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“Scotty DeLuca was more childlike than I was.” More than once I hid the beer cooler because Scotty couldn’t keep himself from getting drunk. And drunk Scotty meant really bad jokes that bordered on inappropriate, which then pissed off my dad. So I cut the problem off at the pass and made the beer disappear.

“Okay, that’s a fair point. But the rest of the guys?”

“Toni Marsh?” The man blew every penny he made on sports cars, gambling, houses he couldn’t afford, and two wives he probably still owed money. But he was fun and made my dad happy.

Dad shrugged. “He wasn’t in charge of anything.”

“Thank goodness. Your only friend who might have held you accountable for anything was Will.”

He grumbled something under his breath that I suspected went along the lines of I should make you accountable but I let it go. Sleeping over at Everett’s had been exactly what I needed, but as predicted, Dad used it to fuel his disapproval.

“I will be on my best behavior. I’m looking forward to spending time with Rosie.”

“The only child in the group?”

“I love children.”

And it would keep him from having to make conversation with my boyfriend. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my keys.

“And then we took a field trip to the science museum and got to make paper fly through a tube!” Rosie was onto story number five since we arrived. She had my dad captivated. A few times I caught him smiling wistfully.

He always wanted a big family. Instead it was just the two of us. Maybe Everett and I would turn out to be the real deal and this would be the beginning of that big family for him. Isaac and Kate wanted more children. Their parents were nice and always got along with Dad. It didn’t have to be just the two of us anymore.

“Your dad giving Ev a hard time?” Kate asked as she watched Everett and Isaac at the grill. Everett had gotten the extremely polite cold shoulder when he asked Dad how he liked his burgers.

“He is.”

“I thought your dad liked Seth and Everett.”

“He did. When they were my friends.”

“Ah. Has he had a problem with any of your previous boyfriends?”

I froze. How had I not even considered this as part of the problem? “No. Because I haven’t had one worthy of meeting my dad since high school.” Not only was he reeling from the news about my mother but having someone—even someone who’d always been there—stake a claim on some of my love, was new territory. “Shit.”

“Dads are complicated. Trust me I know.” Kate shook her head. “But in my experience they come around pretty quickly. He just needs to know he’s not losing you.”

Too. Not losing me…too. Yes, Dad freaked about Everett because he’d pulled away from me and he didn’t want history repeating itself for his daughter. But deeper, underneath it all, it was actually his fear screaming.

My dad was afraid of losing me.

Now that, that I could fix. “Thanks for that.”

Kate’s eyebrows shot up. “What did I do?”

“You made me see things differently. You’re really good at your job.”

She laughed. “I apparently do it so well I don’t even know when I’m doing it!”

“How is work these days?” Kate made everything run smoothly for the Mantas.

“All the good work we did last season has made this season run about as well as it can. Even Eli is behaving.”

Eli Stirling owned the Mantas and was the reason they needed Kate in the first place. “Enjoy the calm while you can. If there’s anything I’ve learned from working with the rich and famous, it’s that they can’t stand calm for long.”

“Oh I’m well aware,” she giggled. “Speaking of, how are things with your rockstar bosses?”

“Amazing. It’s really nice working with people who all want the same thing and appreciate that other members of the team are just as brilliant and accomplished as the rest of the team.”