“What’s her name?”
“She makes my heart do funny things, my soul ignite.”
“And her name is?” he asks, raising a brow.
“Her sass.” I groan. “It’s so damn hot. She’s badass, Dad. Way too good for me, but I’m already too far gone to care, you know? Like I’m–”
“Grayson.” Dad chuckles, saying my name louder. “Answer the question, boy.”
Unable to look him in the eye when I tell him, because I’m a little bitch like that, I cover my face and lean my elbows on the table. “Sadie,” I mumble into my hands.
“How about we try that again without your hands muffling your words?”
Taking a deep breath, I sit up, move my hands, but keep my eyes closed. “The woman I’m madly in love with, the one who owns me in every way, is Sadie. You know, the same one who just became your new daughter, my stepsister. Erin’s daughter.” The words come out in a rush, needing to get them out before I clamped my mouth shut and ran off.
When he says nothing and the silence goes on for way too long, I risk peeking an eye open and find him smiling at me.
I open the other and frown. “Why are you smiling? Shouldn’t you be yelling at me? Threatening to send me away to an all-boys school?”
He lets out a huffed laugh. “First off, you’re of age. I can’t make you do anything. And second, I’m smiling because your big grand confession isn’t a surprise to me.”
My lips part as I gape at him. “It’s not?”
“Boy, how stupid do you think I am?” he asks, still grinning as he sits back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “You look at that girl the same way I look at her mother: utterly smitten.”
“You’re fucking with me.” I narrow my eyes.
“No, I’m not,” he laughs. “Grayson, anyone with eyes can see how you look at that girl. Although sometimes I wish I didn’t because you really don’t know how to keep your bedroom eyes to yourself, do you?”
“Bedroom eyes.” I laugh in surprise. “Careful, old man, your age is showing.”
“Watch it.” He narrows his eyes playfully.
“So that's it? You're just... okay with this?”
“You say you love her?”
“More than my next breath,” I say without hesitation.
“And she makes you happy?”
“Didn’t even know what happiness was until I met her.”
He smiles softly and nods his head. “Then who am I to get in the way of that?”
“But she’s your daughter.” Yes, Grayson, remind him of the reasons why he shouldn’t be okay with this.
“She is. I love her like she’s my own. But the fact is, you two aren’t blood. You didn’t grow up together, and there's no sibling bond between the two of you.”
“Fuck no.” I snort.
“Then there’s nothing wrong with it. Although I'm not exactly sure how all of this is going to work, seeing how she’s married to Collin Jones. Well, Collin Killian now, I guess.”
“And Declan,” I point out.
“She’s still with him?”
“Never broke up.”
