Page 75 of Out of Bounds

“But you came to me that night because of her!”

“I came to see you that night to apologize for my actions at Bunz, which had nothing to do with her. I promise you, when it came to you, Effie, I was thinking with my dick long before we knew Talia was mine. Just let me talk to her.”

Felicity nodded. “She needs you right now.”

“Once I talk to her—”

“No,” she cut him off again. “Gunnar, she needs you as a dad. She needs to be your priority. If anyone understands that, it’s me. I shouldn’t have inserted myself into your life like this when you need to focus on building your relationship with her.”

“Felicity…” he stepped toward her, reaching out for her again. He needed to hold her, to help calm her down.

“Stop.” She held up a hand and he froze in place. “I know she’s twenty-two and not fifteen, but that doesn't change things. She just lost her mother and had her whole world tossed upside down. What she needs is someone steady and stable, who’s going to love her and support her. Every girl needs her dad.”

Gunnar shook his head, trying to make sense of what she was saying. Was she really telling him that Talia needed him more than she did? He couldn’t be hearing this right. This was not the woman who he’d gotten to know—the woman who he’d comforted the last few days. This was someone else. This was old Felicity.

“This was just sex. We can walk away just as easily as we started up.”

This was just sex, my ass…

He knew there was no way that’s what she really thought. It’d been clear to him almost from the start this was more than just sex, and he’d told her so. But she’d told him so, too, when they were in Texas, and every night since when they’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms. She might not have been using the words, but she’d been telling him with her actions. And he was not going to let her get away with changing her tune now.

“Well, those walls certainly went back up fast,” he snapped.

“I shouldn’t have let them down in the first place,” she replied, sniffling again. She swiped quickly under each eye, trying to dry her face. He could see in her eyes that her own words hurt her just as much as they hurt him.

“This isn’t just sex, Felicity. And I know you know that. I know you feel what I do,” he growled. “You’re just too scared to admit it. So you’re putting your armor back on and pushing me away.”

“I’m getting my priorities back on track,” she snapped. “I shouldn't have let myself get distracted from the job. And I shouldn’t have let you get distracted from putting your family first. That’s all on me, so I’m doing what needs to be done now. So please, go. Find your daughter, apologize for not putting her first.”

Without another word, Felicity turned and walked away from him, deeper into the garden. He watched her walk away, his heart calling out to her, telling him to stop standing there and go after her. But no matter how much his heart screamed, he couldn’t move. He was too stunned. What the fuck had just happened?

He slumped down onto the side of the fountain, his ass hitting the hard concrete with a thud. He knew he needed to call Talia, find out her side of the story, try and explain things to her. Felicity was right—his daughter needed him right now, in so many ways. Not the least of which was an explanation about his relationship with the woman he knew Talia viewed as a friend and maybe even a bit of a mentor. He’d been wrong to keep it all from her, and that was on him. Not Felicity.

But dialing her number or even getting up from this spot to try and find her seemed impossible at the moment. His head was too busy trying to process everything his heart was feeling. It was the pain that only came from one thing—love. And seeing that love fade from view.

“Fuck!” he muttered out loud, pushing to his feet. Turning to the fountain, he dug into his pockets and found a ten pence coin, unsure how long that had been in there. He flicked it into the fountain and wished for the one thing his heart was aching for.

And fuck, he hoped this thing was as magical as he needed it to be.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"You have to be fucking kidding me!” BobbiJo screeched, popping up from the couch she was sitting on in the library of the Sutherland home. It wasn’t her first outburst of the day, and Felicity was sure that it would not be her last. The whole scene played out in front of her like actors on a stage, rather than something she was experiencing, leaving her with a strange feeling. One she would be more than happy to put behind her.

“If you will please just let me read this, and then we can be done,” Stu said, glaring at BobbiJo over his glasses from where he stood in front of the large floor-to-ceiling windows.

“I want to see it!”

“BJ, sit down,” Dalton groaned. “Can we just get through this, please?”

“I am the widow. I have a right to see it.”

Felicity closed her eyes, letting out a sigh and taking a sip of the glass of whiskey she’d poured herself before they had gotten started. She had known that today was going to be rough, and so far, it had exceeded every one of her expectations. Seriously, what kind of self-important asshole required his entire family to gather together to find out what he had put into his will?

Her father, that’s who.

The pounding headache she’d had all morning was throbbing in time with her pulse as she looked out the window, watching some leaves swirl in the wind. Yesterday had felt like the longest day of her life—and it had nothing to do with the loss of her father. While that cloud still hung over her, and the anxiety of having to sit here to publicly find out whether or not he’d trusted her with any part of his legacy was certainly not helping, there was something bigger than that occupying her thoughts.

Gunnar.