Chapter 11 Graham
Chapter eleven
Graham
Eric’s cabin looms straight ahead as dusk turns to night. I’m in my truck outside, gripping the steering wheel so hard it might snap in half. The engine ticks as it cools. Through the front window, I see him moving around, probably making dinner.
This conversation might destroy everything. Years of friendship. The only family I’ve got left. But I can’t live with this secret eating me alive, especially with Brenna accusing me of making decisions for everyone without giving them a choice.
And she’s right. Of course, she is. I owe Eric the truth. I should have come clean the second I saw her earlier. The instant I learned who she was. Even if it costs me everything.
The porchlight flicks on, and Eric steps out the front door, concern creasing his brow as he eyes me sitting here like I’m conducting surveillance.
“Graham?” he calls out. “Everything alright?”
With a sigh, I climb from my truck, my boots hitting gravel. The chilly night air cuts through my flannel, but I barely feel it. “I need to tell you something.”
His face goes still. Wary.
“What?” he says, descending the steps two at a time.
The words stick in my throat. My hands shake as I shove my keys into my pocket. There’s no way to sugarcoat this. “I slept with Brenna. Last night. Before I knew who she was.”
I’m bracing for a right hook to the face, but Eric just stares at me. I watch him process the words and see the exact second they hit home. His face goes white, and sure enough, his hands slowly curl into fists. “What did you just say?”
The quiet menace in his voice hits harder than shrapnel, but I force myself to hold his gaze. “She got caught in the storm. Power was out at the rental. She stayed at my place.”
“So you saw a young thing in distress and made your move?” His voice is acidic, cutting.
“What? No.” The words explode from me. “Christ, Eric, you know me better than that.”
He takes a step backward, studying my face in the porchlight. Some of his fury dims as he processes what I’m saying, but his jaw stays tight. “You have exactly one minute to explain yourself.”
Fuck. Fine.
“She was locked out. Soaked to the bone, shivering.” Cold sweat breaks out between my shoulder blades. “I brought her inside to get warm. Gave her some soup. We talked.”
“And then you decided to fuck her?”
The crude words make my vision flash red. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like, Graham?” Eric’s voice cracks. “Because my daughter’s been here one day, and you’ve already—”
“I didn’t plan it.” The admission tears from my throat. “Hell, I tried to keep my distance. And I didn’t know who she was. She didn’t know me. But there’s something about her, Eric. Something…”
I trail off, unsure how to explain the pull I felt, the way Brenna looked at me as if I was worth something.
Eric runs a hand through his hair, pacing in a tight circle. “You really didn’t know.”
“Not until we were at the brewery. When you introduced us.” I swallow hard. “I wanted to tell you then, but…”
“But you panicked.”
“Yeah.”
“Fucking coward.”
“I deserve that.”
Eric stares at me for a long moment. “You kept this from me. You sat across from me and let me rattle on about her like she was just some girl, a stranger, and you’d already…”
The disappointment in his tone cuts deeper than his anger. “I know.”
He faces me again, the pain in his gaze worse than fury. “You looked me in the eye and lied.”
“I didn’t lie. I just—”
“You lied. You let me go on about how glad I was to finally meet her while you sat there having already…” His voice breaks slightly. “Christ, how could you do that to me?”
Shame hits like a physical blow. I grasp at straws. “Because…because I knew this would happen.”
“This?”
“You looking at me like I’m not the man you thought I was.”
My quiet reply gives him pause. He sucks in a deep breath then blows it out. “What am I supposed to think? You slept with my daughter the night you met. Without knowing her, without knowing who she is. What does that say about either of you?”
The question hangs in the cold air between us. I want to defend her, defend our decision, but that’s not what matters now. I look up at the stars barely visible through the cloud cover then back at my friend’s face.
“I’m here to ask for your permission to be with her.”
The words hit the silence like a gunshot. Eric goes completely still, his mouth falling open. A truck rumbles past on the main road, but neither of us moves.
“You’re what?”
“I want to…date her. To see where this goes.” My throat feels raw, exposed. “With your permission.”
“Permission?” His voice climbs, incredulous. “You’ve known her for twenty-four hours.”
“I know.” I plant my feet wider. “But I’ve never felt anything like this. You know me. I’ve never wanted to try for something real until now. Until her.”
