Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
SAGE
After doing my best to shake off the aftereffects of Xander’s sweet words and that tender kiss, I informed my dad I was taking him to Muffin Top for the best pastries and coffee he’d ever had.
One bite into a chocolate muffin loaded with chocolate chips and walnuts—in other words, a brownie in muffin form—and a sip of coffee, he was hooked just like me.
I’d introduced him to Danika as the owner and my Hope Valley BFF, and he didn’t hesitate to let her know she had a new customer for life.
“You got a gift, sweetheart. Like a good cuppa joe. Not as much as my girl, but for this”—he picked up his cup and gave it a little shake—“I’d gladly start an addiction.”
Just like Roxanne, Danika immediately swooned after my father, blushing and mumbling her thanks at his praise before taking off to deal with other customers.
While we sipped coffee he filled me in on how his crew back in Redemption was doing. I hadn’t been able to see any of them because my mom ripped me from my home, but since his buds were all still there, and they’d been tight as brothers before he went in, they came to visit him regularly.
I’d grown up with Scooter, Banks, Fletch, and Danno, and each of them had treated me like I was as much their little girl as I was Judge Winthrop’s.
Hell, I’d been so close with all of them that Banks’s son Cannon, who I’d grown up with since as far back as I could remember, had been my boyfriend from the time I turned thirteen until my mother took me away from the only home I’d ever had.
So hearing they were all still good made me smile.
Scooter had kept my dad’s bike while he was away, riding it occasionally and keeping up with the fluids so it would be good to go the second my dad got out.
Banks’s wife sent Dad care packages. Danno and Fletch handled selling the house we’d lived in, keeping the money in an account my mom couldn’t touch so Dad would have a little something when the time came to start his life again.
They’d all treated Lorelei Winthrop like gold. Until she proved herself to be a cold, heartless bitch by having my father served with divorce papers in jail and taking me away from him only days after his arrest.
As far as they were concerned—and I agreed wholeheartedly—she’d fucked him over, and they weren’t going to give her a chance to do anything worse.
The house had belonged to Dad, had been in his family for generations, and they’d seen to it that Lorelei didn’t get a penny of what wasn’t hers to claim.
This was a serious bone of contention with my mom. For years I had to listen to her slander those men, insisting they’d turned their back on her when we’d needed them the most.
But I was Judge’s daughter, which meant I had a brain in my head and I knew how to use it. She’d cut off any contact between me and my family in Tennessee, but that didn’t matter. I knew those men, and I knew in my bones that she was the one in the wrong.
He’d lost his wife and access to his daughter, but my dad still had his boys and all who came with them, his family, and I thanked God for that.
The only reason I hadn’t returned to Redemption when I finally bailed on Arizona was because the memories made it too hard. I saw my dad in everything, but not physically having him with me hurt too much. I needed somewhere new that was just mine.
After coffee, I took him to The Tap Room. It was barely past lunch, but I wanted to have a beer with my old man and let him meet Rory and her folks, Bill and Becky Hightower—who were a freaking hoot together.
We swung by the diner after that, where I introduced Ralph and Sally to the man who’d created and nurtured my love of motorcycles. Needless to say, Dad and Ralph hit it off in a really big way. And Sally was just happy I was happy.
From there, I took him a couple places so he could see a few of the sights Hope Valley had to offer. He’d been proud as hell of how I’d kept up my ride, and as I took him around town, I basked at having him in the seat beside me.
Once I’d done all that, I took him to get his bike so he could follow me to my place. It was cold as hell, but Dad hadn’t ridden in years and his body ached to be on his Harley. It was an extension of him, so he’d braved the cold from Tennessee to here like it was nothing.
Now we were sitting on my back porch, snuggled beneath several blankets with mugs of hot chocolate, and staring out at the gorgeous view of the foothills from my back porch.
“Proud of you, angel,” Dad spoke gently, breaking the silence we’d lapsed into several minutes before. “Didn’t want to tell you back then, but I been worried about you for years. ’Specially when you married that son of a bitch.”
I jolted at the hate in his voice and turned to look at him over my mug. “You didn’t even know him.”
“Wrong, girl,” he stated determinedly. “Never met him, but I knew him. Knew what you wrote about him in your letters, how you spoke of him when we’d talk on the phone, givin’ me all that hearts-and-flowers bullshit about how happy he made you.
