Thrive (Addicted, #4)(123)

Because the backdoor, nearest Daisy, opens. The cameras go wild behind Ryke. Yelling so many things at once and trying to edge closer to catch a picture of Daisy. She kneels on the seat while Ryke stands right outside the car.

“Ryke, I’m so sor—”

He leans down and kisses her, with the door purposefully ajar so the cameras can capture the moment. No shame. Good for him. Though their embrace is a little much for me. I have to look away when it’s clear his tongue slips into her mouth.

My father is really quiet in the front seat. He keeps clearing his throat like he’s choked up. I frown, what happened in the jail?

After another second, Ryke slips in the car and slams the door closed. Daisy is about to slide in the middle seat between me and my brother, but Ryke pulls her onto his lap. He whispers in her ear, and then she nods and rests her head on his shoulder.

“You okay?” I ask Ryke as Anderson speeds off towards his apartment complex or maybe my dad’s house. One of the two. The paparazzi pile into their cars quickly, but we have distance on them.

“I’ll be fine,” he says, hugging Daisy closer to his chest.

I notice that one of his hands rubs her lower back in a circular motion. He finally looks at me. “Dad has something to tell you.”

My brows furrow, and I just wait for my father to speak.

He audibly coughs into his hand, definitely choked up now.

Ryke glowers at the headrest. “Dad,” he says through gritted teeth.

And then my father rotates in his seat to face me. His dark brown hair seems grayer by his temples, his face more severe and forehead more wrinkled.

In one breath, he says, “I’m going to get sober.”

My mouth slowly falls. I had to hear him wrong. “What was that?” My pulse kicks up a notch. What was that?

He rolls his eyes. “You’re really going to make me say it again?”

I freeze in shock. I contemplate what happened, how he refused to mumble the words aloud with this back turned to me. My dad isn’t a coward, but this is a proclamation so weighted that I can’t accept it fully.

“Yeah,” I snap. “Say it again.”

He sighs heavily. “I’m not going to drink anymore, son.”

I scrutinize him for a long moment. And come to one conclusion. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“You and me both,” he mutters but determination creases his brow.

Our father wouldn’t do this out of the kindness of his black fucking heart. So I look to Ryke. “What’d you do?” I ask.

Jonathan answers first. “He’s going to be a part of this family.” He turns back around and I hear him say under his breath, “Like he was always supposed to be.”

I read between the lines.

To have his son back in his life, my dad is willing to be sober.

It’s a hell of a declaration, and I don’t even mind that he wasn’t willing to do that for me all these years. I just mull over the possibility that I may one day see the impossible. My dad without his whiskey.





{ 61 }

2 years : 03 months November





LILY CALLOWAY


I have been included into the boy club by accident. No one noticed me except Lo, but he’s not about to kick me out of my father’s den. This has to mean that my invisibility powers are blooming. Maybe my baby is magical. The thought almost makes the pregnancy not so bad.

“What are you wearing?” Lo asks his brother with a frown.

Connor, Lo, and Sam dragged Ryke into the den the moment he parked his Ducati in my parent’s driveway, Daisy with him. The Sunday luncheon starts in thirty minutes, so I thought it was a success that he showed up on time or even at all, clearly putting effort into his relationship with my little sister. He accepted my dad’s invitation even after my mom had Ryke thrown in jail. This was my father’s version of waving a white flag.

Ryke making peace and putting the issue behind him actually eases a lot of tension. And I know he’s doing this to try to repair the bridge between Daisy and my parents, the one that’s been crumbling.

“It’s lunch,” Ryke says like they’re crazy. “I’m wearing a fucking shirt and pants.”

All of the other guys are dressed in button-downs and black slacks. “It’s formal,” Lo tells his brother. “I thought you realized that.”

Ryke glares at the ceiling and then checks his watch. “I don’t have time to go back.”

“You can switch with me,” Lo says, already unbuttoning his shirt. I sit on the armrest of the couch, watching my boyfriend shed his clothes. I cross my ankles, and Lo glances back at me knowingly. The corner of his lips rise.

Yes. I am very, very attracted to you. But my traitorous-self stops fawning over his defined muscles and sculpted chest. My smile fades. Lo frowns at me, but he’s distracted by his brother, who anxiously runs his hands through his hair. He really needs to stop messing with the strands. My parents don’t like the whole disheveled, I-just-rolled-out-of-bed look.

“Aren’t you going to get in trouble for wearing a regular T-shirt?” he asks Lo like what the fuck? Seemingly, there is a flaw in this plan.

But Sam clears it up. “He’s Loren Hale.” Yep, that about describes the difference nicely.