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Op choked, and Blizzard let out a booming laugh just as Sugar stepped around the corner.
“Baby girl, you’re gonna give your dad a heart attack talking about proms and dates. He isn’t prepared for that yet.” She forced a smile, but I could see the visible tension in her face and body. Her hand was shaking, my eyes zeroing in on it before moving up to her face. I raised my eyebrow, but she quickly tucked her hands into the front pockets of her jeans and looked away.
“Daddy, when I get a boyfriend, you’ll be nice to him, right?” Harlyn enquired as she headed for her father.
Optimus shook his head. “No boyfriends.”
Harlyn’s jaw fell open. “That’s not fair.”
Sugar let out a short giggle, and Optimus hit her with a dark glare. “Not until you’re… like thirty,” he said sharply before turning and rushing inside through the open patio doors.
Harlyn chased after him. “Thirty!” she protested as she followed him through the main room and down the hall to his office I assumed, their voices disappearing into the distance.
Blizzard nodded his head at Sugar. “You’re looking good.”
She cleared her throat and gave him a shy smile. “Thanks.”
His eyes moved to me, an unspoken warning in his eyes before he walked away. I twisted my cap on my head, the uncomfortable silence between us something I wasn’t used to. It had never been like this, it had always been easy, so fucking easy.
“Haven’t seen you in a long time,” I told her.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yeah. Didn’t want Harlyn to get confused with me being here and not knowing why she couldn’t just come home with me. Better to keep both places separate.”
I nodded. “That’s pretty level-headed of you.”
I saw her cringe. “I need to get going.”
I wanted to ask her to stay. More than that actually, I wanted to close the distance between us and pick her up in my arms and carry her to my fucking bedroom. She’d gotten into my soul, wiggled her way inside and made a home there. I’d done okay. With not seeing her around, I’d been able to convince myself that I could give it time, that things would be fine. But now, I was right back to that first day when she’d walked into my goddamn heart and never left.
“Yeah,” I said casually. “I’ll see you soon.”
Her eyes widened at my choice of words, rightly so. They were purposeful.
I was telling her, no so subtly, that her time was up.
I could see she was doing better, even spending more time with Harlyn and having her for the night some days. Something had happened, and one day I’d find out what it was, but I was sick of sitting on the sidelines.
And I would strike out a thousand times if it meant just one shot at a home run.
