Kevin barely slept that night. Sylvie called him from a cocktail party on a yacht somewhere in the Mediterranean. Drunk Sylvie had a mean streak, so when he told her he still didn’t know what was going on with Holly, except that she was safe and staying with a friend, she flipped out.

“Now that’s ironic, right? Didn’t you call me irrespon…pons…irreponsible for like, that exact same thing?”

“It’s not the same. Holly’s fifteen now. She stays with friends all the time.”

“Do you even know who she’s staying with?”

“Yes, of course I know her. I told you, she’s a friend. My friend.”

“Oh, my friend. AKA you’re sleeping with her. Yeah, that’s super-duper responsible, Kev. Like you’re so careful about who you screw.”

He ground his teeth. Did he have to put up with this from an ex? “You bet I am. I learned my lesson.”

“Ohmigod, you did not just say that. You know I can afford like, a hundred custody lawyers if I want? Lucky for you, I won’t because Mitch would divorce me. Just…okay just…I have to go, but you watch out for my little girl.” She gave a sob. Oh no, now it was time for Sappy Drunk Sylvie. “I really miss her sometimes.”

“Good night, Sylvie. Go back to your party, would you? Mitch is probably worried about you.”

In the morning, his own reflection scared him, all bloodshot eyes and haggard face. He splashed cold water over his head and practiced a tolerant and forgiving smile in case he needed it. He still had no clue what was up with Holly. Maybe he ought to rehearse something more stern and angry.

But he didn’t have the heart. He just wanted to see his daughter.

When he’d spruced himself up enough to face the world, he drove to the house where Cassie was staying. Her Jetta was in the driveway, with Holly’s blue mountain bike loaded onto a rack on the back.

And for some reason, the sight of that bike made him see red all over again. Was he such a terrible father that he deserved to be shut out of his own daughter’s life? Wasn’t he always there for Holly? Why had she turned to Cassie instead—a virtual stranger?

He knew that last part was unfair, but he couldn’t stop thinking it. He should be able to take care of his own family problems. Holly was his responsibility, not Cassie’s.

By the time Cassie opened the door, he was in such a state of tension that he barely noticed her wary expression and freshly showered scent. He vaguely knew she was barefoot and dressed in cutoffs and a sassy t-shirt. With one part of his mind, he knew she looked mouthwatering.

But he shoved all that aside. “Where’s Holly?”

Silently, she opened the door and ushered him in. He stepped into the house where he’d spent so many incredibly fun and intimate moments with Cassie. He even knew how those polished hardwood floors felt under his bare ass, from the time she’d straddled him during Strip Monopoly.

Holly was curled up in the armchair. She’d obviously been crying; the flesh around her eyes was swollen and all traces of makeup were gone.

“Hey, baby.” He hurried toward her. If he didn’t get his arms around her in the next minute, he might explode.

“Daddy!” She bolted to her feet and rushed toward him. She barreled into his arms the same way she had as a kid, when he’d been overseas for too long. As if she were afraid he’d disappear into thin air if she didn’t hold on hard enough.

The feeling of relief was indescribable. She was okay. She was here. In his arms.

He never wanted to go through that again.

After letting her cling to him for a long moment—and loving every second of it—he murmured, “You ready to go? I was thinking you can tell me what’s going on over pancakes at the Milky Way.”

“No.” She shook her head and pulled away. As her hair slid away from her face, he noticed a mottled discoloration near her cheekbone. “Right here. Before I lose my nerve.”

“What’s this?” He touched her skin where the trace of red showed. .

“I’ll explain, but don’t worry, it’s fine.”

“Fine?” A dangerous feeling came over him, as if the ground was shifting under his feet.

He glanced at Cassie, who was watching the two of them closely. She gestured toward the couch. “Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll bring in some coffee.”

His jaw worked. If his daughter had gotten hurt in some way, he deserved to know immediately. Judging from how that mark had faded, she’d gotten it at least a week ago. Why hadn’t he known?

“Sure,” he managed. “Coffee would be great.”

He didn’t add that it had been a rough night, since that was probably written all over his face in stubble and stress lines.

Cassie’s smile vanished and she hurried into the kitchen. He knew he was being rude to her. Ungracious. Holly was safe, after all. None of this was Cassie’s fault. As soon as she came back, he’d thank her like a civilized person.

He and Holly sat down on the couch. “You scared me, honey,” he said gently. “I don’t like not knowing where you were or being able to get ahold of you.”

“I’m sorry. I—I wasn’t thinking straight.” She shot him a worried look. Really worried. Uh-oh, something big and bad must be coming his way. “Are you feeling better now?” she asked cautiously.

He laughed a little and scrubbed his hand through his hair. “A lot better now that I’m with you. Don’t worry so much, Holly. It’ll be okay. Whatever’s going on.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how to start.” She looked past him, probably hoping Cassie was back. Her anxiety set his teeth on edge. What was she so damn worried about?

“How about the Band-Aid approach? Rip it off all at once. Then it’s over and we can go from there.”

