The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club, #1)(87)

Thea had driven the entire four hours to Atlanta this morning. She started and stopped to call Gavin no less than a dozen times on the way. She didn’t even know if he would answer, and even if he did, she wasn’t actually ready to talk to him.

By some miracle, she arrived early enough that she landed a prime parking spot on the opposite side of the church that would let her flee in a hurry, if necessary. The bad news was, now she had to sit there with just her thoughts for way too long.

Thea closed her eyes and leaned her head against the seat. God, what was she doing there? Of all the stupid, impulsive things to do. What was this going to accomplish? It wasn’t fair to confront her father on his wedding day, and she had no desire to ruin his fiancée’s big day. Poor woman had enough hurt coming her way eventually, anyway.

But she’d come all this way, and she needed to get through this. Because Gavin was right. She’d been running and hiding from her own backstory for too long, and her father played a starring role in it.

Thea jumped at the sound of a knock on her window. Her eyes flew open to find—oh, crap. Her father peered in at her. In his charcoal gray tuxedo and with his salt-and-pepper hair, he looked more like the father of the bride than the groom.

Thea lowered the window, which seemed to amuse him. “You ever going to come in, or are you going to watch the whole wedding from out here?”

“How’d you know I was here?”

He pointed to an upper level of the church. “Window.”

“You recognized me from all the way over there?”

“I recognize my daughter, yes.”

The word daughter stung like a sharp needle. She knew this man so little that even calling him Dad made her squirm. But he could just blurt out “my daughter”?

“I didn’t think you were coming,” he said.

“Don’t worry, I won’t eat anything.”

“Don’t be mulish, Thea. The wedding planner is already working to seat you with Jessica’s parents.”

“With her parents?” Thea reared back. “Oh, no. That’s not, please don’t. That’s like, way too up front.”

Her father straightened and tipped his chin toward the passenger seat. “Can I get in?”

“Don’t you have groom things to do?”

“I’ve done this a few times. I know what my job is.”

“That probably sounds funny to you, but it’s actually pretty gross.”

He gestured to the seat again. “May I?”

Thea hit the unlock button and watched him walk around the front of her car. Someone must have called his name, because he lifted his hand in greeting before continuing to the passenger door.

Silence screamed as he slid in. Sitting in a car with someone was one of those everyday acts of familiarity that could either be unremarkably mundane or incredibly awkward. This was awkward. The comfort that most people felt around their dads didn’t exist for Thea. The man next to her had never tucked her in at night, never kissed scrapes and boo-boos, had never lifted her high into bed and snuggled her while she slept. She’d never crawled into his lap for comfort, never made pancakes with him. He was a stranger. Like a distant uncle who you saw every five years at family reunions and whose only point of conversation was to say over and over again how tall you’d gotten.

Yet, somehow, this stranger’s behavior had left enough emotional scars that Thea was going to lose the man she loved. A man who loved her enough that he read, underlined, and quoted romance novels to win her back.

The scars of this stranger in her car now had made her so distrustful that she couldn’t see Gavin’s efforts for what they were—a beautiful, heartfelt, honest statement of his feelings.

“Gavin and the girls aren’t with you?” Dan finally asked.

“No. Just me.”

“Liv?”

“Sorry.”

“Well, I’m glad you came. What changed your mind?”

“I’m kicking over some logs.”

The corner of his mouth ticked up. “And are you prepared for what’s going to crawl out?”

Thea stared out the windshield. “I don’t know why I’m here, actually. I’m pretty sure it’s a mistake.”

“Only if you leave without saying it.”

“Saying what?” She wrapped her hands around the steering wheel.

“Whatever it is you think you need to say to clear out those logs.”

“I don’t have anything to say. I think I just wanted to see.”

He tilted his head. “See?”

Thea met her father’s gaze directly for the first time in years. “How you look at me.”

His features slipped for the smallest of moments, and a small crack in her chest opened up. Like a fissure spitting steam from the Earth, it threatened to release the noxious gas of years of suppressed backstory. And God, did it feel good to relieve some of the pressure.

“I wanted to see if you look at me like Gavin looks at our daughters. Have you ever looked at me like that?”

He let out an impressed hmph. “And you thought you had nothing to say.”

Thea shook her head and pressed the button to start her car. “You should go in. You’re going to be late for your own wedding, and this has clearly been a mistake. I’m going to get nothing out of you that matters.”