Chapter 26
Marshall
“You’re actually hacking into a site,” Wren accused in an awed voice close to my ear early the next morning.
I slammed my laptop closed and turned to see my daughter leaning over my shoulder while I was working.
Fuck! What was she doing up at this hour? Didn’t teenagers usually sleep late?
It was barely daylight.
I’d carried a sleeping Emma back to her bed a short time ago as promised and had decided to work for a while.
The majority of Nick’s enemies had been apprehended, but we both knew there was one more that needed to be caught. There was someone higher up that had to be discovered, and I’d find that bastard eventually.
“I was,” I said cautiously as my daughter flopped onto the couch in her pajamas.
I’d promised myself that I’d never lie to Wren unless absolutely necessary.
Hell, I’d probably have a difficult time lying to Wren even if I wanted to do it because she was too damn smart.
Her mind was always working and reasoning things out.
“Why?” she asked curiously. “I know it’s tempting to challenge yourself, but after I got in trouble for hacking I had to stop. It took a while to get caught, but you’ll probably get caught if you keep doing it. Mom was really mad at me. She’d probably be mad at you, too, if she finds out.”
“I won’t get caught,” I said as I released a frustrated breath. “I’m not doing it for the challenge, Wren.”
Hell, I should have known that my kid was trying to hack into websites just because she could.
“Then why are you doing it?” she asked, pinning me with a curious gaze.
“Because it’s part of my job,” I explained in a resigned tone. “I gather intel for the government as a contractor. I can’t tell you a lot about my job because it’s classified. I’d prefer that no one else knows about it.”
“Does Mom know?” she questioned.
I nodded. “She’s the only person who knows. Now you know, too.”
“I’d never tell anyone,” she replied. “But I wish I could ask questions about it.”
I trusted my daughter. She was intelligent enough to realize why secrecy was important.
“You can’t,” I said flatly. “I just want you to know that I’m not hacking for nefarious reasons or for the challenge. Your mother was right to be mad at you. Hacking is wrong unless you have a good reason for doing it.”
“If you work for the government, you must be really good at it. Did you do it when you were a SEAL commander?” she asked as she sent me an admiring glance.
“Not very often,” I answered. “But I learned a lot when I was in the Navy. We had an intelligence department that gave us most of our data. It was my job to oversee missions.”
She sent me a probing look. “You didn’t just oversee them. You were there. That’s how you injured your leg. It happened doing a mission.”
I shot her a surprised look. Wren knew about my history, but I’d never shared many of the details because it wasn’t something a kid needed to know. “How do you know that?”
My daughter rolled her eyes adorably. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. You’re still doing some kind of hostage rescue. I heard you talking to Wyatt about one the other day. How is that possible?”
I let out an exasperated breath.
I had been talking to Wyatt two days ago about a mission he’d needed to run in my absence. The operation had gone well, but he’d briefed me on the situation and we’d discussed everything right before the mission had been completed.
While I was proud of my daughter’s inquisitive, intelligent brain, there were a few downsides to having a gifted kid.
Hell, was there anything my daughter didn’t notice and analyze?
I gave up and told her the basics about Last Hope, including the information about her mother’s kidnapping and her subsequent rescue.
It would be more confusing to Wren to not know the truth at this point.
“Seriously?” she said excitedly when I’d finished the explanation.
“That’s what Brock, Nate, Gage, and Seth do when they take off without an explanation for a while?
I’ve always known that they were Delta, but I never suspected that.
I know Wyatt, but I don’t know the rest of your partners in San Diego. ”
“You’ll meet them someday,” I promised her.
“Can I see your headquarters?” she asked.
I grinned at her. Emma had warned me about this. “If you want to see it, I’ll take you there. I trust you. I think you can keep my secrets.”
“Of course I’ll keep your secrets,” she answered. “I know it’s important, and you’re my dad.”
For Wren, keeping my secrets was just that simple.
Seeing that earnest, adoring look on her face made my gut ache.
I still wasn’t quite used to having a daughter who cared about me unconditionally simply because I was her father.
Wren would care about me unless I gave her a very good reason not to do it.
I happened to like her affection, so I wasn’t about to do anything to jeopardize her trust in me as a father.
Emma had always said that Wren was her miracle child, but she was my miracle kid, too.
A daughter I never even dreamed of having.
Both Emma and Wren brought out protective instincts I’d never even known that I had.
Emma was mine.
Wren was my daughter.
There wasn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t do to keep both of them safe and happy.
Wren asked several more questions about Last Hope, and I answered what I could as honestly as possible.
She was curious about the world, and she pondered social issues and unpleasant things that most girls didn’t at her age.
It would probably never be possible to shield her from everything unpleasant that happened in the world because she made it her business to know about all of them.
I’d quickly discovered that she could still be a kid and wonder about things that only adults usually thought about.
I understood that because I was very much the same at her age.
I was going to do my damnedest to make sure she tried to stay focused on the fun kids were having at her age, but there would be times when her brain wanted to go other places.
I knew I couldn’t just stifle her questions and pretend that those questions didn’t matter because they were unpleasant things to talk about.
She let out a contented sigh once I’d answered her questions.
“You and Mom slept together last night,” Wren stated. “Do you want to be together?”
The hopeful look in my daughter’s eyes nearly killed me.
I raised a brow. “How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “I woke up in the middle of the night. I was hungry. Her door was open, but she wasn’t in her room when I came downstairs.”
