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“Pretty damn close.”
He shook his head. “I spoke with her just once before I came back to my senses. She left the three of you without ever looking back. To hell with what she did to me. I was furious with myself for falling for her lies again.”
“You only talked to her once?”
“That’s it. After that I broke things off with Audrey.” He dropped his chin to Blake’s head. “I didn’t think I could go through the hurt of a relationship again.”
I reached for his hand. “But you came to your senses. You fought for her.”
“I almost lost someone important to me forher.”
“I did the same thing.” I squeezed.
“You’ll never lose me.”
“I’m sorry.” I stood and rounded the table, flinging my arms around his neck.
He choked out a sob. “Me too, sweetheart. I have you because of her. Please don’t let her take you away from me.”
“We won’t. Together, okay?”
“Okay.”
I kissed the side of his head before I sat back down. “It’s like she knows when we’re happy and inserts herself.”
He adjusted Blake on his lap. “Exactly. I don’t understand why she bothers.”
“Some people like to make everyone else miserable when they’re unhappy.”Like me for example.
“You are nothing like her.” His voice was hard as if he could read my mind.
I brushed off his comment. “What happened at Holt’s wedding?”
“None of us paid much attention to her because we were worried about you. Once Patrick had you out of there, Andrew lit into her. That was pretty much it.” Concern etched his features. “What happened?”
“I hadn’t been in a church since—” I couldn’t finish.
Dad looked at me blankly for a moment and then stood up quickly, rushing to my side. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m sorry. None of us even thought about that. We should’ve—”
“Absolutely not. If that’s where they wanted to get married, then that’s where they should’ve. I had no idea I’d react like that.” I was embarrassed I couldn’t handle anything to do with Jack’s death after all these years. But I couldn’t.
“You handle it so well.”
I didn’t. I was struggling for the most part and doing it alone. Well, I had a small reprieve when Patrick stepped into my life. And now that was gone.
“Please. Andrew’s right. I’m a first-class bitch.”
“You’re brutally honest because you love us. There’s a difference.”
“Don’t make excuses for me.”
“Will you come to Dino’s on Sunday?”
I drew in a long breath. “Would you and Mrs. Quinn like to do dinner on Friday night? You cook.” I gave him a crooked smile.
“Anything you want.”
Chapter Forty-One