My best friend stares at me as if I’ve grown a second head. Then he turns away, looking out at the dark mountains. The silence stretches until I hear my own heartbeat, the wind in the pines.
“If you’re going to take a swing at me, I’d rather get it over with.”
“Graham—”
“I betrayed your trust. Hurt your relationship with your daughter before it even got started.” I straighten, bracing myself. “I deserve whatever you want to give me.”
Eric studies my face for another long moment, seeing something that makes his posture shift. The fight goes out of his shoulders.
“You really mean it, don’t you?”
I don’t have to confirm it. He knows I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.
He’s quiet for what feels like forever. When he speaks again, his voice is softer, distant.
“Years ago—hell, it feels like a lifetime now—I was young and fell in love with a girl from the city.” He scuffs his boot at a rock on the ground.
“She was up for the holidays, staying at the resort. It was only my second season working the slopes. She was from a wealthy family, went to private school. She was everything I wasn’t. ”
Dread pools in my gut. I know only part of this story. He’s never shared the details.
“We…we fell hard and fast. I was going to ask her to marry me the day I found out she was pregnant.”
“Eric—”
“I did the honorable thing. Went to her father in their luxurious penthouse, where the ridiculous art on the walls was worth more than I’d make in a lifetime, where my boots left marks on the marble floor. I asked for permission to marry his daughter.”
I don’t know the details but already know the ax is about to fall. And my stomach’s churning for the blow that’s about to land.
He shoves his hands into his pockets. “He told me I was a nobody and would never amount to anything. Said his daughter deserved better than a life of struggle. Had security escort me out onto the street.”
The parallel hits me like a sledgehammer. The fact I’m old enough to be her father adds fuel to the fire.
“I never saw her again after that. Her family made sure of it.” His voice cracks. “I could have pressed the issue. Stood up for my rights, but I didn’t. All this time, I’ve wondered about my child. But what got me through was the fact that he or she was provided for. Was safe.”
Understanding floods through me, followed by something that might be hope.
Eric turns to face me with resolve in his eyes. “I’m not making the mistake Caroline’s father made.”
“You’re giving me permission?”
“If Brenna wants to be with you, it’s her choice.” His voice hardens. “She’s old enough to make that call. To give up everything. To leave her life behind. But I’m talking to her first. Making sure she understands what you’re really asking.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you, Graham. For you to be here now, for us to be having this conversation…you mean forever.”
The weight of his words settles over me like a heavy blanket. He’s right. I do.
“She might say no,” I admit, the words tasting like ash.
“She might.” Eric’s expression softens fractionally. “Or she might surprise you. That girl’s got steel in her spine.”
Despite everything, I smile. “She told me I was making decisions for everyone without giving them a choice.”
“Smart girl.” A hint of pride creeps into his voice.
“Must take after her father that way.”
We stand in the stony silence for a moment, sizing up each other, our breaths visible in the frigid air.
Finally, Eric speaks again. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow during our hike.
But Graham—” He fixes me with a look that would shred a weaker man.
“If she says yes to this, to you, I need your word you’ll take care of her.
That you won’t break her heart and send her running back to where she came from. ”
“You know I wouldn’t.”
“Your word,” he insists, his tone inviting no argument.
“You have it.”
Seemingly satisfied, he nods. “Good, because if you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
I’d have said the same thing if she were my daughter. I turn toward my truck then pause with my hand on the door handle. “I’m sorry. Not for caring about her, or for falling for her, but for the way this happened. And for keeping it from you.”
“I know you are.” His voice carries a note of forgiveness I don’t deserve. “Just…don’t make me regret this.”
As I drive back up the mountain, his words echo in my head. Hope wars with the sick feeling I might have already lost her. The way she looked at me in the workshop earlier, as if I’d disappointed her in every way that mattered, burns in my chest.
I was supposed to be the man who fought for her, who’d move heaven and earth for her. Instead, I pushed her away the second things got complicated.
Tomorrow, Eric will ask her what she wants. Tonight, I’ll lie awake knowing she’s just down the hill—surely, she’ll have moved into the rental, if for no other reason than to be far from me—believing I’m the kind of man who takes what he wants and disappears when the going gets tough.
Staying away from her tonight will be impossible, but it’s the least I can do. Even if my hands are already itching to touch her again.