Guarding Autumn (Crimson Point Security #3)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

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Carly stopped scrolling through the animal videos on her laptop when a message from a friend on their group chat popped up.

No way, you were in the riots yesterday? Are you okay?

She’d talked to her closest friend back home last night, told her all about it. Apparently the word was out, but she didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

I’m fine, back in Crimson Point now. You finished your project yet?

Her friend started typing a response. No. Been procrastinating. You?

Getting there. Going to try to finish today.

Good idea. You sure you’re okay?

Yes. Going offline now to get some work done.

Carly didn’t much feel like working on her project today, but she was almost done, wanted that stress off her plate, and was sick of dwelling on what had happened yesterday. She could use the distraction. Might as well just get it done so she could try and enjoy her last few days here.

She closed the chat and video windows, grimaced when the scrapes and bruises on her knees and elbows stung as she shifted on the bed. Her eyes weren’t bugging her anymore, and she’d stopped coughing soon after Gavin had brought her to the conference center. Yesterday felt like a bad dream she just wanted to forget.

Her mom had sent half a dozen or so screenshots of information for her to use in the report so she wouldn’t have to waste time searching the genealogy website. Carly used it to fill in everything possible, then stared at her completed family tree, feeling down.

One side of it was completely bare except for her dad’s name next to her mom’s directly above hers at the bottom of the trunk. It sucked that she didn’t know anything about him or his side. She’d been hoping this project would give her answers.

It used to embarrass her when someone asked about him and she couldn’t answer. Everybody else knew their dad. She’d learned to shrug it off. But it would always bother her.

A soft knock came at her door, and her mom poked her head in. “Hi, babe. You working?”

“Yeah. Just trying to finish up my project.” All that was left was to write up the last bit of her report. Shouldn’t take more than an hour or so if she stayed focused.

“Ah. Hey, Gavin’s here. Can you come out? There’s something we want to talk to you about.”

Carly’s insides tightened. She hadn’t heard Gavvy come in, and while she loved him, she didn’t want to talk about yesterday. She wished she could just put it behind her and never bring it up again. “Um, okay.”

“We’ll be in the living room.”

Carly saved her work, shut her laptop and blew out a breath. Whatever they wanted to tell her, at least she would get to see Gavvy again. When she thought of the way he’d rescued her yesterday, the way he’d put his vest on her and carried her all the way to the conference center through that terrifying crowd...

She sucked back a hot rush of tears, shook her head. No. She was fine. Everything was fine now.

She brushed her teeth and hair before leaving her room. Her mom and Gavin were sitting beside each other on the living room sofa when she came in. Gavvy smiled at her. “Hey, squirt. How you feeling?”

She stopped short, smothering a gasp. “Better than you.” His eyebrow had a bandage on it. His eye was all swollen and bruised, and his lip had a cut on it. And he was sitting stiffly, as if he were hurting somewhere else too. “Are you okay?” She’d been so scared yesterday, she hadn’t even noticed he’d been hurt.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a little banged up.”

He didn’t look fine. She went to the loveseat, curled up at the far end and tucked her feet under her. Neither of them said anything as they stared at her in a way that made the pit of her stomach buzz. “Am I in trouble?”

Gavin grinned. “No, course not. It’s just... Your mom and I have something really important to tell you.”

Carly waited, trying to figure out the vibe going on here. Their expressions were relaxed enough, but their body language seemed tense. They were both acting weird.

“Okay,” she said slowly. Something was wrong. She could feel it.

Gavin looked at her mom, who rubbed her palms over her thighs of her jeans. She only did that when she was nervous. “Well, honey, you know the DNA test you did for your project?”

Carly nodded, still worried.

“And you know the results came in the morning we flew here.”

She nodded again. “But it didn’t show anything about my dad’s side.”

Her mom and Gavin both went dead still.

“Well, that’s not entirely true,” her mom finally said, knotting her fingers together on her lap. “The website can show matches within the company’s database to anyone you’re genetically linked to. And while there weren’t any Batesons listed in the results, there was one perfect match.”

There was? “Who?”

“Marley.”

Carly frowned, not understanding. “Auntie Marley?” She wasn’t her real aunt though. Just in a sort of adopted way.

“Yeah.” Her mom tucked her hair behind her ear, holding her gaze. “And if Marley is your biological aunt, then it means that...” She trailed off, her gaze sliding to Gavin, who was watching Carly.

Carly’s heart started to pound as her brain connected the dots. No way. What her mom was saying seemed impossible, but it would explain the weird tension coming from them. She gaped at Gavin in shock. “ You’re my dad?”

A big grin broke over his face. “Pretty awesome, right?”

The shock of it clouded her brain. Gavin? And her whole life, neither of them had known? She flushed at the thought of Gavvy and her mom together that way. Ugh, no, she didn’t want to think about that. Gross.

And while it felt so weird to suddenly find out that he was her dad...

It was also exactly what she’d secretly wished for her entire life.

“Yeah,” she said with a grin, and as she studied his face, for the first time she saw some similarities between them. Their eyes were almost the same color, and the shape of their mouths were similar. Maybe their noses too. Joy leapt inside her.

“Oh, wow, this is so crazy.” She giggled, clapped a hand over her mouth, but it couldn’t be contained.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

She shook her head, tried to stop. Gavvy was her dad .

He looked at her mom. “Well, safe to say she’s not traumatized.”

Carly laughed harder, but then a different swell of emotion hit her, and all of a sudden the laughter turned to tears. All her life she’d wanted a dad. To find out it was Gavvy after all this time was too much.