Okay, we were busted. What in the hell was I supposed to tell my daughter?
I decided honesty was the best answer.
“It’s complicated, Wren,” I said carefully.
“Maybe I don’t like boys,” she explained. “But I know about sex and relationships. I’m a teenager. I had sex ed last year.”
“They do that in junior high?” I asked, surprised.
She nodded. “I’m going into high school, Dad. I’m not a child anymore.”
Sometimes I had to wonder if my daughter was ever really a child.
Still, she was only thirteen…
“I care about your mom, Wren, and she cares about me.”
How did a guy keep things simple enough for a teenager to understand?
“Then why can’t you just be together?” she asked.
Fuck! I could really use Emma’s calming, motherly presence right now.
I was an amateur at this whole fatherhood thing.
“You and your mother’s lives are here in Cherry Cove. My life is in San Diego.”
“It’s not that complicated,” she reasoned. “It’s not like we live in a different country. We could move to San Diego so we would be with you. I could get into the gifted program there in high school. Grandma is there, and I have friends there.”
“You’d want to do that?” I asked hoarsely. “Just like that?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “Just like that.”
“Wouldn’t you miss your friends and your school?”
Something that felt a lot like hope started to form in my gut.
“A little,” she admitted. “But I like my friends there, too, and I don’t like the winters here. It’s cold and depressing. I’d happily trade what I have here to be with you all the time. I don’t want you to go. We just found each other.”
My gut wrenched when I saw my daughter’s lower lip start to quiver and tears fill those gray eyes that were so much like my own.
There was my girl.
She might act like a mini adult sometimes, but those adolescent emotions were still there.
I got my ass up from the recliner, sat next to my daughter, and hugged her.
She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me back so tightly that I could barely breathe.
Hell, I’d happily suffocate if that was what my girl needed.
I kissed the top of her head. “Adulthood sucks sometimes, Wren. I don’t want to go, but I have responsibilities in California. We have to make hard choices that aren’t always easy. I want your mom to be happy, too.”
Maybe that wasn’t the appropriate thing to say, but it was the truth.
My daughter finally released me and stared at me solemnly.
“I know that,” she said tearfully. “I think Mom has thought about moving to San Diego, but it’s expensive there. She’s been trying to save for my college expenses, but I think I could get a job in another year.”
“Not happening,” I said flatly. “You’re going to focus on your education. I’ll take care of all of your expenses. I’m your father.”
She frowned. “It’s going to be expensive. I want to get my doctorate. I want to be a marine scientist.”
I knew that. Wren and I had discussed it several times.
My daughter was already certified as a junior scuba diver, and her mother had gotten her adult certification, too.
Seth was a dive instructor, and they’d both gotten certified as soon as Wren was eligible for a junior diver certification.
One of the main reasons we were going to the zoo today was to visit the penguinarium at the Detroit Zoo. The zoo had the largest penguin exhibit in the world.
My daughter loved everything marine wildlife, but she was fascinated by the penguins in particular.
“You don’t need to worry about the expense,” I assured her as I awkwardly used my T-shirt to wipe a tear away from her cheek. “You’ll get your education.”
Christ! She was still a kid.
And I hated to see my girl cry.
It tore my guts out that she was crying over not seeing me every day.
“I want to see you every day, too, Wren, but that may not be possible for us right now. But we’ll be together as often as possible. I’ll come here, and you can come to San Diego whenever you have time off from school.”
I’d move Emma and my daughter to San Diego in a heartbeat if I thought Emma would be happy there. But the fact that Emma had never even suggested it was telling me it would be a no-go for her.
One thing I’d never wanted to do was step on Emma’s toes as a mother.
She’d done a phenomenal job of raising Wren here in Cherry Cove all by herself as a single parent.
I never wanted to say anything to suggest that she’d been anything but a fantastic parent.
Yeah, I’d put my foot down about paying expenses, but Emma had been Wren’s parent for thirteen years.
I’d been a father to my daughter for a matter of weeks.
I couldn’t and I wouldn’t tell her where and how to raise my daughter.
Those were her decisions to make as Wren’s primary parent.
Yeah, I wanted Emma and Wren to move to California, but it had to be Emma who made that suggestion so she didn’t feel like she was being pressured to move because that’s what I wanted.
If that was something Emma was considering on her own, she would have mentioned it by now.
Hell, she’d spent most of her life in Cherry Cove, and she was happy here with her friends and with the life she’d built here.
What I’d said to Wren was true. I did want Emma to be happy. Asking her to start her life all over again in California was way too much to ask. Going from small town Michigan to big city California was night and day different.
“Your mom is going to bring some of your things over so the two of you can stay here with me until you have to go back to school,” I told Wren. “We can spend more time together that way.”
My daughter’s eyes brightened. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really. I’m always going to want to spend as much time with you as possible.”
“Are you and Mom going to sleep together?” she asked. “I think you should. You care about each other.”
I coughed because I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that question.
“We’ll see,” I said noncommittally.
Personally, I’d prefer not to hide the way I felt about Emma, but that was a decision her mother needed to make.
Wren wrapped her arms around me again and hugged me. “I’m glad we’re going to stay here. I love you, Dad.”
I wrapped my arms around my girl as her words completely broke me.
“I love you, too, Wren,” I told her, knowing I’d always love and adore my daughter until the day I took my last breath.
I didn’t care if I was completely screwed.
She’d wrapped her fingers around a heart I hadn’t known existed until recently, and I didn’t ever want her to let it go.