I saw right through it, li’l bit. I might be able to count on one hand the number of times we saw each other the past eleven years, but you’re my girl.
I know you down to my very soul, baby. And I knew what you were givin’ me was a load a shit.
Also knew, in the beginnin’, you didn’t see it for what it was—that bein’ complete bullshit—but also knew, in the end, you were just lyin’ to keep me from worryin’. ”
My mouth fell open, my eyes went wide, and my throat went dry. “You . . . you knew?”
His face went soft as he whispered, “Angel. Two times you came to me while you were with that asshole, and two times I hardly recognized the girl standin’ in front of me.
The clothes, the hair, the makeup, the quiet, shy voice, the way you carried yourself like you were unsure how to act?
Not my girl. Nuh-uh. My girl’s been comfortable in her own skin from the moment she came into this world.
Baby girl, none of that was you. Not one fuckin’ bit.
The real Sage is wild. She’s loud and opinionated and takes absolutely no shit.
Those two times, that wasn’t the Sage I had.
Broke my heart, ’cause I knew that fucker did that to you.
No man, no real man sees the beauty that is a woman like you and works to change that. When I saw what you’d become, I knew.”
It was a miracle I didn’t burst out crying right then. “Uh, just to say, and I’m not defending him because he really and truly is a prick, but I was the one who allowed him to change me. I was weak.”
Dad put his mug on the arm of the Adirondack chair he was sitting in and leaned closer to me.
“You weren’t weak, baby. You were sad and you were lonely.
I know your mom wasn’t the mom you needed her to be.
Fuckin’ kills me I didn’t see that before all that shit went down, and I left you with that, but not a fuckin’ thing can be done about that now.
But I got your letters, remember? I read between the lines and saw what you weren’t able to, mainly ’cause I wasn’t the one livin’ it.
You were. Take it from someone who knows, Sage.
Love blinds us to all kinds of shit, and it isn’t until it’s over that we’re able to see what we’d missed.
That’s not weak. My Sage isn’t weak. You cottoned on and got the hell out.
Best day of these past eleven years was when you showed up at the prison a couple months back and told me you’d left his ass and were goin’ somewhere else to start over.
Don’t know what happened to bring that on, just know the relief coulda taken me to my knees.
I’ll admit, scared the hell outta me you were takin’ off on your own, but you’re my girl.
Adventure is in your blood, and I saw it in your eyes that you were itchin’ to go out on one. ”
All of that felt unbelievably nice. But in spite of how good it was to hear, the warmth of those words couldn’t fully penetrate.
The truth was, my dad didn’t know the real reason why I left.
He didn’t know the role the woman he’d once loved played in it, and he didn’t know what had transpired afterward.
I couldn’t tell him any of it. I’d only just gotten him back, and I knew that if he found out, he’d lose his mind, go off halfcocked on a journey of revenge and pain, and I’d lose him all over again.
“You built yourself somethin’ great here, precious girl. So why do I get the impression you aren’t completely happy?
God, my dad.
“I am happy,” I insisted. I’ve got all of this.
” I waved an arm indicating the stunning view.
I’ve got great friends, a job I love.” I left out the part where that was only for the next two weeks.
“And I don’t know if you noticed, my little house kicks serious ass.
” But it wasn’t a cabin up in the mountains.
“I noticed,” he said with a grin. “But I also see the sadness in your eyes, and my gut’s tellin’ me that’s got nothin’ to do with the motherfucker you left behind in the desert.”
I gave him a side-eyed glare, lifting my mug to my lips and taking a sip before muttering, “You know, your insightfulness is really starting to freak me out.”
“Stop tryin’ to change the subject. You don’t start talkin’, I’m callin’ the boys and tellin’ ’em to get their asses up to Virginia so we can stage an intervention for our girl.”
I knew him. He’d totally do that. And Danno, Banks, Fletch, and Scooter wouldn’t hesitate to ride out, even if, thanks to my mom and years of being under John’s thumb, I hadn’t talked to any of them until recently when I started on my trek to find a new life.
I was still their girl, and that love would never go away.
I knew that, because I had the exact same love for them.
“All right,” I admitted on a deep sigh. “Yes, I’m sad, but it’s not a big deal, Daddy. It’ll pass, and I’ll eventually get over it.”