Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(110)

And now Dad.

Could this day get any more fucked up?

What happened to holiday cheer?

Core didn’t move his arm, effectively caging Dad on the other side of the threshold.

“What the fuck?” Core bit out.

“Would you mind I talk to my daughter?” Dad asked.

Core, realizing he’d just met my father, turned his head to me.

I stepped deeper into the living room, Nanook crowding me, and called, “What are you doing here, Dad?”

Dad glared at Core, but my man was still looking at me.

“It’s okay,” I said, even if I was uncertain if it was.

Core dropped his arm and walked directly to me, positioning at my back so close, I felt his heat.

Dad came in behind him and was looking around, attempting to find fault in our home, and I suddenly wished I’d held my shit so we bought more Christmas stuff to deck the place out.

And then I thought, fuck that and fuck him.

Our home was awesome, and it didn’t matter what he thought.

“Dad, what are you doing here? And how do you know where I live?” I asked.

He shifted his focus to me. “Imagine being me and hearing your child demand to know how you knew where she lived.”

“The question remains,” I prompted.

“Eleanor paid me a visit.”

Well, shit.

“She told me you’ve moved in with a man you barely knew, but you did know he had an unsavory past,” he carried on.

I felt something unpleasant beating off Core into my back.

“And I would like to know, Hellen,” Dad continued, “what the hell you think you’re doing?”

“I’ve moved in with the man I love,” I replied.

“This man?” Dad asked scornfully, flinging a hand up at Core.

“Yes.” I leaned back so I was touching him. “This man.”

“Hellen—”

For so many reasons, I wasn’t doing this.

“Dad.” I sighed. “I can’t even begin to understand why you think you have some right to come banging at my door to demand I explain the decisions I make in my life. From your own actions, you’ve made it so you don’t know me. You don’t know the person I’ve become. You don’t know that I’m not impetuous. You don’t know that I am ambitious. You don’t know that I’m a risktaker. And you don’t know that even if that’s the case, I don’t take stupid risks. You also don’t know this man at my back. You don’t know that he’s tender and sweet and protective. You don’t know that he’s the best dog dad ever. You don’t know that he’s a rare breed who gives me space to be who I need to be and doesn’t make everything about him all the time. You don’t know that he’s so intent on taking care of me, he vacuums every day so I won’t get dog hair on my clothes.”

Dad was staring up at Core.

I took a breath and kept going.

“What you do know is Eleanor. You know she didn’t come to you out of concern for me. She came to you so you’d do what you’re doing right now so it would upset you, Core and me. And you fell for it. You came here, upset, and you upset Core and me.”

“You can’t possibly know—” Dad tried.

I didn’t let him continue.

“I can, but you don’t know that either. Now, my man and I were having an important conversation when you started banging on the door. And I may be wrong about you because I don’t know you very well either, which I’ll point out, is not my burden. It’s yours. Because you were never around to allow me to get to know you unless you were ready to be around. And those times were rarely pleasant because you were controlling and demanding of our time when you invaded a life we lived mostly without you in it. You did this instead of fitting into our lives and making the time we had with you something nurturing for all of us. So my take on this is that I don’t think you’re here for my own good. I think, as usual, you’re here to demand attention and to make a scene.”

“I—” he tried again.

I cut him off again.

“You could have called, or texted, set up a time to sit down and have coffee, discuss what Eleanor said to you, so I could explain. I could tell you the man my boyfriend is so you could be happy that I found him, like Mom is. Like Andy is. Like Li is.”

His face grew hard at those last three mentions.

Mostly Andy.

I ignored this and kept talking.

“You didn’t do that. And I don’t feel like having a scene with you, Dad, not in my own living room that you practically forced your way into, not anywhere at any time. I feel like making hot chocolate, putting on Christmas music and baking cookies. And I’m sorry, I don’t want you around when I do that.”

“It would seem we have deeper issues to discuss,” Dad got out, looking and sounding like the words pained him.

We did indeed.

At this juncture, I could get into his Granddad ruse.

I didn’t pick that one.

Because it wasn’t our deepest issue.

“Where did you take Tigger?” I asked.

Red started climbing up Dad’s neck.

Core, who I had not yet gotten into the whole Tigger heartbreak with, sensed the turn of the conversation. I knew it when I felt his hand flatten at the small of my back.