22 Years Old - I Loved Her First

“No.”

“Daddy….”

“No.”

“Uncle Devil…”

“You should give serious thought to never talking to me again, kid,” Devil ominously warned the man currently responsible for all his troubles.

Smacking her hand against the muscular arm of her fiancé, Devlynn Delancy pursed her lips and glared.  Their engagement was only mere minutes old, and already, they were already bickering like a couple of old married farts.   “I thought you said you asked his permission, Nyx,” she hissed, flapping a hand at her dad as the light caught on the princess cut diamond on her left hand, the stone twinkling as she moved.  “This does not feel like the approval you said we had!”

Nyx didn’t bother responding to his girl; he simply stared at her father with one brow cocked heavenward, waiting for the other man to speak.

Jerking her gaze back to her dad, Devlynn frowned.  “Daddy?”

“He asked, and I answered.  I just decided that I’ve changed my mind,” Devil declared quickly, glaring at the boy that had created this trouble for him.  Devlynn was his baby, damn it.  Giving her to another man – even a good one like Nyx – it just wasn’t something he could do.  He’d thought he could.  When he’d given the kid permission to ask his daughter to marry him, he’d truly believed that he could let her go.

But now?  Seeing his little girl with a sparkling diamond on her hand as she stood beside a man that claimed he wanted to love and protect her until he took his last breath, Devil realized that he didn’t think he’d ever be ready to let his baby go. 

A man was allowed to change his mind, wasn’t he?

“You’re too young to take this kinda leap, Spawn.  You’ve got your entire life ahead of you,” Devil said, grasping at the first obstacle he could think of to try and dissuade his child from making this commitment.   Devil’s eyebrows lifted as he heard a low growl emanating from Nyx Santino’s throat as the younger man curled his arm around Devlynn’s waist and tugged her against him.  Surprised, Devil fought a grin as he focused his attention on the boy who’d grown into a man.  “Something you wanna say to me, kid?”

“Uncle Devil, I wanted Devlynn when she was sixteen and, but I held back out of respect for you and our family.  Besides my two dads, you’ve been the one person I’ve always wanted to make proud.  I knew that making a move on your daughter would not only anger you, but disappoint you, too.  So, I stood back and swallowed my feelings.   In my heart, I knew I was doing the right thing.  Back then, she really was too young for what I wanted from her.”

“I always knew you were a smart kid,” Devil murmured, offering the other man a pleased nod.

“I held back again when she was eighteen and went away to college in Nashville.  It went against every instinct I had to let the woman I knew was meant for me drive away from this house to an unknown future.  Do you remember what you said to me that day when we stood outside this house and watched her car disappear?”

Seeing his daughter staring at the younger man with rapt eyes, Devil felt his kid drifting further away from him even though they stood in the same room.  But he owed Nyx an honest answer.  “I told you then that if it was meant to be between you and my baby that she’d come back to you all on her own,” he replied softly.

Nyx nodded.  “Yeah.  It took two hellish years, Devil.  Two years that I spent aching for the other half of my soul.  Two years where every day I walked around feeling like my heart had been ripped out of my chest.”

“Oh, Nyx,” Devlynn breathed, moving her hand to rest over his chest just above his heart.

“But I was right, wasn’t I?” Devil asked knowingly.  “She did come back to you.  And when she did, she was finally ready for the kind of commitment you wanted, too.”

“Yeah, she was,” Nyx agreed with a slow nod.  “Which is why I won’t back down from you now, sir.  I respect and admire you, Uncle Devil.  You know that.  But there is absolutely no way in hell that I’m gonna settle for less than everything with your daughter.  I love her more than I ever thought I could love someone.  Until I had to watch her drive away from me, I never understood sacrifice.  But I do now.  I now know what it means to love somebody more than you love yourself.  She’s the air in my lungs… the reason I get up in the morning.  I know you understand what that’s like because that’s what you have with her mom.  So you also know that I’m not going anywhere.  I’m hers and she’s mine, and I know that sucks for you, but that’s how it is.  Whether I’ve got your approval or not, I’m marrying her.  Yesterday, you got that.  Today, I know, it’s real for you in a way it wasn’t yesterday.  But, I’m not budging, sir.  Devlynn is mine.”

Swallowing the lump of raw emotion clogging his throat, Devil forced himself to move his eyes to his daughter’s face.  Seeing her eyes glued to Nyx’s, it was obvious that his kid had been completely captivated by her future husband’s speech.  Watching the couple, his shoulders sagged as his heart recognized that he’d just lost the war for his daughter.  His opponent had brought out the big guns… firing a shot of true love straight into his daughter’s soul. 

“Okay, fine.” Devil finally conceded huskily. 

Jerking her eyes toward her father, Devlynn’s eyes filled with tears.  “Does that mean….”

“That means that you should come give your old daddy a kiss before you go share with your momma that we’ve got a wedding to plan.  You’ve both got my blessing.  Again,” Devil clarified with a pointed look at Nyx as his baby hurled herself against his chest.  Enfolding his girl in his arms, Devil buried his face in her hair as she laughed and cried against his shirt.

“Thank you, Daddy,” she sobbed.  “I love you!”

“I love you, too, Spawn.  Never forget that,” Devil urged, his throat thick as he squeezed his kid in his arms.  Finally releasing her, he smiled down into her radiant face.  “Now, go show your mom that rock while your man and I have a little chat,” he ordered, gently pushing her toward the door.

Devlynn nodded eagerly before quickly hugging him one last time.  She paused only long enough to press a kiss against Nyx’s lips before running out the door toward the kitchen where Molly was making dinner.

Waiting until he knew they were alone, Devil ambled toward the large picture window that overlooked their sprawling lawn.   Offering Nix a sidelong look as the other man came to stand at his side, Devil murmured, “Well, I guess you got what you wanted today, kid.”

“Yes, sir,” Nyx replied honestly, “Devlynn is all I ever wanted.  Saying thank you seems trite at a moment like this.  There just aren’t words meaningful enough to tell you how grateful I am to you.  I know how close you are to your daughter.  I can’t imagine how hard it was to give us your blessing.”

“No, you can’t,” Devil agreed hoarsely, staring at the wooden playset where he used to push his baby on the swing and watch her slip down the slide.  He could still hear her childish laughter as if it were yesterday,  

“Twice, no less,” Nyx added with a grin. 

“Yeah, sorry about that.  I guess when the moment of truth arrived, I wasn’t quite as ready as I thought I was to let her my angel go.  One day, you will understand how difficult this was for me, Nyx,” Devil noted softly, walking over to stand beside Nyx. 

“Yes, sir,” the younger man acknowledged quietly.

“Yeah, one day, it’ll be your daughter whose care you will have to entrust to another man.  And trust me, son, it won’t matter how good or honorable that bastard is.  Nah, it won’t mean a fucking thing.  Because on that day, all you’ll be able to think is that nobody will ever love your kid as much as you do.  Just do me one favor, Nyx,” Devil requested, turning to stare the choice his daughter had made in the eye.

“Yes, sir,” Nyx whispered. 

 “Never forget that I loved her first.”