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“Jesus, Kinney. I’m just trying to understand.”
“And I’m just trying to protect Luna!” She throws up her hands. “What are you all doing?! Dad is with me at least.Dad.” She turns to him again.
“Shelve the pitchforks, Kinney,” he says gently and more quietly than softly, but then again, my dad’s voice is almost never soft.
“Not pitchforks. Asharpenedknife.”
He squeezes her shoulder. “Shelve the knives, battleaxes, all weapons. We’re not pointing them at Paul Donnelly.”
It takes me aback. The certainty of his voice. Is he really not against Donnelly anymore?
Kinney frowns. She’s searching for an adversary of my broken heart. In the battle of good and evil, Kinney needs the villain of all villains to attack. “But Dad—”
“If you want to point a blade at someone, it’s going to be me—not him.”
Kinney jolts backwards like our dad electrocuted her. Her breathing heavies. “You didn’t do anything bad. You couldn’t…you wouldn’t?”
He wears a half-smile. “Me? Do something bad? I’d never.” His sarcasm and way of cheering up Kinney lands lifeless in the tense room.
“Dad,” she says, sounding scared. “What’d you do?”
He lets out a breath, glances at our mom for support, and then holds out a reassuring hand. “I meant that if you go after Paul, you’re going to have to gothroughme. I’m standing in front of him, and just so everyone in the room knows”—he spins around to lock eyes with each of us, staying on me for an extended beat—“I haven’t beeneasyon him. I might’ve even been hell for him.” He cringes into another dry smile. “So…it’s complicated.” He claps his hands together. “Class dismissed. Let’s clean this up. Help your sister—”
“Wait a minute,” Xander interjects. “That’s it? You’re leaving out like half the fucking story.”
“Yeah,” Kinney says. “This doesn’t makesense.Why are you protecting Donnelly? And from what? And what does that even have to do with Luna?”
Mom sweeps the shattered ceramic mug into a dust bin. It’s the only sound outside of our dogs whining behind the closed door.
Either my dad is struggling to unleash the full truth out of respect for me and Donnelly, or because he’s not sure how much Kinney and Xander should know.
I decide to just tell them. It’s better than lying, and they’re not accepting any vague picture anymore.
“Donnelly came here tonight to ask Dad for permission to date me,” I explain. “Of what Donnelly told me, Dad said,not yet.” I turn to him for confirmation.
He nods once, his neck taut and muscles flexed. “Yep. That happened.”
Maximoff and Farrow exchange an unreadable look.
“You like him?” Kinney asks with a deeper frown, and I wonder if she’s baffled on how she missed this rare, strange occurrence. Me falling for Xander’s bodyguard.
I just nod, words feeling too tender and fragile to share.
Xander stares at the floorboards, unblinking.
“Why not yet?” Kinney asks our dad. “If they both like each other, what’s the big deal?”
“His family,” Dad starts to say, just as Xander suddenly bolts out of the room.
“Summers!” Maximoff calls after our brother, but Xander is gone. He leaves, hopefully just for his bedroom. Our parents share a quick glance, and I think they’re deciding on who stays for me and who goes for him, but Maximoff makes things easy.
He passes Baby Ripley to Farrow and says, “I’ll go check on him.” Quickly, Moffy runs after our brother, his footsteps echoing down the hallway. “Xander!” I hear the slam of a bedroom door. The opening of it. The close of it again.
Xander’s not so great reaction to knowing I’m falling for his bodyguard—and that Donnelly has attempted to be with me—is sitting like curdled milk in my stomach.
“Why is he this upset?” my dad questions Farrow, his ass now in the hot seat.
My temples start pounding from the mental detours.
