24. David
DAVID
My phone rings just as I’m pulling clothes on after a shower.
I immediately smile when I see Mia’s name pop up. I hit the button to connect it to speakerphone. “Hey, beautiful.”
“My dad knows about us.”
I feel a cold ball of dread settle in my gut. “What? How? I just saw him a little bit ago.”
“I was trespassing and skinny-dipping at Judy’s. She tried to call you, but you were busy, and apparently they routed the call to my dad.”
My eyes slide shut and my head tips back as I groan. “Well, that’s about the worst thing I’ve ever heard. I missed you skinny dipping, and your dad found out about us.”
“Yeah. He left me without saying much. I need to go talk to him, but I wanted you to know.”
“Thanks. I think maybe we should talk to him together. He and I had a nice moment earlier today.”
Fuck. Just when I thought we were making some headway too.
“I have no idea how he’s going to react,” Mia says. “He and I have never had a falling out like this.”
Of course, she’s been the perfect daughter. That doesn’t surprise me.
I hear a knock on my front door. Frowning, I head in that direction.
Very few people come clear out here, and even fewer do it without invitation.
Maybe it’s one of my brothers. Maybe they found out that Scott found out.
Maybe Scott’s down at the Come Again getting drunk and ranting about what an asshole I am.
I am carrying the phone with me as I pull the door open.
I am surprised for two seconds and then I blow out a breath. “Well, I think I know how he’s going to react,” I tell Mia.
“We need to talk,” Scott Hansen says from my front porch.
“Dad? Is that you?” Mia calls through the phone. “Dad, please don’t do anything to David! I started the whole thing. I went after him! I seduced him!”
“Mia,” I cut her off. “Don’t take this the wrong way, okay?”
“Take what the wrong way?”
I hang up on her.
“Why couldn’t you tell me?” Scott asks.
I step back and motion for him to come in. He shakes his head. “This will be quick. Why did you feel like you couldn’t tell me?”
“It started out as just a flirtation. I didn’t think anything would happen. So I didn’t think it was worth getting you riled up about your daughter seeing a guy you didn’t like.”
Scott frowns. “I’ve never not liked you.”
I tuck my hands into the pockets of the lounge pants I pulled on. “But we’ve just now established that. I didn’t know that.”
“Fair enough.” He takes a breath. “You thought it was just a flirtation. But when it got more serious, you still didn’t want to tell me? Does Peyton know?”
“Only because she figured it out. We didn’t tell her. We didn’t tell anyone. Everyone just…figured it out.”
Scott shakes his head. “Except the cop.”
“To be fair, we tried extra hard to keep it from you.”
“Because you thought I wouldn’t approve?”
I nod. “And I know you’re probably not happy?—”
“That’s why I’m here,” he interrupts. “I’m hurt that I’m the last one to know. But I am here because I need you to hear me say something.”
I brace myself. “Okay.” I’m going to have to tell Scott that it only matters a little what he thinks and feels. That I’m in love with his daughter and I intend to stay that way for the rest of my life. But I can hear him out first.
“I’m very happy for my daughter to date you,” Scott says. “You are a good man. You are an excellent officer. You’re a wonderful son. You’re fantastic brother. You are an important part of our community.”
I stare at him, stunned.
“Mia needs to be loved hard,” Scott goes on.
“Fully. She needs people who will love her in a way where there is no question. So I’m here to tell you that I’m glad it’s you.
But she needs to be loved openly, unabashedly, by someone who isn’t afraid to make an ass of himself over her.
She can never have a question about how you feel.
I need you to do that. To be upfront and out loud and public about it. ”
My chest is tight with emotion, but I draw myself up straight. “Yes, sir. I can do that.”
Scott nods. “I know you can. I’m sorry if I made it so you couldn’t to this point.”
I stick my hand out to shake his, for the first time in probably nearly a decade. He takes it, but he doesn’t shake my hand. He uses it to pull me into a hug.
And as he squeezes me, I feel the rest of the weight that has been on my shoulders lift.
I watch him leave, and then I head for his daughter’s house.
She opens the door before I even knock. “Oh my God, you’re alive. Please tell me you’re not breaking up with me. I will seriously yell at him. I love him so much. And I absolutely respect him. And I really want the two of you to get along. But we’ll work this out. Please don’t?—”
“I’m in love with you,” I tell her, cutting her off. “I know it’s fast and probably a little nuts, but I am. I have no question about that. I want to date you, I want to be with you constantly, and I want everybody in the entire world to know.”
She stands staring at me, her mouth hanging open.
I move in close until I’m almost on top of her and cup her face in my hands. “Your dad and I are good. He loves you very much, and everything is fine. Better than fine. We’re…really good. He’s happy about us.”
Her hands circle my wrists, and she swallows. “Really?”
“Really.”
She takes a deep breath and then lets it out. “Okay.”
“Well, there is one thing,” I say.
She frowns. “What?”
“You haven’t told me how you feel yet. And if you’ll date me.”
Her smile is bright and wide. “Oh my God, yes, I will date you. David, I am madly in love with you. I have never felt this way before. I want to write the dirtiest stories because of you, but I also want to write sweet, sappy love stories because of you. I want to go four-wheeling, and rock climbing, and yes, skinny dipping.” Her hands come to my waist, and she hooks her fingers through my belt loops, pulling me close.
“I want to do everything. I want to cuddle on the couch with you, and go to family birthday parties with you, and I absolutely positively want you to do very dirty things to me in your childhood bedroom at Christmas.”
I stare down at her, my heart feeling like it might burst wide open. “I am up for making all kinds of plans with you, Mia Hansen,” I tell her. “But I have to be honest.”
“Always,” she agrees.
“I’m not really into rock climbing.”
It takes her a beat, then she laughs. “Okay, well, I can go rock climbing with Sloan.”
“We’ll see,” I tell her. “Rock climbing is pretty risky. You have to?—”
She seals her lips to mine.
And I realize I’m okay with her shutting me up this way. For the rest of our lives.
Then she reaches past me and pushes the front door shut with a nice, hard slam.
“Why don’t you carry me down the hall to the second room on the left?
It will be totally safe. No storms are brewing, and there are no critters or poisonous plants or branches that might scrape up our private parts in there. ”
“Branches that might—” I start.
“Never mind,” she tells me. “Just take me to bed, David.”
“You mean have sex indoors ?”
She grins. “Think you can handle that, Officer Bennett?”
I bend and lift her into my arms and start down the hall. “I’m sure we’ll come up with something,” I tell her. “Turns out we’re pretty good at making it up as we go along.”