“Ian.” The sound of his father’s gruff voice tore the smile off his face. “Wheel me out of here, will you?”
Shit.
They hadn’t talked alone yet. Despite having been thrust back to a more dangerous time than Bourbon Street at 3:00 a.m. during Mardi Gras, his dad’s words made Ian’s heart skip a beat.
“Of course,” he responded, kissing Màiri before moving toward his father. “We’ll meet you guys outside.”
“Downstairs,” his father amended. “We’ll just be a few minutes.”
Ian gripped the handles of his dad’s wheelchair and watched as his family, much bigger than it had been just a few weeks ago, filed out of the room one or two at a time. Well, a few weeks ago here in the present. Rhys had been in the past for just over a year, which made his brother another year older than him, a thought that still freaked him out a bit.
“Come over here.”
Ian let go of the grips and sat on the bed next to his father.
“You should have told me,” his dad said.
Sighing, unsure of what to say, he frowned. “You had Mom. And then all of the time travel stuff.”
For which he and his brothers couldn’t stop apologizing, although their father was always quick to remind them the only thing that mattered was that they were all here, together, and alive.
“You still could have told me. Apparently your brothers saw it, but I didn’t. I’m sorry.”
Ian shook his head. “No way. You’re not allowed to be sorry. You had enough to deal with without worrying about your son not digging his job. That was nothing.”
“Ian.” His father reached out and took his hand. “Your happiness is everything. You, your brothers. Nothing else matters. I hope you understand that now?”
God, did he ever.
“I do.”
“And we should have told you sooner about your mom.”
Not this again. “Seriously, Dad. No. You guys made the best decisions you could, every step of the way. And honestly, now that I’ve done it, time travel isn’t something I’ll be talking about to anyone. Not even my own kids. It’s too hard to wrap your brain around. The last thing I want is anyone to be tempted to find that cross and go skipping across time on a dangerously warped vacation. You did the right thing.”
He and Màiri had talked it through many times over the past couple of weeks, sometimes alone and sometimes with the others, and they’d agreed to never go back. Not even to see the family they’d left behind. It was too risky. They had both crosses here, in the present, so there would be no visits from any travelers either.
“Your own kids?” His dad smiled. “Do you know something I don’t?”
“Not yet. I’ll leave that to Grey for now. We’ll be busy with the foundation. And Màiri thinks we may have found a building.”
“Good. We’ll go look at it next week. First, a Thanksgiving meal with extra stuffing.”
That had been Dad’s one request for tomorrow’s meal.
He had to ask.
“You’re not angry?”
His dad’s brows furrowed. “Angry? That my son and his wife are opening a women’s shelter? Seriously, Ian? How could you ask that?”
Ian could breathe again for the first time since this whole ordeal started. All was truly well.
“Besides, when your mom and I get back from the beach, we’ll need something to keep us busy. I mean it when I say the business is theirs.”
Smiling, he stood, leaning down to embrace his father. They stayed that way until a knock on the door interrupted them.
So much for meeting them downstairs.
