Two hours later, I wake to the sound of pounding on our door, and I hear Sage’s voice calling out, “Robin. Royce. Open up! Robin, are you in there? Guys wake up.” Then Sage’s voice is shouting, “Dad. I swear. It’s okay. Honest. They’re together in there, but they’re not. You’ll see.”

Robin half sits up, blinking. “Did you hear—him say, Dad? Is my dad here in Paris? Is this a dream? Dad?” Her last word is called out to directly the door as she scrambles up from the covers.

“Yes. Robin. It’s me. Open up,” a man’s voice comes through.

Robin and I leap out of the bed at the same time. She’s running to the door and yanking it open while I lurch around with my legs still asleep, slamming into shit as I try to hit a light switch.

“Dad? Dad! It’s really you. You’re here!” When I look over, Robin’s laughing as she nearly knocks a tall, slender man wearing a beige fatigue jacket and balancing on crutches into the door jam.

“There’s my girl,” the man says, voice heavy with emotion. I catch a glimpse of a his shadowed face as he envelopes Robin into his embrace, dropping one of his crutches in the process.

Sage hugs the man from behind and in seconds the three of them are intertwined and falling into our suite in one big a mess of noise, tears, hugs and crutches. It feels like within moments, each of them have said: I’m okay-I’m okay, we’re okay. Everything is okay, you’re okay, hundreds of times.

By the time they come up for air, my grandmother has wheeled herself into the room in her wheelchair, Uncle Gregory has appeared along with Royce, Hunter, Adam, Evie, as well as Vere. Right about then, I’ve realized Robin is truly only half dressed in her shorts and a nearly see-through camisole, so I’ve collected a throw blanket and her hoodie and I return and place it over her shoulders. She leans into me and smiles up at me in that way that warms my heart, and tugs on the hoodie. But when I meet Mr. Love’s gaze, the look he’s got for me is stone-cold-furious. So much so that I can’t even hold the guy’s gaze. I also have this sinking sensation—because shit, he knows Robin and I were sleeping together.

“The whole family is here,” Sage cries out. “This is the best moment of my life. Dad, please meet Mrs. Felix, Mr. Gregory.” He starts pointing around the room continuing his introductions. “This is Adam, and Hunter, Vere, and Evie, and that little squirmy bug, is baby Apple. The one who started everything. Who got us into this family.”

Adam laughs, “Right? And the one who got all of us into a lot of trouble.”

Mr. Love’s eyes look wild and exhausted as he takes us all in, saying only, “I called Mrs. Felix and Gregory to give them warning. They told me that if I could get a plane to Paris, then I was invited, so I hope that is still true, even in these tiny hours of the morning.”

“Of course it’s still true,” Gregory answers, “We never thought you’d make it, but we’re honored to meet you.”

Mr. Love grabs Robin’s shoulders and gives her a little shake like he can’t believe she’s real. “I never thought I’d make it either, but then… I couldn’t wait. I had to come. There were no flights, so I took a train, and then another train until Paris, then for the first time in my life I downloaded the app and took an Uber to get the rest of the way here, so I hope you understand.” His voice turns rough. “None of me, getting rescued and being found alive was going to feel real or right until I could touch my kids.”

“You don’t need to explain.” Robin’s beaming at him. “We have so much catching up to do, and had you been anywhere but in debriefing where I knew we couldn’t have access to you, Sage and I would have been pounding down the hospital doors for the same reasons.”

Robin’s father’s eyes cloud up as he answers, “Ever since I’ve been allowed internet, I’ve been on YouTube trying to piece together what happened to you kids while I was gone. I know you told me not to track the press and the stuff I found online, but how could I not? I know you two ran away and the Perino family sheltered you, and then this rock band…” He flicks a glance at me and my bandmates. “This rock band bunch of people saved you two, but only after one of them had ruined Robin’s reputation in the first place, right? Am I piecing it together correctly?” He shoots me another dark glare.

“After I ruined his reputation, too,” Robin defends me. “I totally messed up. I take full responsibility—I almost lost Sage because of my part in it.” Suddenly she’s blushing beet red. “Dad…so…we—” She points between herself and me. “We saved each other.”

“Yes, well. Yes.” The man looks positively tortured, and it’s not lost on any of us how pale he is, how exhausted he seems and how skinny he seems compared to me, Royce and Hunter. “I saw the wedding online, the honeymoon photos, and all of how you went around New York City, then London, then Paris…and I was all good, especially after I spoke to you on the phone that first night Robin.” His gaze darkens as he flicks it between me and Robin again. “But you told me that it was all fake.”

