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“Do you need anything?” I asked, suddenly in a panic.
The coughing subsided, and he waved me off. “I’m fine. I’m fine. The doctors said I’m fine. Tell me more about Whitley.”
“She’s been hurt a lot, and she doesn’t trust easily. She has this in her head that she’s a bad girlfriend, but she’s not. I wanted to get her past the fear phase to see that we could actually work out. I didn’t anticipate you and Cynthia showing up. But I was the one to convince her that we should go through with it anyway.”
“She didn’t want to?”
“She wanted to tell you the truth, but I felt like it was cruel to deny you this request. Plus, I was already so deep that I thought if she spent more time with me, I could get her to fall in love with me.”
Walter’s expression was unreadable. “And did it work?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, sir. I thought it had, but now …”
“Hmm,” he murmured.
“So, that’s the truth. We should have told you from the start. I take all the blame. Don’t put any on Whitley. She wanted to make you proud.”
He waved me off. “We were so proud that she was following what we thought was the right path that we didn’t even think about it. But then when I found out the relationship was fake … I just got so mad. I know that we’ve done wrong by Whitley. And I handled this all wrong.”
“I don’t blame you for being upset.”
“No,” he said slowly. “But I should have let you explain first. I shouldn’t have done it publicly. Then, maybe I wouldn’t even be in this hospital room.”
“Are you going to be here long?”
He shook his head. “Not if I can help it. I want to get out of here before the end of the day.”
I suppressed a smirk. That sounded a lot like Whitley. No wonder she was so stubborn.
“So, what do you want from me?” he finally asked. “You didn’t come here just to apologize.”
I took a deep breath. “No, I didn’t. I’m sorry for how it all happened, but I love your daughter. I want your permission to marry her.”
He scoffed. “It’s not my permission you need. You’ll still need to convince her.”
“I’m up to that challenge, but it would be a lot easier if I could tell her that you’re okay with it.”
“You were man enough to show your face here after what happened.” Walter held his hand out, and I stuck mine in his. “You have my blessing. And Lord knows, you’re going to need it.”
I laughed, letting my smile widen. “She is difficult.”
“A little spitfire.”
“And that’s why I love her,” I told him as I rose to my feet.
Walter chuckled. “Well, go get her.”
“Yes, sir,” I said as I headed out of the room.
Cynthia was just coming back with breakfast. I held the door for her, and she looked furtively up at me.
“Everything all right?”
“If you don’t mind, I plan to marry your daughter.”
The shock was so evident on her face that she nearly collided with the door. “Still?”
“Of course.”
