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My father’s eyes shifted back and forth slightly as he looked at me. His wide shoulders seemed to slacken, and the pain on his face mirrored the sadness in my heart. When I saw him interact with others, he didn’t show the slightest hint of empathy or compassion, but with me, when I was in pain, he was devastated. “Our home is always your home, tesoro. But what happened with Griffin?”
“He had to leave for a job…he’ll be back in a few days.” I thought I did a better job of hiding my sadness, but my father could see right through my stoic expression. I’d cried before Bones left, so my eyes were probably still red and puffy.
The sadness disappeared from his gaze, replaced by annoyance and disappointment. “I see…”
“I just don’t like being alone when he’s not there.”
My father rested his fingertips against his lips, looking at me without really seeing me. He seemed to be thinking something else. “I’m trying to like this man, but when you tell me this, it’s hard not to hate him. It’s hard not to hate him when he hurts my daughter.”
“He’s not hurting me. He’s just…”
“Leaving you and risking his life,” he countered. “And making you worry until you’re sick to your stomach. He’s leaving you alone and defenseless. A man never does that to his woman. It makes me respect him less.”
“Did you respect him in the first place?”
He rubbed his fingers over his chin. “A little.”
“Well, he said he would stop if I asked him to…but he doesn’t want me to ask.”
My father dropped his hands into his lap. “So, you’re never going to?”
“No. I told him this has to stop if he wants to marry me, especially when we start a family.”
My father cocked his head slightly, his eyes narrowing. “You talk about that sort of thing?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“And you really think he’ll stop?”
“He would never lie to me. And he’s already sacrificed so much for me…I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t do.”
My father stared at me, his moss-green eyes deep and indecipherable. If we were having a conversation about something else, he would have been a lot more open and vulnerable. But since Bones was involved, he closed up like a clam.
“Father?”
He released a quiet sigh, as if he anticipated the next thing I was going to say. “Yes?”
I looked him straight in the eye, holding my ground in his office. I couldn’t take this indecision anymore, couldn’t handle the painful anticipation of his decision. “I need this man in my life as much as I need you. I need you to accept him. I need him…in ways I can’t explain. So I’m not waiting for your answer anymore. He’s my life. He’s my present, my future…he’ll be my husband and the father of my kids. That’s the end of my story.”
He stared at me, his body so still it was like he wasn’t breathing. Time seemed to slow down as I waited for a response, waited for him to yell at me or accept what I said. The sun was bright outside his window, but the mood in his office was dark and cold. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes were hollow. It didn’t seem like he would say anything at all because the silence spanned several minutes.
Just when I turned to walk out, he spoke.
“Okay.”
I turned back to my father, shocked by the single word he’d just uttered. I had to stare at him to make sure I’d really heard it, that it wasn’t a dream I fabricated myself. “Really…?”
He nodded. “Really.”
Carmen sat across from me at the restaurant, her high cheekbones amplified by the blush that outlined her feminine facial features. Tall and thin, she had luscious brown hair like her mother’s. She had Barsetti olive skin and startling green eyes. She was model material, but she never seemed interested in the runway despite her connections. “This might tick you off a little bit, but I have to say it. Your man is h-o-t. Yes, I had to spell out each letter to get my point across.” She had an iced tea in front of her along with a slice of bread she hadn’t touched.
I wasn’t mad at all. Carmen was my friend and my cousin. She would never stab me in the back or try to cross the line. “I know he is. He’s a very gorgeous man.”
“Where the hell did you find him? I never meet guys like that. Was he at the military tank store?”
I chuckled. “He found me. And I’ve never met a man like him before either. Makes every other guy look like a boy in comparison…” And not just because he told me that. He proved it, time and time again.
“I’ve met a lot of boys too,” she said with a sigh. “They don’t know what they want…how to handle a woman…how to please a woman.” She rolled her eyes. “Most of them are all talk, and when it gets down to the action, they don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”