“Oh, sweetie, no,” her mom said in an anguished voice and got up to go to her.

Carly shook her head and waved her away, instead standing up and reaching for Gavvy. Instantly, he drew her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her. “Hey. It’s okay, squirt. It’s gonna be okay.”

She couldn’t answer. Was embarrassed to be blubbering in front of him but couldn’t stop. She didn’t even know why she was crying. She was happy. Maybe the happiest she’d ever been.

“N-not s-sad,” she gasped out, hugging him tight.

His arms stayed firmly around her. “That’s good to hear.”

She melted into him, sucking in shaky breaths as she tried to pull herself together. She’d loved him her whole life, and now he was really hers.

Her mom sat next to them, stroking her shuddering back. Carly finally got hold of herself and calmed down enough to sit up and wipe her face. She stared at Gavin, gave him a watery smile and sucked in a jerky breath. “I’m s-still gonna c-call you G-Gavvy. ‘kay?” She couldn’t call him Dad yet. Maybe ever. He’d been Gavvy forever.

He grinned, and he was so handsome and brave and strong her heart skipped a beat. Her dad . She was so lucky. “Absolutely. Because I’m still gonna call you squirt.”

She wiped her face again, took a hiccupping breath and looked between him and her mom. “So...are we g-gonna be a f-family now?” She wanted that desperately. He and her mom weren’t together as a couple, but a lot of her friends had divorced parents who didn’t live together, and they were still a family.

Her mom’s eyes got all teary, and Gavvy wrapped an arm around her. Carly’s heart jumped. Were they together now?

“That’s the other thing I wanted to tell you,” Gavvy said. “When you guys came out here, I was waiting to tell your mom something important. I missed you both like crazy while I was away, and when I finally got out of the military a few months ago, I knew exactly what I wanted. Both of you, forever, because I love you both more than anything in the world.”

Hope flared, hot and painful, and more tears clogged her throat. Gavvy and her mom were together, and he loved them both. “So we are gonna be a family?”

“We already are one, squirt.”

Carly grinned and flung her arms around his neck, hugging him tight.

Her mom wrapped her arms around them both. “Are you happy, baby?”

She nodded and kept her face tucked into Gavvy’s neck, afraid to answer in case she started to cry again. This was so unreal. If she was dreaming, she didn’t want to wake up. And she couldn’t wait to tell her friends back home about this. They were gonna lose their minds.

Wait. She leaned back to look at them both. “Does everybody else know? Auntie Marls, Uncle Tris and Uncle Deck? And Nana and Papa too?”

“Just us and Uncle Tris,” her mom said. “Nobody else yet.”

“I told him yesterday when we went out to look for you,” Gavvy said. “Your mom and I wanted to tell you as soon as we had a chance to talk about everything. But of course, we have to tell the others now too.”

Carly nodded, her excitement growing. “They’ll be so happy, especially Auntie Marls. Is Uncle Tris happy?”

Gavvy smiled. “I think you’re right. And, yes, he’s very happy.”

Carly smiled back. Uncle Tris, Auntie Marls and Uncle Deck were her real aunt and uncles. Man, she was lucky. And Nana and Papa had always adored Gavvy. They were going to be so excited when they found out. “When are you going to tell them?”

“Later today. That okay with you?”

She nodded. “Can you guys do it though? I want to finish my homework so I can spend the rest of the time with you.” She didn’t want to be there when they told everyone. It was too awkward.

He and her mom laughed softly. “Yeah, we’ll handle it,” Gavvy said.

“And you’ll tell me what they said?” She was dying to know.

“Yes,” her mom promised. Carly kind of wanted to ask if they could video it, but held back. Probably wasn’t appropriate.

“So...what’s going to happen now? Are we going to live together, or...? And are you going to get married?”

“We’re working through all that right now,” Gavvy said. “But yes, that’s the plan.” He slanted a meaningful look at her mom.

“Are we going to move here?” Carly asked her.

Her mom blinked. “Would you like to?”

She thought about it a moment. Leaving home and her friends would be sad. Leaving her grandparents would be even harder. “I would miss Nana and Papa the most, but...” Here she would have Gavvy every day. As well as Uncle Tris and Auntie Marls and Uncle Deck in the same town. “Yes.”

“Okay, then, we’ll figure it out,” her mom said with a happy smile. She looked happier than Carly had seen her in a long time.

“Do you have any more questions for either of us?” Gavvy asked, wiping her damp cheek with the side of his hand.

She shook her head. “Not right now.” She was curious about their relationship before she’d been born but didn’t want to know that stuff yet. Maybe someday. “What about the riots? Are they over now?”

“Yes, everything was contained yesterday. All the bad people have been arrested.”

“Including the man who grabbed me?”

Gavvy’s eyes darkened. “He’s in jail. And he won’t be getting out for a long time.”

“Good.” Everyone who had hurt people or set fires or destroyed things deserved to go to jail for what they’d done. “What about that man who rescued me and put on my gas mask.”

“No, he’s not in any trouble.”

“Who was he?”

“We’re not sure, squirt. But your uncle Tris is going to try to find that out today.”

“Okay. Gavvy?” She cocked her head. He was so handsome and strong, even with all the bruises.

“Yeah, squirt?”

She loved it when he called her that. “I love you too.”

He exhaled roughly and hugged her tight. She gave him a squeeze, then leaned back to grin up at him, feeling like she might burst with happiness.

“What?” One side of his mouth lifted in the exact same way hers did sometimes.

“I’m so getting an A on my project.”