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Austin steps forward, effectively sandwiching me between them so I have no choice but to step aside if I don’t want to be crushed.
“There is no fight here, Mr. Vance.”
“I ought to kick you into next week,” Dad snarls.
Austin huffs. “I’d like to see you try. You sure wouldn’t get very far. And for what, exactly? Loving on your daughter?”
I melt at the question, but only for a second.
Dad ruins it by saying, “You touched her?”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” I curl my hands into fists. “Stop it, both of you! This isn’t an elementary school playground and my sex life is not up for discussion.”
“Sex?” Dad looks close to having a stroke.
“Carly…” Austin’s voice cuts over my dad’s harsh tone.
“No. Enough. Daddy, I spent the night here. With Austin. That’s my business. And his. No one else’s.” I look to Chance as well, making sure he understands he needs to lay off. “We fell asleep and I missed having breakfast with you, which wasn’t my intention.”
“You planned to what… Fuck and flee?” Dad says on a snarl.
I gasp at his crude words.
“Don’t disrespect your daughter like that,” Austin commands.
I’m taken aback by what my dad said, but I won’t stand down. Not now. Still, I have to blink back tears. “Not that I owe you an explanation, but I’m very sorry I missed our breakfast.” I turn to Austin. “And Austin? Don’t you ever talk to my father like that again.”
Austin opens his mouth—
“No,” I say. “Don’t say he threatened you first. I heard it, and I’m mad as hell at him for it. Both of you should know better.”
“Baby, I won’t let anyone talk about you like that, even your father,” Austin says. “However, we’re on the same side, caring about you. Mr. Vance, I apologize.”
“It’s Mayor Vance,” Dad says, “and you should be apologizing to Carly.”
“He has no reason to apologize to me.” I whip my hand to my hips. “He’s done nothing wrong. In fact, he’s done everything right.”
That doesn’t make my dad any happier.
I push on. “You should apologize to him.”
Dad scoffs. “Not in this lifetime.”
“Then we’re done here. Unless you want to tell me how you ended up here in the first place. Did you search every house in town or come straight here?”
“I don’t trust them,” Dad says.
I tip up my chin. “I do.”
“You don’t know everything.”
“Go, Dad. Go home. You can tell me all about why you hate the Bridgers so much, but standing here, in their house? It’s not okay.”
Austin’s hand settles on my hip again and he gives it a squeeze. I’m reassured, but it doesn’t feel good to tell my dad off.
His lips thin into a straight line. He glares at Austin, and then at Chance and Miles in turn. He sets his hat back on his head, turns, and storms out. The front door slams in his wake.
No one moves. My father sucked all the oxygen from the room with his departure.
Austin’s pocket starts playing “Superwoman” by Alicia Keys. He pulls out his phone and immediately answers it.
“Mom. Is everything ok?”
I look up at him as he listens. He didn’t look the least bit worried facing off with my dad, but he does now.
“What? Are you fucking kidding me?”