“Band-Aid. Okay.” She drew in a deep breath, then let it out in an explosion of words. “I stole a thousand dollars from the observatory and spent it on a spa day with some friends.”

“What?” He shot up to his feet. “WHAT?”

From behind him, he heard the sound of clinking cups. Cassie stood a few feet away holding two mugs. Coffee sloshed over their rims. Her mouth was open in a perfect “O” of alarm. Not shock. Or surprise.

Because she knew.

“Holy fuck. You knew about this, Cassie?”

She straightened her spine and glared back at him. “Yes, Holly told me yesterday.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“Holly is telling you right now, in case you missed it.”

He couldn’t look at Holly yet. Didn’t want to hear more. He’d worked so hard to counteract Sylvie’s cheerfully amoral influence on his daughter. But this was a total Sylvie-type stunt. Sylvie loved to make trouble. She didn’t care about rules. She loved money, adventure. And she loved spa days.

“Dad.” Holly tugged at his shirt. “It’s not Cassie’s fault. You shouldn’t yell at her.”

“I’m not yelling.”

He was yelling. And he knew that. But it was nothing compared to the primal screaming that was going on inside him. He kept his focus on Cassie, still afraid to look at his daughter. Why was Cassie involved with this? What right did she have to know things about his daughter before he did?

“I’m just trying to figure out why Cassie didn’t tell me the second she found out that my daughter had committed grand theft. Do you know the potential consequences, Cassie? On college applications, future jobs, God knows what else?”

For a moment, Cassie looked absolutely stricken. Then she stuck her jaw out and marched toward him. She plopped the two coffee mugs on the end table next to the couch. “Holly, you’ve already done the hard part. Can you take it from here? I don’t think I should be here anymore.”

Holly tugged her lower lip between her teeth, looking so worried that Kevin’s heart turned over in his chest. Yeah, he was mad. He had a right to be. But her fearfulness made no sense to him.

After a painful hesitation, she nodded. “Yeah, it’s okay. You can go. Thanks, Cassie.”

Cassie grabbed her car keys, which were sitting next to the coffee mugs, and fixed Kevin with a stern look.

As if he was in the wrong. For Pete’s sake.

“She’s trying to do the right thing here, so get over yourself.”

His jaw dropped at her sheer audaciousness. Get over yourself? What the fuck did that mean? He’d just learned that his fifteen-year-old daughter had committed a crime. What did getting over himself have to do with anything?

Cassie left before he could summon an answer.

As soon as she was gone, her tires laying down rubber in the driveway—she always did drive too fast—he missed her.

He wanted her.

Needed her.

Because he had no idea what to say to his own daughter.

First things first, he told himself. Look at her.

As soon as he did, he wanted to cry. This wasn’t a gleefully amoral grown-up who skipped through life paying no consequences. This wasn’t Sylvie. This was Holly—woebegone, guilt-ridden, and tearstained.

“I’m so sorry I did it, Dad. It was completely stupid, and I can’t even blame my prefrontal cortex. It was just…stupid.”

“I’m not going to argue with that. I just….why, Holly? Why?”

“I didn’t want to be a geek anymore!”

The rest of the story poured out at that point. He made himself listen carefully to every painful freaking word. How come he’d had no clue about any of this? Starting with her need to prove she wasn’t just a good student, or some kind of Asian nerd girl. Should he have seen that coming?

He’d let her down. He should have gotten her therapy, or a good role model, or a support group, or hell, even tracked down another part-Asian woman for her to talk to. Wasn’t one of the Jupiter Point police officers part Japanese?

Not that he wanted to seek out a cop at this moment.

Anyway, Sylvie was Taiwanese, though born in the States. ABC, she called herself. American Born Chinese. Had this happened because Sylvie wasn’t around to guide Holly through this stage of her life? Was it his fault because he’d assumed full custody? Would Holly actually be better off with Sylvie?

Get over yourself.

Cassie’s words kept coming back to him. They acted like a swift kick in the ass.

Of course Holly wouldn’t be better off with Sylvie, especially because Sylvie didn’t even want her. Holly needed to know she was loved and supported. If he was lacking in some way, he’d work harder, or get some help, or seek out some guidance. But for damn sure he wasn’t going to walk away.

“So Cassie and I worked out this plan,” Holly was saying. “This is step one, telling you. The next thing is to tell the director and ask her if I can work off the amount that I stole, or like, double.” She plucked a Kleenex from a nearly empty box next to the couch and blew her nose. “The worst part is that I’m afraid they won’t let me work there anymore.”

It wouldn’t surprise him. “Why did you choose the observatory? You love that place.”

“I do. I really love it. I don’t know, the other girls all chose fancy vacation houses, but that was easy because they were empty. I wanted to do something even more wild and crazy.”

Wild and crazy. That description made Kevin cringe because it made him think of Sylvie.

But shit. If Sylvie had done this—and she probably had done similar crap—she wouldn’t have confessed to her parents. She wouldn’t be forming plans to pay the money back. She wouldn’t be riddled with guilt.

