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I’m staring at him right now, face to face as we stand next to his bike, which he parked in front of Dad’s driveaway. There was no room in the actual driveway, because two cars already occupied the space. One combi family KIA that must be Ginette's, because she does everything with the kids, and a Porsche Cayenne, my father’s show-off car. The garage is packed with Dad’s older tech stuff from the time when he founded his first company, as well as old toys from my two half-sisters. He’ll probably only find the time to get rid of those when both Kayla and Simone are well into their thirties.
“You’re not fooling me, mister,” I tell Micah as I run my hand through his damp hair. “You’re in no condition to be doing this. Maybe we should go to a hotel, get a good night's sleep, and return tomorrow.”
“I’m in condition to do whatever it takes to make you officially mine,” he says in that voice I’ll never not find seductive. “I’ll prove it to you if you don’t believe me.”
I take his gloved hand, interlacing my fingers with his.
“No need to flash your talents here. On the contrary, I’d very much appreciate it if you kept them under wraps in front of my father.”
Not that I care an awful lot about what Graham Brannan thinks of my boyfriend. I mean yes, he did pay for my education and for keeping Goldie in a decent mental institution, but I can’t bring myself to appreciate it very much. He was never there for us in any other way. On the other hand, I don’t need to spend half a lifetime to pay back my student loans, and that should count for something. Still, the fact remains, he was never a huge help for Goldie or me, and he had left me alone to deal with all of Goldie’s special needs ever since she was a kid.
Which is why I’m not exactly overjoyed to be ringing the bell.
The door rips open faster than I expected. Probably because Dad’s wife has been spying on us from behind the curtains in her living room ever since the Harley roared up in front of their house.
“Eva,” Ginette exclaims, her bulbous eyes flying from me to Micah. When they land on him, they do a double take. “Oh.” Her hand goes automatically to her heart.
He’s an impressive sight, and I’m not surprised it takes her breath away, but I am surprised to find her so skinny.
My eyes fall to her too-visible breastbone.
The relationship with my father hasn’t been more of a blessing for her than it was for my mother, it seems. She’s lost a lot of weight, her hair is matted and disheveled, and her face is rather gaunt. I have a flashback of my mother in her final days before she was taken.
“I—we didn’t expect you,” Ginette finally manages, holding the door wide open so Micah and I can walk in. I don’t remember her ever making me feel so welcome before.
“It wasn’t a planned visit,” Micah replies as he walks in behind me. I’m sure there’s a dashing smile on his face accompanying that low baritone. “But Eva and I just made a big decision for our future, and I really wanted to honor it, you know, the right way.”
Ginette hastily makes room for us by gathering laundry off the couch, which she was clearly preparing to fold. An ironing table is spread out in front of the TV, her cat Louie jumping off the armchair as she goes to place the armful of laundry on it.
“Plase, have a seat,” she all but squeaks, gesturing to the now free couch and then nervously tucking strands of hair behind her ears, not sure what to do with herself.
I take in Micah’s irresistible smile as I sit down next to him, my hand still gripped in his large palm. Ginette’s eyes drop to my hand, clearly looking for a ring. It hits me that Micah hasn’t given me one, but then again, he came to the sanatorium right after the mayhem, and we haven’t been apart for a minute since. He couldn’t have found time to buy one.
“There isn’t a ring there yet, but your intuition is spot on,” Micah tells her. “There will be one soon. It’s actually the reason we’re here.”
Her eyes linger on him as she tucks another strand of hair behind her ear, heat flourishing in her cheeks.
“C-can I get you anything to drink? Coffee, tea, maybe wine?” She shuffles onto her feet, ready to scurry over to the kitchen and get whatever Micah might want—since she barely spares me a glance—but a man clears his throat from the stairs, startling Ginette out of her skin.
It’s my dad, watching us quizzically as he slowly descends.
Micah rises to his feet just as slowly, matching Dad’s pace, and I follow suit.
“Eva?” The sound of my name is enough to give me the jitters when he speaks it. Dad has always had power over me that way, but Micah squeezes my hand in his, conveying a soothing feeling of “I got you”.
“Dad,” I say by way of greeting.
Dad raises an eyebrow. He’s used to me fussing about awkwardly when he speaks to me in that tone. The head of an important tech company, my dad is a hard man in his own right, and he’s always been good at intimidating people.
“Graham, shall I get you something?” Ginette says, clearly eager to appease him. He grunts something about coffee, but Micah cuts in.
“It’s fine; we won’t be staying long.” Dad’s bushy eyebrows rise even further up at the way my boyfriend takes over the conversation, basically denying him his coffee. “Eva didn’t even want to barge in on you like this but I said hey, this is big news, your father will surely want to be the first one to hear it. He’ll welcome us with open arms. I mean, what father wouldn’t, right?”
Chills run down my spine. He sounds controlled, but no longer pleasant, the provocation clear in his tone.
Dad walks down the last step, stopping next to his wife and facing us. Ginette makes herself smaller, and I can’t help but notice that she looks scared.
“I’d probably welcome her with open arms,” Dad says, jerking his chin in my direction, “if she didn’t bring a rude bastard to my door.” Then, with all of his attention resting heavy on me, “I expected more from you. Yes, you were always a selfish, ungrateful and spiteful girl, but at least you kept a cool head, and you knew exactly what was good for you in life. You also knew how to get it. I trusted you’d do well in college, I expected that all of my employees and partners would be impressed by my daughter’s achievements, and that’s why I paid for your degree. I should have probably made it a condition that you don’t ever bring home a fuckboy, but honestly I didn’t think I had to. I thought you were more serious than that. What can I say, my bad. Won’t happen again. So, if you came here looking for my blessing, you can be on your way now. And if you need someone to pay for your wedding, save your breath. I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to. Your sister’s bills sucked me dry these past few months.”