“Dad. It is. It is,” Robin insists, not meeting my gaze. “We spoke about this on the phone and you said you were okay with all of it…” She trails off, frowning.

Robin’s father’s glower darkens as he shakes his head at his daughter. “Maybe I was just too relieved to be out of that hole in Uganda. Maybe I was just happy to find out my kids who’d ran away from their guardian’s house had landed on their feet. But the whole damn base seems invested in your story. Everyone in the whole world seems up in my—our—your—business, and I’m not okay with that.”

“Mr. Love,” Vere interjects. “That’s all part of our crazy life. It can’t be helped. It’s always a shock at first, but you will get used to it.”

Again, the man shakes his head. “The other night my staff sergeant told me to turn on the TV to see if I could spot you on the Teen Select awards he’d heard that you all were attending. Hell. I spotted you all right, Robin, wearing a bunch of tissue paper. I spotted you and the entire military base spotted you…and then saw how you were nearly naked.”

“Dad. That was a costume. A costume for the red carpet,” she insists.

He fists his hands into balls and his voice turns to ice. “Honey, I was prepared to suck it up. Prepared to be grateful and gracious for all of it, despite the mad circus you’d been sucked into, and despite the last minute surgery they’d put me into to fix this damn leg that some asshole broke a year ago by kicking it until it snapped.”

At that news, Sage gasps, putting his hands over his mouth, and I can tell Mr. Love regrets letting that bit of information slip as he waves one crutch slightly at everyone. “And,” he flushes and glances at Mrs. Felix. “I thank you all. I do. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. For the sacrifices you all seem to have made and for the safety you offered my children. Also, don’t get me wrong, I thank you for the money you put up for ransom for me as well.”

Mrs. Felix wheels forward. “There is no thanks needed for any of what we did. It was and is an honor to know your two children and help them how we did.”

Mr. Love colors a little at that, and he backs away from my Grandmother a little as he adds in a shaking voice, “I’ve already got my team raising money to pay you back. And I will.” He holds up a hand when Gregory and Mrs. Felix open their mouths to protest again, and goes on, “Because we SF don’t like owing anyone anything. So, again I also thank you for the loan, but it will be treated as such.”

I wonder then, if his voice is getting colder and colder—mostly because he’s staring at me and Robin with this hard and assessing look—or, maybe I’m just imagining that?

“Sir. That’s not necessary,” Gregory starts out finally when no one seems to know what to say. “We’re honored you showed up when you could and that you’re here despite the hardships you faced in arriving here. It’s very late and—you seem—tired. So…we will get you settled in your rooms because you must be tired, as I know we all are the same.”

I send Gregory a quick glance and by my uncle’s expression it’s obvious he’s noticed how Robin’s father won’t stop glaring at me, either.

My grandmother breaks into the tense silence next. “Yes, why don’t we all re-group retire to our rooms and go over more details together tomorrow. We are preparing your rooms right now, and it is obvious you are distracted and that the leg is paining you some, yes or…something? We did get a call from the German Military base that you we’re not quite released yet. Not medically released, that is. Maybe you need to rest?”

Mr. Love chuckles, then. “Well, like I said I didn’t feel like waiting around anymore, so…it’s possible I left without signing all of the papers how they’d wanted.”

“Dad!” Robin calls out. “You’re supposed to still be in the hospital?” She starts to tug on a chair and drag it in the direction of her father. “If that’s true, then you need to go to bed. You need to at least go and…lie down! Let’s get him to his room.”

She starts glancing between all of us when her father’s voice turns even more icy, “You want me to lie down while you lie down in here with your fake husband? In the same bed? Forgive me, Robin, but is that what you want? Everyone just ‘return to their beds’ and you send me to my room? Has the whole world flipped upside down in my absence?” His laugh splinters and catches. “Damn…missing two years is much harder than I thought…because I’m looking at you, and I’m looking Royce and I’m wondering where in the hell has my little girl gone?”

Robin’s face crumples and her eyes go wide. “No. No. Dad. It’s not what you think.”

Mr. Love leans heavily on his crutches. “It is what I think. It’s my worst fucking nightmare, and forgive me if I’m having a difficult time digesting that you and he have been sharing a bed!” This tirade causes my grandmother to pull in a huge gasp of air as Mr. Love motions to her, and adds, “And you oh-so-proper people have been allowing it.”

“Dad. Please. I’m eighteen. He has been sleeping with me but—Dad we don’t—you don’t understand.”

“Sir. She’s right, we need a chance to explain,” I add.

Mrs. Felix pipes in next, “They’ve been chaperoned and they’re under our vow of trust. They stay in here together to keep the press and the hotel staff from starting rumors about their relationship, but it’s all been purely platonic.”

