Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Yeah,” she answers. “I love you.”
I know I shouldn’t say it back, but she’s said it twice already, and I don’t want her to think anything but the truth. “Love you more, lovebug.”
My dad’s brows shoot even higher as he arrives at the aisle where I’m sitting. He puts his hands on his hips and stares down at me. His huge body towers over me, but we’re actually the same height. The same dark hair is brushed to the side, the same blue eyes…and while I look a lot like my mom, I have my dad’s most prominent features. “Well, I know you don’t love Ava. So, who was that, my boy?”
I’m a firm believer in fate. I needed my dad, and here he is.
Just as I knew I had to kiss Emery that day, I know I need my dad.
Chapter
Thirty-Six
Quinn
I chuckle to keep from answering my dad. “You know who.”
He grins, his eyes wrinkling at the sides. “What are you doing here?”
I shrug, stretching out my legs. “Just need to clear my head.”
Dad nods before he lowers into the seat one away from mine. He puts his hand on the back of the chair, his palm resting on my shoulder. “You all right?”
I shrug, crossing my arms over my chest. “I’ve been better.”
He doesn’t say anything, and neither do I, as we watch the Zamboni glide over the ice. It’s on the last section of ice when he says, “I bet we can go and drive that thing around. Maybe get both out and race.”
That has me grinning, and I know that’s what Dad wanted. His eyes crinkle as his eyes bear down on mine. He squeezes my shoulder, and I exhale a heavy breath. “Lovebug?” he asks, his brows rising a bit. “I haven’t heard that in a while.”
My smile stays in place as I nod. “Yeah, it feels good.”
“I bet,” he says slowly. “So, am I right to assume that what we all saw in the hall means the wedding is off?”
“It will be,” I say softly, and I feel a flush filling my features. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my dad’s head fall back and he thanks the heavens, but I ignore him. “I can’t marry her, not when I love Emery as deeply as I do.”
“I understand.” His voice is even, as if he expected this. Knew how it would play out.
Glad one of us did.
My voice shakes as I admit, “I shouldn’t have let her leave.”
He shrugs. “Sometimes you have to. I think there is even a song that says you gotta let them fly, and if they come back, it’s meant to be.”
I can’t help but snort. “Mariah Carey sang it. And that’s funny, ’cause Emery sang a very bad karaoke version of a Mariah Carey classic to me the other night.”
Dad grins. “That girl has always been someone you can’t ignore.”
“Yeah, even when I try my hardest.”
He squeezes my shoulder. “I understand what you did,” he tells me once our eyes meet. “I let your mom go, even though it was the last thing I wanted. I wore her engagement ring around my neck and waited for her to come back to me.” He chuckles, shaking his head. “Love isn’t easy, son. It’s a lot of give-and-take. A lot of patience and understanding. It’s hard, but when you find the person who makes it easy, you love them harder than you ever imagined you could. The reward is a life that you build with them.”
My lips quirk. “Emery has always been that person for me.”
Dad’s eyes sparkle with mischief. “I doubt you remember this, but when we went to the hospital to see Emery when she was born, I was holding her, and you came over and looked down at her. You moved her dark curls off her forehead and then touched her eyelashes.” I’m completely taken in by his words, sitting on the edge of my seat, listening intently as he reminisces. “Lucas watched you like a hawk, but I let you explore her face. You booped her nose, then her cheek, before you looked up at me and told me, ‘She’ll do.’”
I laugh, and I feel a smile take over my face. “She’ll do?”
Dad chuckles. “Yeah. I went, ‘She’ll do for what?’ And you told me, ‘She’ll do to be my friend.’” His laughter echoes throughout the arena as I grin widely at him. “You two were two peas in a pod, but it was Lucas who noticed how she started looking at you differently. I agreed and then said I noticed the same from you. I think it was right when you went to prom, with that one girl who Emery claims she didn’t trip, that things completely changed between you two.”
“She totally tripped her,” I huff out between chuckles.