Loving Holly meant loving all of her, including the traits that might—or might not—come from her mother.

“Well, the good news is, I know how much they like you there. Maybe they’ll be willing to work something out. It’s at least worth a try. So—you want me to go with you?”

She screwed up her face and rested her chin on her knees in that classic Holly pose. “No. I don’t know. Maybe. Yes.” She rolled her eyes at her own indecision. “I guess it would be nice, but on the other hand, I shouldn’t need my daddy to hold my hand. I should handle it myself.”

“I won’t hold your hand. I won’t say a thing. I’ll just be the strong and silent moral support. But…” He hesitated, since it took a lot to say this. “If you’d rather have Cassie, or heck, even your mother with you—”

“Mom?” She turned her head so her cheek rested on her knees. “Please no. Ugh, do you even have to tell her about this? She’d probably gloat about how clever I was to pull it off. I really, really don’t want her to know. And I definitely don’t want her anywhere near the observatory.”

Kevin let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “And Cassie? Have to admit, I was surprised you called her, considering how angry you were about us.”

“Yeah, I kind of lost it that day. I was mad at myself for what I did, and I knew how pissed you’d be about it, and I just—I don’t know. Lost it. Sorry.”

“I knew something was wrong. Good to know it wasn’t about Cassie.”

“Does it even matter now? You totally flipped out on her, Dad.”

He slumped onto one of Hunter and Starly’s outrageously comfortable armchairs. The angry way he’d spoken to Cassie, the words he’d used… Now that the fear had drained away, and he knew exactly what had happened, and how Cassie was involved, he couldn’t believe he’d been such an ass to her. “Shit, I really did, didn’t I?”

“She was just trying to help. I asked her not to tell you yet, and she agreed as long as it wasn’t something urgent or dangerous. She wasn’t trying to interfere or anything.” She shoved his arm lightly. “She actually came back from a trip when I called her. I saw her suitcase and bugged her until she told me.”

He did a double-take. “She was already gone?”

“Yeah, on her way to Mexico. She turned around at LAX when she got my message. You kind of owe her an apology.”

That was probably understating it. But he wasn’t ready to shift his attention to Cassie yet. He still had questions for Holly.

“Why’d you call Cassie in the first place? You can trust me, Holly. I might freak out, but you can still trust me.”

“I know, but…” Tears sprang into her eyes. “I knew how disappointed you’d be. I mean, you sacrificed so much for me, leaving the Air Force and becoming a mechanic and moving here and—”

“Honey, I’m happy as a clam here.” He gestured around him, indicating the house, Jupiter Point, everything. “I dig this town. I like my job. And the chance to be around for all the ups and downs in the life of Holly O’Donnell? That, kiddo, is the best part of all. None of that counts as a sacrifice, sorry. So just get that out of your head, okay?”

“So…you still love me?” she asked in a small voice.

His heart cracked wide open. He opened his arms, leaned across the space separating them, and wrapped her up in the biggest bear hug he could manage. “Jesus, Holls. Of course. You don’t ever have to worry about that.”

She shuddered against him. “And you’ll visit me in jail?”

“Too soon for that joke,” he said with a wince.

“Sorry.”

After a long and very satisfying embrace, he asked as he pulled way, “So just to clarify. Everything you said the other day about wanting to leave Jupiter Point, that was because of this situation?”

“Yes. I was being a coward. I was not looking forward to facing up to everything. But Cassie and I talked it through.”

“It sounds like Cassie really came through for you.”

“She did. She’s cool. You could definitely do worse, Dad.”

God, he owed Cassie an apology. Probably a lot more than that. Like dinner at the Seaview and chocolate every day for the rest of the year. Or maybe something more intimate, like naked back rubs for a month.

Yeah, like she was going to let him anywhere near her naked back.

The magnitude of his fuckup finally sank in. Cassie had rushed back from a trip to Mexico to help his daughter, and he’d treated her like a piece of toilet paper stuck to his shoe. What the fuck was wrong with him?

And what if she couldn’t forgive him?

Life without Cassie…he couldn’t even imagine it any more. She was woven into every part of his existence here. With her sassy, spunky, freewheeling spirit, she’d snuck into his heart and completely taken the place over, without him really being aware of it.

He loved Cassie.

“Holly, there’s something you should know. Right away.” Because he was done keeping any sort of truth from his daughter.

“What?”

“I wasn’t lying to you before, about Cassie—I was lying to myself.”

“What do you mean?” Her eyes went round and curious.

“I want Cassie to be a real part of our lives. I love her. I think I might even want to marry her.” Astonishing—but it was totally true. “I know that wasn’t what I promised you, but—”

“No, it’s cool. It’s fine. It’s good. I told you I like her.”

He grinned fully for the first time since their ill-fated ‘family day.’ “Thank God.”

“But Dad—you should probably hurry.” Looking exhausted, she lay back on the couch and tucked a blanket around her.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m pretty sure you totally blew it with her.”