Page 101 of Protecting You
“Does it have to be one or the other?”
It did. Didn’t it?
“You have room in your heart for Peri.”
“She’s in my heart, Dad.” Did he really have to say it? Was he really so bad at showing it? “I love her.”
Dad gripped his hand again. “I know that, son. And you’re going to figure it out. Good men make good fathers.”
Did they? Did that mean Callan wasn’t a good man? Because he definitely wasn’t a good father.
He’d been too proud to ask for help before, but knowing what could’ve happened, knowing his father wouldn’t always be here, he realized how badly he needed Dad’s counsel.
“I want that, to be a good father. More than anything. How should I…?”
His words trailed when the door pushed open and a white-coated doctor stepped inside, followed by Mom and Hannah, who must’ve been hovering just outside.
The doctor’s hair was pulled back in a French twist, the elegant style contrasting with the fatigue that showed in bags beneath her eyes.
She introduced herself to everyone, then focused on Dad, explaining that he’d had a heart attack and would need to stay overnight in the hospital.
Predictably, Dad argued, but she just nodded patiently.
“I understand, Mr. Templeton. You seem like the kind of man who makes sacrifices for the sake of the people who love him.” She gestured to Callan and his family. “So I know you’ll do what’s best for your health, even if you don’t want to.”
He wasn’t the doctor’s first stubborn patient.
Dad grumbled, but how could he argue with that?
She gave them test results and numbers and levels of this and that, along with the care Dad would need when he was released.
Callan struggled to hang onto the details.
The point was, if Mom hadn’t realized what was happening and insisted he come to the hospital, Dad could have died.
If he had, Callan would have been crushed. But he would bury him knowing that Dad had loved him every minute of his life.
He thought of their narrow escape from Ghazi and his guards the night before.
If Callan had died, his daughter wouldn’t have the same assurance.
No matter how much he cared about his job and his career, no matter how drawn he felt to Alyssa, proving his love to Peri was more important than anything else he could do.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
After Alyssa and Peri ate dinner, they headed to the deli, where they waited near the pickup counter for the meals Callan had ordered for himself and his family.
Alyssa and Callan’s daughter had bonded over a bucket of chicken and potato wedges, though it had taken a few minutes to break through the child’s walls.
But Alyssa had years of experience relating to little girls. She was the oldest of five, after all, and despite the fire incident, she’d done a lot of caring for her sisters over the years. She knew how to relate to them, how to make them smile.
It was adults she’d always had trouble with.
By the time Peri had dipped her last potato wedge in ketchup, she’d been chattering like a magpie about everything from her favorite subject in school to her best friend, Emma, to her determination to become a cheerleader.
“Papi says of course I can do it, but Gigi told me I need to ask my daddy to pay for it.”
“What did your dad say?”
