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“Well, Twyla and Gunnar, especially Twyla. She helped me pick a lot of these things out. Arthur and Saoirse and Nikki were mad at me too. For not letting them meet you, and for having had so little faith in them. But they all helped me shop and paint and move stuff. Nikki put this wallpaper up all by herself because she said I’d fuck it up and lobbied to be the one to apologize to you on my behalf so I wouldn’t fuck that up too.”
He was so boyish and charming and, if she was reading him right, sonervouswith that chagrined smile, scrubbing a hand over the back of his neck and then across his beard.
“Let me tell you, there will be some severe consequences if I fail to win you back. They all might show up in Thistledon and insist on being your friend instead of mine.”
That was sweet, but to be perfectly honest, she didn’t give a shit about Vance’s friends. All the kind friends in the world wouldn’t make up for him wanting to keep her real self hidden away so she didn’t embarrass him.
Sure he’d clearly dropped a ton of money and it sounded like he’d also cashed in a bunch of favors with his friends to get this done, but it was still only one room. On the top floor of his house, with a door that could easily be shut, and she wasn’t going to take him back based on that.
“Vance—”
He turned to face her fully, took up her other hand and held it in his big, warm bear paw. Made her want to hug him even more, have her body pressed against the comforting slab of his. All his strength and warmth surrounding her. She clearly had supernatural powers; that was the only explanation for how she was able to resist.
“I don’t want you to think that this is the only space you have here. You can pick whatever you want for the rest of the house or we can go shopping together. It’s just I only had so much time and this seemed like the best way to tell you that I want you back. I want you in my life, Lil. I miss my little girl so much.”
She missed her daddy. And was so elated that he’d done this for her but it was still behind closed doors.
“I miss you too. And it’s beautiful. I’m so, so…” She couldn’t even find the words for how grateful and overwhelmed and thrilled she was that he thought of her as his little girl. “It’s, really, I love it. But this is private space, you know? And as important and wonderful as that is, I didn’t leave because of how we meshed in private.”
No, if anything, their alone times had been achingly perfect from the start. That had never been the problem.
“I know,” he said, deep blue eyes practically boring into her soul as he turned that intense gaze on her. “And I want to make it clear that anywhere and everywhere with me, there is space for you exactly as you are, no exceptions. You are not changing. If you don’t feel like you fit in my life then I’ll change my life because I like you precisely the way you are.”
That was fine. She didn’t need her heart. Her daddy could just carve it out of her chest and hang it on his office wall as a trophy, that wastotally fine. She was still trying to put words together in a coherent reply when he spoke again.
