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“Royce, you comin’?” she asks him.
His eyes never move from his phone. “Nah, but I am leavin’.”
He hops up, kissing Victoria’s forehead, and clasping my hand before he follows them out to the parking lot.
My dad catches my eyes and jerks his head, so I look to Victoria.
She smiles. “Meet me in the truck?”
So I nod and she runs off, catching up with the others as I make my way to my dad, and the two of us walk along the edge of the pond.
“Mallory got on the plane, I heard?” he asks.
I nod. “Mac escorted her across the fucking country, took her passport and IDs when she got there.”
“Big of you to set her up like you did.”
I shrug. “A condo and a few sets of zeros is nothing for peace of mind knowing I won’t have to see her again. She wanted nothing to do with this place anyway.”
“And if she had?”
“I’d have to find a way to be okay with it, but not for her sake.”
He nods, stopping to face me. “I know something else is on your mind. Don’t make me ask questions, talk to me, son.”
I scoff a laugh, licking my lips as I glance away. “I was never supposed to be here,” I say for the first time. “My father wasn’t one of you, like Mike’s was. I can’t help but think Mike was right to try and take what was mine. I took what should have been his. His place in this family, the place his dad left behind.”
“You’re wrong, son. Mero was a man of Brayshaw, as you have men at the warehouses and around this town and under you and your brother’s influence. But your father, the man your mother married, my best friend, he was Brayshaw. He was you as you are to them, as you stand here today. With or without you, Captain, Mike would never have been given your place. He’d have had to earn it in a different way as he grew. I have no doubt in my mind, he would have failed. He was weak-minded, as my brother was.”
“Maybe he wouldn’t have been if he grew up with us.”
“Maybe, Cap, but we have no way to know. What I do know is I’ve seen more strength and growth in this town, in this family, in the last several months than I saw in a lifetime of serving this place. That’s no coincidence. That’s Brayshaw at its finest.”
I swallow, nodding as I move my eyes to his. “Thank you. For everything you did for us, for taking us in, for giving me my brothers and for being a father to Royce and me when only Maddoc was yours to care for.”
“You were all mine, and I love you equally.”
“And I’ll love my nieces and nephews, as they come, just the same. Like my own. Like you.”
His eyes gloss over and he glances away. “Go home, Captain. Today is not the day I cry in front of you.”
A light laugh leaves me and I wrap him in a hug.
“Thank you for allowing me to be your father, son,” he whispers as he pulls away, quickly walking toward Maybell on the other side of the park.
I meet Victoria in my truck and head home.
Her eyes slide to mine when I don’t get out right away, and I smile, lifting her hand and kissing along her knuckles. “They took Zoey for ice cream,” I tell her.
She smirks, leaning over. “That right?”
“That’s right. Go up to my room, Beauty. I’m right behind you.”
“Aye, Aye, Captain,” she teases as she hops out.
I wait a couple minutes, leg bouncing all the while and then head out, taking the stairs two at a time.
Okay, Beauty. Here we go.Life.
I rewatched the videos Maria left me, for the fifth or sixth time, and then I typed in Zoey’s name and learned what I didn’t know.
Zoey means life.
And full of life she is.
She smiles with her heart and cries from her soul, loves with all she is and listens with all she has. She’s strong and intuitive and perfect.
As is the girl who helped assure she was brought into this world, for her and for me.
This girl, she’s stubborn, bratty, and doesn’t listen for shit, but I like her that way.
Love every piece of her.
But if she keeps pretending to like candy to appease my little girl, I might throw her ass out.
“What the hell?” she whispers, only to yelp when I sneak behind her, squeezing her hips.
She whips around, laughing and shoves me in the chest.
“I knew you couldn’t handle seeing it open without reading,” I tease her.
“Well, you left it open.” She pushes me back, falling on top of me.
“I did.” I push her hair over her shoulder. “Keep reading, Beauty.”
Her eyes narrow, and I reach behind her, dragging it to my chest, my eyes on hers as hers fall to the paper.
