Page 73 of The Liar in Room 5

“Oh, that explains the text.”

“What text?”

“Marc sent me one on the way home about coming over for dinner tomorrow and bringing Ben’s new grandparents.”

“Apparently it’s been decided by the council of three.”

“How do you feel about that?” Daddy asked.

It was a good question because the answer wasn’t as clear-cut as I’d hoped.

“Ben is easy to love, and I’m not surprised my parents and he hit it off.”

The answer I settled on wasn’t the entire truth, but it was enough for now, even though the truth bubbled inside me. I wanted to say the words, and I was rapidly reaching the point where I needed to say them.

“Yeah, he is, even if he is a pain in the ass.”

“Hey now.”

“There’s someone else who’s easy to love,” Daddy added.

My breath caught in my throat when his words landed.

“Because I’ve fallen in love with one of Phoenix’s angels, and I hope he’ll consider changing his living situation.”

“You have?”

Daddy nodded.

“You want that?”

He nodded again.

“I love you, sweetheart. And I want you with me every morning and night and all the days in between.”

“I love you too, Daddy.”

19

TWO YEARS LATER

Henry

“That troll needs to go back under the bridge he crawled out from,” I growled as I walked through the back door into the kitchen.

Drew looked up from chopping strawberries, knife still in hand, with a smile.

“Oh no. What did Studio Lawyer do today?”

“He was a complete fucking dick for no reason. I know he’ll give in, and he knows he’ll give in, but he’s going to drag out those stupid billable hours to make it look good for his client.”

As I spoke, I yanked my tie off and slipped out of my suit jacket. I finally made it over to the island where Drew was working and dropped a hand on his waist to draw him closer. His lips were turned up in a grin, and I couldn’t help dropping a soft kiss on them.

“Welcome home, Daddy. I missed you.”

“Was your day better than mine?”

“It was. We did a fun hike and looked for all the different leaves we could find at the park, and then we worked on our graduation practice. I can’t believe this year’s hikers will be off to kindergarten next year.”