe it?”

Freddie didn’t want to hear it. It was hard enough being a single father without being discriminated against because of it.

“Luke?” Freddie asked softly. “I think that we need to leave. I don’t feel like this is an appropriate environment for Reagan Ann.”

“Daddy!” Reagan Ann gasped. She grabbed his wrist, and Freddie looked down to see her looking up at him with puppy-dog eyes. “Don’t go. Can we please stay? Please? I won’t even talk to any people if it means we can stay. I want to be with Luke a little longer. He only just got to see us.”

Freddie didn’t want to disappoint her, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure that keeping their silence would be enough. It looked like some of the people in Luke’s family were interested in causing trouble whether they were approached directly or not. Freddie didn’t understand what could make a person so bitter, and he wasn’t sure how to protect himself or his daughter.

“I promise, now that we’re together, I’m not going to let anyone split us apart. You won’t have to suffer them on your own,” Luke reassured. “If you still feel the same as you do now in half an hour, then go, okay? Just give it one more shot. I’m here for you now. I’m not going to stand by while anyone — even if it’s one of my family — badmouths you.”

Freddie wanted to admit it, but the worrier in him had hesitations. He pushed them aside and nodded. “Sure. We’ll give it a shot.”

Reagan Ann cried out in delight and hugged him, then looked up at Luke as if she was looking for answers. “Can you tell me why the angry lady we talked to before smelled like camping? She wouldn’t answer me, and Daddy wouldn’t let me ask her again after she got angry.”

“Mel?” Luke asked, surprised.

Freddie resisted a groan. “That was what set Mel off in the first place.”

A look passed over Luke’s face. He glanced toward Mel, who was talking to someone on the far edge of the lawn, then looked back to Reagan Ann. “I think it was probably just the barbecue. There are a lot of strange smells on the air, aren’t there?”

Reagan Ann scrunched her lips together. “It wasn’t the barbecue. I know because I smelled barbecues before, and... and that wasn’t it. It wasn’t the same smell at all. It was different.”

Freddie didn’t know whether she was imagining it or not, but Reagan Ann was firm in her belief. If it was imagined, she was playing it off well.

“Guess we should go by the barbecue to make sure.” Luke winked. “Are you hungry for hotdogs?”

The stubbornness disappeared from Reagan Ann’s face. “Yes!”

“Then let’s go!”

And just like that, all ills were forgotten. Reagan Ann, in a much better mood than Freddie thought he could be, considering the circumstances, followed Luke to the barbecue. Freddie trailed behind them, having a harder time getting over his feelings. He knew not all families were supportive, but when it came to Luke’s family, he was having a hard time accepting that he could be instantly disliked.

It’s because I’m falling for him, isn’t it? I want everything to be perfect, but sometimes, love doesn’t work that way.

Freddie blushed. He watched Luke getting along with Reagan Ann, and realized it was exactly why he felt so bitter.

He wanted things to work out with Luke. He wanted to be loved and accepted by the people who’d raised the man he was starting to fall in love with. But it seemed like life wasn’t going to work that way. Like everything else since the fire, it’d take hard work. Freddie only hoped he would have enough stamina left in him to see it through.