Chapter 45

Dalton

The women had put so much work into dinner, that I’d sent them out onto the back patio, promising coffee, tea, and dessert as soon as Dad and I had tidied up the dishes and kitchen.

“I like her,” my father said, as he stacked the last of the dishes into the dishwasher, and I finished with the last of the pots, draining the sink.

We’d succeeded in ignoring the elephant in the room the entire evening for long enough. I felt like a heel having to put an end to something we hadn’t had in several years. Ever since Cora, Skylar’s mom, had sent all three of our lives into a tailspin, things hadn’t been the same. Thanks to Devolin, the evening had felt like the good old days.

“We need to talk,” I told him.

“Yes, we do.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Dalton.”

Drying my hands on the dish towel, setting it on the counter by the sink, I turned to meet his gaze head on. Skylar was right. Upon my own quick inspection, something weighed heavily on him. It was in the way his shoulders slouched in defeat. It was in the glimmer of failure in his eyes.

“Dad…”

He lifted a hand to halt my words, shaking his head to enforce that I remain silent.

“You haven’t had it easy, son. When we lost your mother—”

“Dad, I know it wasn’t easy on you either,” I said.

“You needed a mother,” he said. “I couldn’t believe my luck when I met Cora. When she told me she was pregnant, I’ll admit, I didn’t love her, but she gifted me with another child to love, so I did the honorable thing.”

“You don’t need to explain,” I told him. I would have done the same.

“I do, son. I do.” Taking a deep breath, he continued. “I didn’t love Cora the way a man should love a woman, but I did grow to love her in some way. It simply wasn’t enough. After years of trying, I couldn’t do it anymore.” I remember those days as if they were just yesterday. “She was sucking the life out of me, Dalt. I didn’t handle it well when you told me you saw her with another man.” He hadn’t. “I was pissed at her. Pissed at myself, and I was pissed at you for having to be the one to point her bullshit out to me, even though I could feel that something was going on.”

“The day she signed the divorce papers that would bleed me dry, I couldn’t have been happier,” he confessed. “I didn’t give a shit about my inheritance. So long as she didn’t touch yours and your sister’s, I would have given her every fucking cent.”

The apple doesn’t far from the tree. It’s why my father and I butted heads so often.

“I know you would have.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “It’s the fact that she’s still around after it all. I get that Skylar needed her mom. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with that. And she was a good one for a while afterward. It’s that—”

“It’s done, son.”

“Dad—”

“It’s done,” he said with finality.

I pinned him with my gaze. “Then why was she there last weekend? Even though I wasn’t, she should have stayed away. Did you think Skylar and I wouldn’t talk about Cora showing? I see my sister at least once a week, Dad, of course she’d tell me that woman had been around.”

“She was trying to warn me. I haven’t seen her since I was in the hospital, son.” It had been two months since his heart attack.

“Warn you?” My laugh came out with all the sarcasm I intended for it to hold. “What could she have to warn you about?”

“She ran into Suzanna, who told her that she was back in town. Permanently. In fact, she’s been back for quite some time.”

Oh.

“I knew about it, since I had to learn from Shane, when I visited the precinct, that you were thinking about taking a restraining order out on her,” he explained.

I nodded. “She’s been calling nonstop, so I knew it was the next logical thing to do. Before you ask, I have no idea what she wants from me.”

“Have you looked into her?”

“No.” It was stupid, and I knew it, but things have been so neurotically chaotic for me lately. “I’ll get one of the guys on it.”

Dad gave me his nod of approval. “Good. I’m done with this bullshit. I want my fucking family back, because if what I see brewing between you and that pretty little thing out there is as strong as it looks, I want to be able to enjoy it.” He grinned. “I’m too fucking old for my own drama, but I’m never too old to watch that woman,” he pointed toward the patio door, “make you run in circles around her.”

It fucking felt great to laugh with the man in front of me. “Who says she won’t be the one doing the dancing?”

His laugh came out loud and boisterous, then calmed, but the humor still dominated his features. “Because…if she wasn’t, you wouldn’t look at her the way you do. I was like that with your mother.” His smile was forced, the sadness taking over. “I would have done anything for that woman and she knew it.”

“I told her about Mom,” I confessed. “I haven’t told her everything else, but I want to.”

He seemed as surprised as I had been when I’d made the decision to give Devolin some of my darkness, starting with my mother. “You did?”

“I love her,” escaped me in a whispered reason.

Wrapping a hand behind my neck, he squeezed and said, “Then dance, boy.” He pulled me in for a hug and a slap on the back. “Love you, son.”

“Love you too, old man.” I smacked him back.

 

Skylar and Dad had left less than an hour ago, and Devolin had retired to my bedroom to get into something more ‘comfortable.’

“Babe?” I called out toward the bathroom where I heard water stop running.

“Yeah?”

Stripping my shirt and chucking it into the hamper next to the closet, I sat down on the edge of the bed. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Uh-huh.”

She walked out of the bathroom wearing one of my t-shirts. I struggled to keep my mind on track. I wanted this conversation to be done and over with. Hell, I’d been happy if I didn’t have to have it at all, but Suzanna needed to be dealt with, and Devolin needed to be in the know on how I planned to do that, as well as what to expect.

“Talked to Skylar earlier, when she came in looking for dessert,” I told her.

“Yeah?”

“Why didn’t you tell me that you met Suzanna?” I stuck out my hand for her to take. Now I knew why she’d called me a heartbreaker.

She grabbed hold, and I pulled her until she stood between my legs, settling my hands on her hips.

She snorted. “Meeting would imply an introduction. One I never got directly. And it wasn’t exactly a conversation I wanted to rehash until I was ready.”

“You weren’t just pissed at my demanding you explain about Hewitt that night you went out with the girls, were you?”

“No.” She made to touch my cheek, her thumb rubbing against my day worth stubble. “That basically put me over the edge though. The shit she knew about me. I don’t know how she did, but I don’t get why she’d even rub it in my face.” Biting her bottom lip, I could see she was fighting something in her head.

“What is it, sweetheart?” I asked. “Just ask and I’ll tell you.”

“Skylar told me that she cheated on you and got pregnant with the other man’s kid, but what exactly happened with her?”

 

By the time I finished explaining my history with Suzanna, Devolin was pacing my bedroom, anger pouring off her in droves.

“Do you think she’ll stir trouble?” she asked me.

“I hope not, but now that she’s back in town, who knows.”

“I…I.” She was so flustered, she couldn’t even speak. “I want to rip her throat out, right now, for what she did to you. Cheating was bad enough, but no…she had to do it with a friend? And she aborted the baby without him knowing?” She huffed, “This is a real life soap opera, you can’t make this shit up, Dalton!”

Her defense of my character had me going to her.

Too busy with her rant, she never saw me coming. Putting a shoulder into her stomach, I picked her up, then flipped her onto her back on my bed, making sure not to crush her as I landed over her, smiling.

“I don’t see anything worth smiling about,” she snapped.

She braced her hands on my chest as I played with a strand of her hair by her temple. “You’re hot when you’re spitting mad.”

Her brows furrowed. “I am?”

“Downright sexy.” I nuzzled her nose, my eyes studying hers. “But as much as I appreciate you defending my honor, I rather move on to a more enjoyable part of our evening.”

Not waiting for a response, my mouth crashed to hers.