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I find her still at the door and sidle up behind her to see who’s there. We weren’t expecting anyone, and there’s no way the food has arrived this fast.
When I see who’s on the other side, I freeze.
“Laura?” I ask, jaw dropping open and taking in the fact my daughter’s standing right there.
Oh, fuck.
Laura’s eyes go wide as saucers, darting between Juliet and me. With Juliet in her pajamas and me in nothing but a towel, it only takes Laura two seconds to conclude what’s happening here.
There’s a long, heavy beat of silence where the crisis management part of my brain begins to kick in and go wild, as though I can fix this the way I fix shit at work.
Laura speaks before I can. “What…what the hell is going on?”
Juliet’s face drops, her eyes wide and watery, her lips parting but no sound coming out. The confusion and fear on her face make me want to wrap her in my arms and protect her from the world. But that’s not what’s needed right now.
“Okay, let’s all sit down and discuss this,” I suggest, thankful for the years of crisis management work has given me.
“Are you going to put some clothes on before we do or do I have to act like it’s normal to see my dad in nothing but a towel sitting on my best friend’s couch?” Laura asks, the words both harsh and a little wobbly.
She’s my daughter, and I hate seeing that look on her face just as much as I hate it on Juliet’s.
“Of course,” I say gently, ushering Laura inside fully and closing the door behind her. “Why don’t you guys go get a drink and have a seat, and I’ll get dressed and join you in a second?”
Both of them still look a little shell-shocked, guilt shining brightly in Juliet’s hazel eyes as she leads her best friend, my daughter, through to the lounge.
I make good on my promise to get dressed, doing so in record time, and rush back out. This will be okay, I tell myself. I refuse to let my daughter or the love of my life be hurt by this.
I should have done something earlier, should’ve sorted this right from the start. But I didn’t, and now the two most important girls in my life might get hurt because of me.
I walk into the lounge to see Juliet pouring three glasses of white wine just as Laura’s declaring, “I’ll need the entire damn bottle to even begin to process this.”
Juliet snorts and dutifully slides the rest of the bottle across to Laura. Laura’s frown breaks, and she grins at her friend, their bond obvious even in the strain of the situation.
“I won’t lecture you about drinking right now,” I say teasingly to Laura, who shoots me a death glare in response.
“You can’t lecture me about shit right now,” she snaps back.
I nod. I deserve that.
We settle down into three separate chairs, and I resist the urge to grab Juliet and yank her onto my lap, though I do press a kiss to her cheek on my way past to sit down.
“I’m sorry this is how you found out,” I begin, taking a sip of my wine before setting it down on the coffee table between us all.
Laura snorts, taking a gulp straight from the bottle, which makes Juliet giggle quietly. “Were you going to tell me at all? How did this even happen? Are you…Oh, God, are you really sleeping with my best friend?” She scrunches up her face and shudders.
Juliet goes bright red, leaning forward towards Laura. “We were going to tell you. I just…I didn’t know how. It wasn’t planned or anything. I just…the night of the showcase, when you went to have dinner with Ryan, I didn’t have anyone else there. I was just gonna go home and order take-out, but Jared offered to buy me dinner to celebrate, and well…”
Laura gapes at us while Juliet explains how instantly we clicked, how we fell for each other faster than she thought possible, how she’s never felt like this before. I let her speak, gazing at her as she tries to explain our connection. I love her. It would be impossible for me not to. I might tell her she’s mine all the time, but fuck if I’m not hers, too.
“We’re not just sleeping together,” I add. “Juliet means more to me than I know how to explain. I understand that this must be a shock to you?—”
“Understatement of the damn century,” Laura mutters under her breath.
“—but it was never my intention to hurt you, Laura. I am sorry for that, but I am not sorry for falling for Juliet. I love her, and I hope that in time, you can come to accept that,” I say as gently as I can, needing Laura to know that nothing will separate me from my girl.
Laura shakes her head. “It’s not the fact you’re together. Well, okay, yes, that’s weird as fuck. But I’m hurt because neither of you told me. Two people I should be able to trust, my best friend and my father, have been lying to me for weeks. God, Juliet, I asked you like a hundred times who the mystery guy you were seeing was!”
Juliet winces. “What was I supposed to say?” she asks in a small voice. “Juliet, who gave you all those hickeys? Oh, just your dad.”
