Lick (Stage Dive, #1)(80)

“I won’t have you throwing away your future for him,” he thundered.

“Him?” I asked, horrified at his tone. Anger had been pooling inside of me all night, filling me up. No wonder I’d barely touched my dinner. “The person you’ve both been unconscionably rude to for the past hour? David is the last person who would expect me to throw away anything that mattered to me.”

“If he cared for you he would walk away. Look at the damage he’s done.” A vein bulged on the side of my father’s forehead as he stood too. Everyone else watched in stunned silence. It could be said I’d gone the bulk of my life backing down. But those had all been about things that didn’t matter, not really. This was different.

“You’re wrong.”

“You’re out of control,” my father snarled, pointing his finger at me.

“No,” I said to my father. Then I turned and said what I should have said a long time ago to my husband. “No, I’m not. What I am is the luckiest f*cking girl in the entire world.”

A smile lit David’s eyes. He sucked in his bottom lip, trying to keep the happy contained in the face of my parents’ fury.

“I am,” I said, tearing up and not even minding for once.

He pushed back his chair and rose to his feet, facing me across the table. The promise of unconditional love and support in his eyes was all the answer I needed. And in that one perfect moment, I knew everything was fine. We were fine. We always would be if we stuck together. There wasn’t a single doubt inside of me. In silence, he walked around the table and stood at my side.

The look on my parents’ faces … whoa. They always said it was best to rip the Band-aid off all at once, though, get it over and done with. So I did.

“I don’t want to be an architect.” The relief in finally saying it was staggering. I’m almost certain my knees knocked. There’d be no backing down, however. David took my hand in his, gave it a squeeze.

My father just blinked at me. “You don’t mean that.”

“I’m afraid I do. It was your dream, Dad. Not mine. I should never have gone along with this. That was my mistake and I’m sorry.”

“What will you do?” asked my mother, her voice rising. “Make coffee?”

“Yes.”

“That’s ridiculous. All that money we spent—” Mom’s eyes flashed in anger.

“I’ll pay it back.”

“This is insane,” Dad said, his face going pale. “This is about him.”

“No. This is about me, actually. David just made me start questioning what I really wanted. He made me want to be a better person. Lying about this, trying to fit in with your plan for so long … I was wrong to do that.”

My father glared at me. “I think you should leave now, Evelyn. Think this over carefully. We’ll talk about it later.”

I guessed we would, but it wouldn’t change anything. My good-girl status had well and truly taken a dive.

“You forgot to tell her that whatever she decides you still love her.” Nathan got to his feet, pulling out Lauren’s chair for her. He faced my father with his jaw set. “We’d better go too.”

“She knows that.” Face screwed up in confusion, Dad stood at the head of the table.

Nate grunted. “No, she doesn’t. Why do you think she fell into line for so many years?”

Mum knotted her hands.

“That’s ridiculous,” sputtered Dad.

“No, he’s right,” I said. “But I guess everyone has to grow up sometime.”

Dad’s eyes turned even colder. “Being an adult is not about turning your back on your responsibilities.”

“Following in your footsteps is not my responsibility,” I said, refusing to back down. The days of my doing that were gone. “I can’t be you. I’m sorry I wasted so many years and so much of your money figuring that out.”

“We only want what’s best for you,” said Mom, voice thick with emotion.

“I know you do. But that’s for me to decide now.” I turned back to my husband, keeping a firm hold on his hand. “And my husband isn’t going anywhere. You need to accept that.”

Nate walked around the table, gave Mom a kiss. “Thanks for dinner.”

“One day,” she said, looking between the both of us, “when you have your own children, then you’ll understand how hard it is.”

Her words pretty much wrapped things up. My dad just kept shaking his head and huffing out breaths. I felt guilty for disappointing them. But not bad enough to return to my former ways. I’d finally reached an age where I understood that my parents were people too. They weren’t perfect or omnipotent. They were every bit as fallible as me. It was my job to judge what was right.

I picked up my handbag. It was time to go.

David nodded to both my parents and escorted me out. A sleek new silver Lexus Hybrid sat waiting by the curb. It wasn’t a big SUV like the ones Sam and the other bodyguards used. This one came in a more user-friendly size. Behind us, Nate and Lauren climbed into his car. Nothing much was said. Mom and Dad stood in the house’s open doorway, dark silhouettes care of the light behind them. David opened the door for me and I climbed into the passenger seat.