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I shake my head. “No. You don’t have to—”
My eyes dash over to my dad’s face, and I feel the blood drain, leaving me in shock. Judging by the way he’s staring at me with brows lifted and mouth set in a flat line, he knows more than I expected him to.
“Wait. You know?” I ask.
“Of course I know. I’m not blind or stupid. You two have been making eyes at each other since you came home from school.”
I feel sick. This entire time, my dad could tell what was going on. Does Clay know this?
“You’re not mad?”
“I’m mad that you haven’t told me. And I’mfuriousat him, but…”
He takes a deep breath, looking very uncomfortable.
“You’re a smart girl, Jade. And no matter how much I hate it, you’re an adult now. You can do whatever you want.”
It becomes increasingly difficult to swallow, and it feels like pins and needles are gathering in my throat, but I manage to at least nod without crying.
He closes his eyes with a wince and puts up a hand. “I don’t want to know any details, but I’m serious when I say that if he ever uses you or hurts you, I will make him pay.”
I force a laugh, not entirely sure how serious my dad is at the moment.
“I promise, Dad. He’s been…a perfect gentleman.”
Which is mostly true. My dad doesn’t need to know that I was the one instigating the truly dirty things we got up to at that office. What he needs to know is that Clay is not the man he thinks he is.
“A gentleman?” he replies with an arched brow like he doesn’t believe me.
“Yes.”
“So what happened?” he asks.
I plop back down on my bed. “I don’t know. It’s very complicated.”
“Was it…serious?” he asks with a wince.
Those pins and needles are back. When I look back up at my dad, my eyes are wet.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says with a sigh.
He stands from his chair and takes a seat next to me on my bed. Then he puts an arm on my shoulder and lets me rest my head against him, holding me in a tight hug.
“I can still do this, right?”
With a sniffle, I nod.
“I’m not trying to fix all of your problems or take care of you, but I’ll still give you a hug when you need it. And offer my old-man advice, of course.”
On my next blink, a tear falls. “Okay.”
Then he squeezes his arm around me harder. “Nothing is perfect, Cupcake. Not love or relationships. And there is no guarantee that it will last forever, but not every good relationship needs to last forever. You can be happy with a person for however long it lasts. The best you can do is give love a chance.”
Pulling my face away from him, I wipe away my tears as I stare at him in astonishment. This isn’t the same man who told me not to settle down at all until I’m in my thirties.
When he notices my perplexed expression, he continues, “I was wrong for what I said to you that day on the boat. I was bitter about your mother leaving. But I realized that…I’m glad I married her. The twenty-four years we had were amazing. We kept each other happy, and we were never alone. Just because it ended doesn’t mean there weren’t great moments.”
“But I don’t want it to end,” I say with a sob.