Sage steps up to his father. “They build a pillow fortress-wall between them each night and it’s always really big,” Sage points to the rumpled bed and everyone in the room grows quiet and stiff-lipped when it is obvious that there is not one pillow that was separating Robin and I tonight.

Mr. Love slowly crutches over to me, and as he gets closer I note that his eyes are as clear and as blue as Robin and Sage’s eyes. “Young man. Royce Devlin.” He barks a cynical laugh up to me. “I mean no disrespect for all that you and your family, and your band has done for my kids. I also realize you’ve done a great amount of good, but I’m not the kind of man who likes being lied to, nor am I an idiot. I was also a twenty-one year old boy once, and I don’t think I could have shared a bed with a girl as pretty as my girl is, without going insane, so you better tell me right now. Are you gay, are you broken down there?” He points to my crotch, or. “Are you not all right in the head? Which is it, young man?”

I blink at him, and I finally utter…“Uh…I’ll pick…the last one,” I try to joke and it’s an honest answer, after all. When the man doesn’t even flinch or move or breathe, I add quickly, “My grandmother is right. It’s been a wedding in name only.” I hold his gaze. I hold it steady, just how I wanted to when I met him; but as he stares back his gaze does that thing to me that Robin does. It goes too far. It goes too damn deep and suddenly it’s like he can read my fucking mind, so I break the stare. Put up the shutters.

But…damn-me…I think he saw…

“Dad. Please. Please. Believe us.”

“Dad. No one has lied to you, all the shit they’re telling you is fucking true,” Sage calls out, sounding emotional, desperate, worried.

Mr. Love’s eyes go wide at how Sage has just cussed twice in front of him as Sage continues, “We’ve just been living in a surreal world, that’s all. We grew up some…and we had to do a lot of weird shit but I swear we’re better for it.”

“Are you?” Robin’s dad has winced at that, and by the way his shoulders slump I get that he thinks all of this is somehow his ‘fault’ as he sighs loud and long. “Let me tell you all the world I’ve been living in. When I left for deployment, my kids, my sweet little kids—Robin was a high school junior and Sage was finishing sixth grade—I never thought I’d be gone for so long.” He pulls in a shaking breath and I see that his hands are white-knuckling on his crutches from the apparent effort he’s burning up by standing for so long. “I never thought I’d return to find my son looking like a man, taller than me and cursing like a sailor. Or should I say cursing like a mother-fucking rockstar?”

He’s said the last word like it’s poison. Hunter, Adam and I all flinch hard as he passes hard eyes over us. The whole room goes completely still as he reaches into his back pocket, and brings forth one of the photographs that was taken last night. Specifically, the one where I’m mauling Robin in the elevator. “If all that you’ve said to me is true, then maybe in addition to why you two are sharing the same bed, you can explain the look on my daughter’s face in this world-wide-news story?” He shoves a finger at the photograph.

“Dad. I—I’d had a whole bunch of Champagne, and so that photo…I was just…”

“Champagne? You’d been drinking? Sage is cussing and now you’re so all-grown up enough to drink? I wasn’t gone that long. You’re only eighteen!”

“It’s legal in Europe,” Robin pipes up again, but this time, her voice sounds small and unconvincing—even, suddenly—kindergarten-young. “And yes…Dad, it’s not a big deal. The whole awards ceremony was sponsored by Champagne—uh—the region, you know.” She does this funny little shrug. “And it was expected we all have some so…I did.”

“Expected. Expected!” Her father’s shouting more. “Expected?”

I make the mistake of nodding, how everyone else is nodding, and lock my gaze with Mr. Love’s, as I step up to him, hoping to somehow calm him down, but when I try, nothing solid comes out of my mouth. “It’s all part of it—things—the job—the relationship. Uh, our marriage—Sir.”

While I continue to flail and stutter, I get freaked out when no more words will come out of my mouth. I also hardly register how Mr. Love’s face goes from pale and tired looking to bright red, just how Robin’s does when she’s pissed off. And when his fist cracks me in the chin, the word expected is still clanging through my head, which is why I don’t even try to avoid the hit, because I think I...

Expected it…

And when he hits me again, well…that’s expected, too. But I am surprised to find I’ve fallen back and hit the floor so hard my head kills, and that my ears are ringing way too loud. The last thing I see are tears coursing down Robin’s cheeks and all I hear is garbled shouting on the part of everyone in the room, while Robin’s voice comes out clearly with, “Dad! Please, stop.”

I try to stand—to get to her, but I can’t. And when the width of the room fades into one bright pin-point, and the black crashes in along with utter silence, I’m only relieved that I can’t see or hear Robin crying any more.