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She threw her arms around him and laughed. “You’re a good dad.”
Warmth filled him, and it almost made up for the hopelessness he’d been feeling only seconds before. “You think so?”
Tatum pulled back, and her brows knitted together. “Yes. I think you’re the best dad ever.”
Matt put his hands lightly on her shoulders. “Tatum, I’m going to ask you something, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. And you won’t be in trouble, no matter what the answer is. Okay?”
“Okay, Dad.”
“Are you happy here?”
She frowned. “I don’t know.”
He thought about the weird look she’d given her mother only minutes before. “What did your mom say to you when she dropped you off earlier?”
She looked away from him, focusing on the refrigerator. “Nothing.”
No eye contact from his daughter was a clear sign she didn’t want to tell him. “Honey, you won’t be in trouble.”
“Mom said to tell you she stayed at home last night.”
His heart rate picked up a notch. “Why would she tell you to tell me that?”
Tatum’s lips pinched together. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Tatum.”
She met his gaze. “Because she didn’t come home last night. She came home this morning so she could bring me here.”
Anger, betrayal, and a whole other cocktail of feelings surged inside him.
“Don’t be angry, Daddy. Mom is trying. Most of the time she stays at home.”
Matt turned back to the refrigerator, stuffing his anger away for another time, when it wouldn’t stress his daughter out.
“Daddy, what are you doing?”
“I’m making eggs, sweetheart.”
“Daddy.” Tatum sniffed.
He was trying to keep it together. He really didn’t want to talk, but after a moment, he answered, “Yes?”
“Are we going to South Port for Dawn’s wedding?”
He made a decision he should have made a long time ago. “Sweetheart, we are definitely going to South Port for the wedding.”
She threw her arms around him. “Thank you, Daddy. Thank you!”
He would go to this wedding, and he would get Lucy to take him back.
Chapter 13
When Raine had signed up to go to this wedding with Lucy, he couldn’t have guessed what it would be like. The past couple days had been rough. Not just because of all the emotional crap he was uncovering about himself, but because now he was invested in this wedding and this Matt and everything that might or might not happen.
He knew the whole town of South Port was at play, not to mention that Lucy would see this “infamous” Matt. It was funny how Raine had met people from around the town who had told him about Matt and Tatum. They even made a point of letting him know that Lucy was Matt’s.
It was the day before the wedding and Lucy had sent Raine to the hardware store for a couple of things.
