“Thank you,” she said, drawing a dismissive wave from him. “No, Dad. Really, thank you.” He shook his head, looking back at her. He had been watching Liam and Ronan jacking around.
“I don’t know what I’m telling your mother. Some version of the truth I guess.” With a sigh, he rose from the table.
He pulled Astrid into a hug when she rose from her seat. Parker, Liam, and Ronan all put aside what they were doing to walk over. With one last squeeze, he turned her loose.
“It was nice to meet you, Mr. Aaronson,” Parker said, extending his hand. Andrew gave him a critical look.
“I’m not sure I feel the same. But I guess for now I’m relying on you to take care of my daughter. She seems to like her job here. As long as she completes her schooling, I don’t see any reason she can’t keep working.”
Her dad had yet to turn Parker’s hand loose and she didn’t like them negotiating about her future at all. Did he think she wouldn’t finish her last year of college? This wasn’t the eighteen hundreds. She was perfectly capable of making her own decisions.
“Dad,” she started before he held up his hand to cut her off.
“Alright, alright,” he said, dropping Parker’s hand. “Liam, Ronan, it was nice to meet you. Good luck this year, study hard. Parker,” he added with a smile. “You do know she’s very hardheaded, right?”
“Dad,” Astrid exclaimed.
“We have noticed,” Parker said. Andrew smiled for the first time.
“Walk me to the door,” he said, taking her arm. He gave her one last hug when they reached the door. “Please be careful. I love you too much to see you get hurt,” he whispered before walking toward the black town car waiting for him.
“Love you too, Dad,” she called after him before closing the door.
“Do you get to stay?” Liam asked as the twins crowded around her.
“I get to stay,” she answered.
ChapterSeventeen
The next coupleof weeks seemed to fly by. Astrid loved living in a cramped apartment full of men above a bar. It was like being in a very screwed-up version of Snow White, except with much better benefits.
She had finally given in to Liam’s whining and taken the pony curtains down. Their room was always such a disaster. She didn’t know how they had even noticed the switch. Well, one side of the room was a disaster. Ronan kept his side perfect. He used tape to divide the room in half so Liam could only trash out his side.
Their room always fascinated her anyway. Liam had posters of half-naked women on his side. She shuddered to think about what he had hidden under his bed.
Ronan, however, had covered his side in his artwork. The wall included a series of drawings he had made based on the stories she told them about her sketchy apartment.
They included the flaming stove and the bathroom covered in bugs and mice. The neighbor and her Chihuahuas, covered in snow, were depicted. The house, surrounded by an army of SWAT, was his newest sketch. It made her laugh every time she was in their room making a vague attempt at collecting their laundry.
She had met their father the Sunday her dad returned home. Astrid liked him immediately. He looked like an older version of Parker.
The old-timers at the bar (they were, in reality, only in their fifties) constantly regaled her with stories about him. She felt like she was just getting reacquainted with a friend she hadn’t seen in a while. It was fascinating to watch him silently scold Parker over their current living arrangements. He didn’t buy the couch version for a second.
Sam and Dean returned from their extended honeymoon finally so Sam could get ready for her junior year. Everyone got together for dinner to welcome them back.
Astrid, Sam, and Karlie got together in Sam’s new condo to hear all the details of the honeymoon. Sam handed a ten-dollar bill to Karlie. Apparently, they had a bet concerning how long it would be before she and Parker got together.
They were finishing the second bottle of wine when Parker showed up to haul her back to the bar. She was drunk, horny, and wonderfully happy. He threw her over his shoulder like a sack of flour. She should have been enraged, but his firm ass was right there for her to play with the whole two blocks.
Today, Astrid woke up with a smile on her face. Parker left earlier to pick Liam up from practice and should return soon. She threw the covers back and quickly dressed.
She found Ronan sitting on the couch sketching something. Yesterday she had gotten the plans back from her dad for the apartment. He included a new elevator tucked into the back hallway. It also showed plans to expand the doorways and add a bedroom extension with a handicap-accessible bathroom.
“Ro, have you eaten?” she asked. She walked into the kitchen, pulling the bagels out of the pantry.
“I ate with Liam before he left.” She returned to the bedroom with her bagel in hand. She pulled the tube with the new plans out of the closet where she hid it yesterday. She wanted to be able to explain the plans to all three of them when they had time and weren’t tired from working.
Ronan gave her a curious look when she emerged with the tube and her messenger bag from the bedroom.
