Page 58 of His for the Holiday

“I’m glad to hear it. Hey, uh, my dad told me he stopped by your house earlier. He says your dad hasn’t been doing so well?”

She sighed but still seemed much more centered than since I’d been home. “The doctor warned me that it would be slow, but that he would keep deteriorating. I think Dad has just finally realized that he needs to own up to it with his friends. How’d David take it?”

I shook my head. “Not well, but he’s not the one who’s sick. How is Henry? Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Not right now,” she said. “Thanks, though. Dad’s really not much worse now than he has been for the last couple months. He’s just resisting the treatment they want to put him on. He’s also refusing to let the doctors run the tests they need in order to determine whether they need to increase the dosage of his current meds or try him on a different regimen.”

I grimaced. “That must be damn scary for you guys.”

“It is, but we’re pushing through.” She flashed me another, weaker smile. “I’m so grateful to have Hawk home and helping. Honestly, I don’t know what we did without him.”

“That’s why you’ve been sleeping better?” I asked, wondering if it was also because there was this new development with him potentially moving back.

Emery chuckled but finally lowered her chin in a nod. “I think I’m learning to depend on him again. I’m not on the nightshift with my dad and the boys every night by myself anymore, so that helps too.”

“Your dad is letting Hawk take care of him now?”

She rocked her head from side to side. “Sort of. They still argue a lot, but Hawk took him to the doctor the other day, and ever since, he’s been insisting on being more hands-on. With Dad and with the company, so⁠—”

“Sutton!” an all too familiar voice called out behind me and my stomach hollowed out.

Calen is here? No. No, it can’t be.

I felt the blood draining from my cheeks and my internal organs turned to ice. Emery frowned and glanced over my shoulder, bringing her gaze back to mine slowly. I saw the questions in her eyes as she tilted her head to the side.

“Is that…” She trailed off, leaning closer and whispering to me. “He’s coming closer. If you want to run, now would be a good time to do it. I can throw sand in his eyes if that will help.”

If I want to run? Of course, I wanted to run, but I couldn’t.

Instead, I swallowed and spun slowly to face him, a part of me still hoping that I’d been wrong about that voice and that it wasn’t really him. But no such luck.

Calen Megill was here, standing head and shoulders above most of the crowd of parents gathered and waiting for dismissal. With his deep red hair glinting in the afternoon sun and his sharp jaw clean shaven for a change, he strode toward me with a big smile on his face, like we were best friends and he was excited to see me.

At six and a half feet tall, he always seemed to tower over people and it was no different now. After Hawk had asked me if I still loved him, I’d wondered how I might feel when I saw Calen again, but there was no pang of longing or love that shot through me as I watched him making his way toward me.

In fact, as my gaze met his, everything in me turned to stone. I’d dreaded this moment for so long, but at least now, I had my answers. I didn’t feel anything for him other than hatred, and even that wasn’t for myself.

It was for Winnie.

It was so surreal to see him here, in Portsmouth, on the lawn outside my old elementary school, but it looked like he’d come to see her for Thanksgiving after all.

Glancing around, I didn’t see Maeve or the baby yet, which meant that for all his faults, at least he’d decided to reunite with his daughter without them in tow. That was something.

Not much but a little was more than nothing under the circumstances. I dragged in a deep breath through my nostrils when he finally reached us. I looked up into those deceitful eyes for the first time in months and already wished he’d just go back to where he’d come from.

“Calen,” I said coolly. “You could’ve told me you’d be getting in today. Winnie will be out in a few, but before she gets here, you and I need to get a few things straight.”

I grabbed his arm and led him away from the others, steeling myself for what was bound to be an unpleasant conversation, but ultimately, I refused to let him hurt my daughter and I was going to do whatever it took to avoid that.