“I know,” she replies. “I just… couldn’t be in that house anymore.”
The pain in her voice wrecks me instantly. “Oh, trouble…”
She drops her gaze back to the water. I walk closer slowly, giving her space, even though every instinct in me wants to pull her against my chest and keep her there until she stops looking so shattered.
I take a seat in one of the loungers behind her before bending down to untie my boots. I pull each of them off and set them beside the chair. After removing my socks, I quickly roll my pants up to my knees.
The stone beneath my bare feet is warm from the sun basking over it. I cross the distance between us. Mackenzi glances up at me when I lower myself onto the edge of the pool beside her. I slide my feet into the cool water, and it ripples around my calves. “What are you doing?”
I wrap one arm around her waist and tug her gently into my side. “Taking care of you.” A not-quite smile flickers across her face. She leans into me slowly, resting her head against my shoulder. And just like that, some of the tension bleeding through my body finally eases.
We sit there quietly for a long time. She stays curled against me while I press slow kisses onto her hairline every few minutes. Tiny, gentle touches—the kind I neverthought I was capable of. Until her. I brush my lips over the top of her head again and she exhales softly against my chest.
“Thank you,” she murmurs.
I tilt my head slightly to look down at her. “For?”
She’s quiet for a second before answering, “Sticking up for me… with my dad.”
A rough chuckle leaves me under my breath. “That’s one way to describe what happened.”
Her fingers toy with the fabric of my rolled sleeve. “I mean it.”
I stare out across the sunlit water. “Anytime,” I vow. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect you.”
The words settle heavily between us, because we both know exactly how serious that promise is.
She shifts closer, nuzzling softly against my shoulder. “Mmm,” she murmurs. “Sucker punching him probably wasn’t the best way to break the news, though.”
The comment catches me so off guard, I laugh, loud and bold. “You’re not wrong.”
A tiny smile tugs at the corners of her lips. She tilts her head back enough to look at me, amusement faint beneath the exhaustion in her eyes. “He was pissed.”
I snort. “Can’t imagine why.”
She laughs softly, and the sound warms something deep in my chest.I fucking love that laugh.She sighs and looks back out over the pool.
“Honestly,” I share after a moment, “if I had a nineteen-year-old daughter dating a forty-year-old man, I’d probably react badly, too.”
“Thirty-nine,” she corrects, her lips twitching as she elbows me weakly. “Because that extra year is just gross.”
“Little brat…” I lace our fingers together and press a soft kiss to the back of her hand. The contrast still amazes me sometimes—her small, delicate hand against my callused, tattooed one. “If it makes you feel better, if I were your father, my reaction probably would’ve been different.”
“Yeah… worse.” She laughs quietly again, her smile fading gradually, though not completely. But enough for the sadness to creep back into her expression. I hate how quickly it returns, like grief is sitting just beneath the surface, waiting to swallow her whole the second she stops distracting herself.
“You okay?” I ask softly.
“No,” she answers honestly. “But I think I will be eventually.”
I tighten my arm around her waist. “You don’t have to figure everything out right now.”
“I know.” She nods faintly against my shoulder.
We fall quiet again, and I keep dropping absent kisses onto her hair while she watches the water. And for the first time since the breach, the panic clawing through me finally settles enough for me to inhale normally again.
Then the patio door slides open, and Jagger sticks his head outside. “Hey,” he calls, looking entirely too amused, “sorryto interrupt whatever Nicholas Sparks scene this is, but your kid is on the phone.”
My brows furrow in confusion. “Myson?”
