Page 24 of One Vow

Fuck. This was hard. Too hard.

I walked through the kitchen to the bedroom and closed myself inside. It wasn’t proximity that kept me from letting him go. And it wasn’t nostalgia. It was closure. We didn’t have it. And it only took me an hour alone in my room to figure that out. But when I did, I marched out into the living room, then the dining room, then the kitchen with no sign of Finn in any of the rooms. I checked the front porch, then the back patio. His rental car was still parked out front, so he hadn’t gone farther than a walk.

I didn’t get a chance to check the garage because the doorbell rang. I ran to answer. First, because the temperature had dropped five degrees every hour since breakfast this morning, so he was probably freezing, and second because I just wanted to see his face. Pathetic, yes. To be admitted aloud, never.

But it wasn’t Finn standing on the porch. It was Dad. Dad who wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries or even a hello before he burst through the door. A weird little moment of déjà vu swept in on me.

“Is it true? Is he here?” He glared down at me, his hands on hips over his long gray wool coat, a scarf hung around his neck, and a decade of rage at Finn for breaking my heart after our sex tape was released online flashed in his eyes. “Is. He. Here?”

I nodded. I didn’t have to ask who he meant. The rumor mill would have already been circulating one or more versions of the story. We’d talked to Mrs. Chester which was in the same realm as putting my business on a billboard and hanging it in the center of town. Dammit. I should’ve been more careful, been a better actor. Dad wasn’t a fan of Finn’s ten years ago, and I couldn’t imagine after he’d helped me through losing him that his hatred would die. Apparently.

“Is it true that you’re letting him stay here, too?” When I didn’t answer with more than pursed lips that said I didn’t want to answer at all, he threw his hands up and turned away only to turn back a second later. Then he walked through the house and opened all the doors, including the small pantry in the kitchen, searching. “Where is he?”

“I seem to have misplaced him.” And I wasn’t kidding.

“Dammit, Fliss. I’m not in the mood for your sarcasm.”

There was no sarcasm to it. But if Dad wasn’t in the mood for sarcasm, he wouldn’t have been in the mood for honesty that sounded suspiciously like it either. “Dad, he was on the phone. I went into the other room. He must’ve left.”

“For good?” Hope lit in his eyes.

But no point in lying. “I doubt it. We have an appointment with a divorce lawyer tomorrow. We have to get this resolved because…” I shook my head. This was not my best day. Not my best life. “Because his fiancée spent a boatload on a dress, and she’s very anxious for their Christmas Eve wedding.”

Dad stared at me for a second before he nodded. “Are you okay?”

And this was why I’d never missed having a mom. He knew exactly what to say. What to do. How to be a friend when I needed one and a dad when I needed one of those.

“Yeah.” Plus, he could spot a lie at eighty paces and knew exactly when I needed a hug.

He pulled me close and ran his hand over my hair. He smelled like pipe smoke even though he’d never touched tobacco in his life, and he felt safe. “Want me to kick his ass for coming back?”

And if any dad could, it was mine, with his muscled arms and barely fiftyish body.

But I shook my head. If there was one person I was comfortable telling the truth to, it was Dad. “No. I want you to kick his ass for leaving in the first place.”

And wasn’t that just the damned truth?

One Decade Ago

Finn put a plate in front of me and leaned down for a kiss. When he pulled back, he smiled, and I smiled and all was right in the world. It was my wedding day. And Finn Makenzie was my husband who knew his way around a kitchen. How much better could life get for one day?

“It isn’t much, just a grilled steak,” he’d stood outside and cooked. For me. I sighed probably seeing the world through my rose-colored glasses, but that was okay. The reddish tint made everything a bit more lovely. “And a baked potato. I didn’t want to order pizza on our wedding night.”

Damn, I loved his shy smile. And that he thought so hard about our wedding night.

A knock, more of a fist bang, against the door swallowed up my answer. “Felicity Fields! You open this damned door before I break it down!”

Dad.

Oh shit.

I probably should’ve told him about moving into this house and about my wedding. That I’d married one of the Glouster Four, that was what the papers were calling Finn and the other Alphas involved in the video scandal.

“You didn’t tell your dad?”

I shook my head because I didn’t feel like yelling over the banging. I stood, glanced at my steak like I was on death row and it was my last meal, then pushed Finn out of the way when I opened the door. “Daddy.”

He shuffled past me and grabbed Finn by the front of the shirt, using his momentum to slam Finn into the wall. “You little son of a bitch!”