79
THERON
I was fucking this up. Big time.
I didn’t know what the hell I was doing—I’d lost Emersyn when she was ten. How the hell was I supposed to know how to be a father to a woman in her twenties? I walked into the kitchen and stopped abruptly at all the accusing looks that were being thrown my way.
“What did you do?” Kaelin demanded.
“Me? All I said was that she had to stay here while we went after Mahoney—”
Kaelin pinched the bridge of her nose. Nyx rubbed his mouth to hide a smirk, and Atlas looked up at the ceiling like he needed divine help. Graham just shook his head.
“What?” I barked.
Kaelin looked at me in amusement. “Remember what happened when you told me I had to stay home?” She must have seen something in my eyes because she nodded. “Yeah, picture that but she’s your daughter.”
“Yeah, T, that’s like telling you to stay home while we run off and kill Vetticus,” Nyx smirked.
I looked at Graham who also looked amused, damn him.
He shrugged. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, my friend.”
Atlas jerked his head in the general direction of the backyard.
“Security says she took the south path.”
“Alone?”
“Course not,” Atlas scoffed.
“Gabriel is with her,” Nyx smirked.
A rumbled sigh of frustration escaped, because I’d started to notice the signs of whatever was going on between the two of them, too.
Although I wasn’t sure how far things had gone yet, or even if either of them were aware of the obvious.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I guess it could be worse. One thing at a time though.
“I hate all of you,” I growled. I yanked Kaelin in for an aggressive kiss. “Except you, darlin’.”
She sighed against my lips, and I felt her grin.
“Yeah, yeah,” she said and pulled away. “Go talk to her. You lost her once, don’t let this be the reason you lose her again.”
As I crossed the lawn and walked down the path at the back of the house, I watched Emersyn and Griffin disappear into the trees.
They were a ways ahead of me, but I took my time, hands shoved into my pockets.
A moment to breathe was exactly what I needed, apparently.
The breeze caressed my face, and I stopped in the middle of the path and just let it wash over me.
When was the last time I’d just enjoyed being outside?
The pause gave me clarity, but I didn’t like what it revealed. I knew I needed to ease up on Emersyn, but the thought gave me anxiety. What if something happened to her on the island? What if I wasn’t able to watch her every second I was there? What if I wasn’t able to protect her—again?
These feelings felt nostalgic and I realized I’d felt them back when she was younger. The fierce urge to protect her had been nearly all-consuming. And, while I’d been deployed for a lot of the twins' younger years, when I was with them, the need to keep them safe had oftentimes been suffocating.
“Great,” I muttered. “So, apparently that never goes away.”
I resumed walking and came through the trees in time to see Griffin touch her face in a hesitant gesture of comfort. I was definitely interrupting something. Good. Wasn’t that what a father was supposed to do? Maybe not to a twenty-six year old, but I had to make up for lost time somehow.
I knew they sensed me. Griffin whispered something briefly to Emersyn, and a small smile appeared on her face.
I realized I desperately wanted to see her smile and laugh again.
To be unburdened. I knew that was probably impossible after everything she’d been through, but maybe Griffin wasn’t so bad if he made her feel safe enough to smile.
My eyes hardened as I watched him leave her and approach me.
Griffin held up his hands as he walked past.
“Yeah, yeah—if I hurt her, you’ll kill me, right?”
“If it’s like that,” I said.
He stopped and turned to look back at Emersyn. I recognized the fierce look of protection laced with obsession.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I think it is like that.”
Griffin looked at me and his eyes sharpened. I could tell there was a lot he wanted to say, but he chose his words carefully.
“She needs her father, North,” he said quietly. “Not a keeper.” He leaned in closer, and his tone lightened. “And you might not know this yet, but she is kind of a badass.”
“Of course she is,” I scoffed. “She’s my daughter.”
He nodded once and walked away. Emersyn crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me. The smile and ease she’d had with Griffin was gone.
“You going to tell me to stay away from him too?”
I looked around the small woods that bordered the back of the estate. It really was pretty here. I didn’t come back here nearly enough.
I shook my head. “Might threaten him a little though. The whole shotgun bit sounds kind of fun.”
She blinked, and her scowl weakened a little. “I think I’m too old for that now.”
“I don’t think there’s an age limit to fathers harassing their daughters’ dates,” I said dryly.
Emersyn frowned and looked away. “So, are you here to double down on what you said before?”
“I’d like to,” I sighed. “But, I’ve basically been told I’d be an idiot if I did that.”
The silence between us stretched. I didn’t know what else to say. I wasn’t ready to tell her she could come with us, but I also wasn’t about to tell her no again. She jerked her head toward my face.
“Were you jealous of mine or something?”
My lips tugged into a small smirk. I knew she was talking about the nearly identical scar that ran down the side of my face.
“That is what I like to call karma,” I grew serious. “A man named Cooper gave it to me. During our search for you it took us to some dark places. Long story, but you should hear it sometime.”
And just like that, the past surged between us. She stared, and a myriad of emotions swirled in her eyes, changing too quickly to keep up.
“There are moments when you feel like a stranger, but then sometimes it feels like just yesterday we were at the lake house—” She choked on the words. “You left me.”
Her words sliced through my chest. “You left me, and I know it was beyond your control,” her voice was breathless with unshed tears. “But, I still don’t know how to forgive you for it.”