23. Lottie
Lottie
“ H ey, kiddo.”
The voice makes me jump. “Dad! What are you doing here?” I pop out of my office chair to wrap my arms around his waist. His navy police uniform sits a little tighter around his middle than it used to, while his brown hair is peppered with grey.
He’s always felt larger than life to me, and even though he’s a little softer now, he can still take down a fully grown man in a few seconds.
“I texted first. Guess you didn’t see it. Thought I’d try to fix that sink in your guest bathroom.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “At”—I check my watch—“one in the afternoon while you’re on duty?”
He blusters for a second while I continue to stare at him. He folds like a house of cards. “Okay, fine. I want to know about this boy you were seen with at Jimmy’s the other night.”
My eyes revert to my teenage years as they roll to the back of my head.
“I did bring my tools to fix the bathroom, though. I thought I could do both.” Dad gives me his charming grin that always makes everyone swoon .
I point at him. “That won’t work on me.”
His face drops into his natural smile. “It’s one of the many things I love about you, baby girl. You’ve never been swayed by manipulation. You get that from your momma.”
I soften at his compliment. “Come on, old man. Grab your tools. If you’re going to wheedle information out of me, you might as well be useful.”
Dad barks out a laugh. He turns back to the front door and grabs his red toolbox.
It’s beat to hell and heavy as shit. All the memories I have of following in Dad’s shadow as he fixed anything and everything hit me when I look at that metal box.
I would ask a million and one questions while he worked.
How he continued to have patience with me is a miracle.
I follow Dad to the bathroom between mine and Gia’s office. The faucet hasn’t been working right for the past couple of weeks. I can fix a lot of things on my own, thanks to Dad’s instruction, but this is out of my wheelhouse.
He squats under the sink and starts to fiddle with the pipes. “Okay, you’ve put me to work. Start talking, missy.”
I don’t have to see him to know he’s smiling. “His name is Teddy. Well, William. William Kavanagh.”
Dad’s head pokes back out from the sink with a frown marring his eyebrows. “The former Marine? Uriah Kavanagh’s grandson?”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot you met him at the gym.”
“Did that little asshole have his sights set on you while he was talking to me?”
I roll my eyes. Again. “No, Dad. He would never disrespect you like that. Especially when he barely knows you. It wouldn’t be proper.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you,” he says drily.
I grin. “Yes, it does. You taught me everything I know.”
Dad cracks. “And I regret it every day.” He winks and then disappears under the sink. “How did this punk get you to go out on a date?”
“Technically, I asked him first, but the night you met him at The Warehouse, he accidentally snuck up behind me while I was getting in my car. I reacted accordingly, taking him down to the pavement and knocking the wind out of him. He asked me to go to dinner after that.”
“Huh.” Dad grunts.
“What does that mean?”
“You’re telling me you kicked his ass and he still asked you to go to dinner?”
I smirk even though Dad can’t see me. “Yep.”
“Maybe he’s not such a punk.”
We’re silent for a few minutes while Dad works. In the quiet, my thoughts swirl around the new man in my life.
He’s everything I’ve ever imagined he’d be. When I was a na?ve teen, hanging my hopes and dreams on a man I barely knew, I had lofty ideals about life with him by my side. As I got older, I understood those thoughts were built on a one-sided love affair.
I stopped believing Teddy would reciprocate my feelings and started to view him as a friend I was hopelessly in love with. Reality allowed me to see our relationship clearly. It didn’t stop my love for him, but it did put it into perspective.
Now that he’s here and claiming me as his, the eighteen-year-old in me is throwing herself into his arms without reservation.
It’s too bad I’ve grown up since then. I refuse to find my self-worth in a man regardless of his feelings for me.
But he does make it hard to hold back from falling ass over teakettle in love with him.
He’s texted me several times since our date a few days ago. His age shows through every time he grumbles about texting instead of talking on the phone. He’s called me every night before bed to tell me good night. It’s pretty adorable, actually .
“Quit mooning over there and help me,” Dad grumbles.
I giggle at the way his arm is waving to get my attention. “Sorry, sorry. What did you need?”
Dad gives me instructions as he continues to tinker around. Ten minutes later, he ducks out from under the sink. “I think we’re going to have to call your uncle Levi. This one might be too big of a job for me.”
I squint at him. “Did you know that before coming over?” The sheepish expression on his face gives me my answer. “Dad! What have you been doing this whole time?”
“Loosening and tightening the bolt holding your faucet in place.”
I give him a bland look. “You’re incorrigible.”
Dad gives me a boyish grin. “Still got you to fess up to the details. I can’t wait to rub it in your mom’s face.”
I laugh, but then mischievousness overtakes me. “Good luck rubbing this one in.” I walk out of the bathroom while he sputters.
“You hang on there, missy!” The clatter of tools and the clank of the box shutting follow behind me.
“What do you mean I won’t be able to rub it in?” He puts his hands on his hips, giving me his patented police officer look. When I was a kid, that look would make me confess like a toddler with a secret. Now, I just stare right back.
“God dammit, Lottie. You and your mother will be the death of me.”
“Don’t forget about Caro’s hippie heart fluttering around the country.”
He narrows his eyes at me. My little sister, Caroline, has always been the bane of my father’s existence.
She’s a wild child who follows her own path.
Dad has never been able to understand the way her mind works, and it drives him crazy.
She got our mother’s artsy, wandering soul along with my father’s daring, adrenaline-seeking confidence.
“That was mean to throw that in my face.” He pouts as much as a grown man can pout.
“Aw. Daddy, you’re not going to lose her. She just needs some room to fly before she’ll be ready to settle back on the ground.” I wrap my arms around his waist, and he squeezes me tight to his chest.
“You’ll keep an eye out for her, right? She confides in you. Don’t let her get hurt.”
“I won’t.”
“I don’t mean to put pressure on you, Lottie. I shouldn’t have even said that. It’s not your job to make sure Caro makes good choices.”
“And that’s why I don’t mind looking out for her. I don’t do it because you ask me to; I do it because I love her just as much as you do. I want her safe, too.”
Dad’s shoulders soften as he runs a hand over my hair. “You’re the best of us, baby girl. You know that?”
“Nah, I just got lucky in the genetics department.”
Dad laughs like I hoped he would. “I need to get back to work, and so do you. This season is amazing so far, sweetheart. I should be mad at you for looking into this case without consulting me first, but Crystal deserves the light you’re shining on her. You’ll let me know if you need me?”
“Always.”