Page 77 of Penalty Kick

Maybe it's time to reconsider telling Gunnar…

"Dad,” Talia interjected, trying to defuse the tension. "You and Gunnar actually have a lot in common. His first wife also passed away somewhat suddenly.”

“Suddenly” was a bit of a stretch for what Gunnar had experienced with the loss of Anya. In this moment though, it was going to have to work.

“Did he also get a letter from beyond the grave that turned his world inside out?” Robert snarked.

The comment caught her off guard. Like a dagger sinking into her heart, Talia felt the sting of his words. Gripping onto Dash’s thigh, she tried to right herself. He wasn’t the only one whose world had been turned inside out, as he put it. The bomb her mother had dropped in their letters had shaken her too. Had changed everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.

“Nope, just the proverbial baby on the doorstep,” Gunnar snapped back.

Talia gripped Dash harder, not sure how to react. This had gone off the rails in the blink of an eye, and she had no idea how to right it. Felicity gave Gunnar a smack with the back of her hand, a move that would have normally made Talia laugh. But right now she was too much in shock to do anything but stare.

The warmth of Dash’s hand soothed her as his hands covered hers. Her insides started to relax as soon as he made contact, her soul seeming to understand. Easing her grip on his thigh, he linked his fingers in between hers, silently letting her know he was there. That he had her. Despite all she was feeling—so many things she couldn’t name—her support was not far. Everyone at this table had her back. That was what family was for, but Dash was her person. He was the one who knew how she was feeling without any words—and knew exactly how to respond. The one who could make her feel better, no matter what.

“Dad,” she started again. She had no idea what she was going to say next, but anything was better than where this was heading. Even if her father did spend the rest of the evening grumpy and sneering, it was better than fisticuffs.

“Señor Whitmore,” Dash cut in. His smooth South American accent sliced through the air, drawing the attention of everyone at this end of the table. For all Talia knew, it also caught the attention of the other end as well, but thankfully her friends had enough sense to keep her younger brothers engaged and distracted. Although Cowboy showing off his body art to Doug might be something she regretted later. “I apologize for the interruption, but Talia had told me that you run your own company. So you must be where she gets it?”

“Gets what? Talia has never shown any interest in accounting. Despite my efforts,” Robert replied.

Swallowing hard, Talia stopped herself from rolling her eyes. His “efforts” had been nothing but an attempt to browbeat her into submission by refusing to pay for school. Although, looking back on it, she could have also tried harder to help him understand that accounting was not her path.

“I am confident that you know your daughter better than I,” Dash continued. “But in the short amount of time I have been able to spend with her, I have been nothing but impressed. She is smart, hardworking, incredibly independent, and quite talented when it comes to working with the young people. While she is still waiting on the official acceptance, I am sure that the Renaye program will accept her without fail.”

Talia felt like the whole world slammed to a halt. Her heart was in her throat, tears burning in her eyes as she let Dash’s kind words settle around her. Twisting in her seat to face him, she had to tamp down the urge to grab his beautiful face and kiss him. That was what he saw when he looked at her?

He’d called her “bonita” since the very first sentence that had ever come out of his mouth. He’d never hidden his attraction to her in that regard. And he could read her like a book, which was part of why she felt so connected to him. But listening to him brag on her in such a way made her heart want to explode. If she’d thought she was falling for him before, she’d been wrong. She had fallen. All the way.

“The Renaye Program?” Robert asked.

“It’s a combination undergrad and master’s program for speech pathology at Georgia State. I’ll find out this week if I got in,” she told him.

“You went back to school.”

“I did. Felicity and Gunnar encouraged me to pursue it, and Felicity knew some people to get me connected to audit classes starting last semester. I took some classes part-time over the summer, and have a full schedule this fall.”

Robert’s eyes softened, his body relaxing as he sat back in his chair. Talia could see the wheels turning in his head, wishing like hell that she could know what was going on inside there. Was this him softening toward her, or was it just him taking a breather before his next jab? She hoped it was the former, wanting nothing more than to leave here on good terms with him. But she was prepared for it to be the latter.

“Your mother would be proud. She hated that you dropped out,” he said softly.

Talia froze in place. What did he just say?

“She…she…what?”

“She never said anything because she did love that you were there to take care of her. But she hated that you dropped out of school. Made me promise you’d go back. The last conversation she and I ever had was a disagreement about your major.”

“My major?”

“She said to let you major in whatever you wanted, and if it was a mistake, then it was one you had to make on your own. I think…thought,” he corrected himself, “that you needed to major in something realistic. I walked away, angry, telling her we would talk about it more later. But there was no later. The only later there was…was a letter, telling me that you might not be mine.”

Silence fell over the room, the hush suddenly louder than all their combined voices had been a moment ago. Talia could hear the sound of her pulse rushing through her, her heart beating so fast she would have sworn she’d just run a marathon. No wonder her father had handled the news about Gunnar so poorly. It was enough of a grenade as it was, but to come after your last words to the woman you loved being angry ones? Fuck, Talia didn’t know what to say.

“But Talia is the reason we’re a family,” Doug said, breaking the silence.

Wait, what?!

Talia whipped around in her seat, brows knit in confusion. She focused in on her brother, trying to make what he’d just said make sense.