text said. Taylor was done with her own father/daughter/new girlfriend dinner. She was ready to be picked up. I sent her a text back. I was heading over soon before I put my phone away and locked gazes with my father one more time. I shook my head. “I can’t speak for Mason, but that’s my deal. I’ll be your groomsman, but nothing else.”
I said to Mason, “I gotta go. I need to pick up Taylor.”
He nodded. “See you at the house later?”
I nodded back and left. I was at the door when James called after me, “Logan.”
I paused, glancing back.
He said, “I won’t demand to be your father, but I think you do owe me a chance to be your father again.”
He already knew my answer. I opened the door to go.
“Logan.”
I was half out the door. I didn’t look back, but I did stop.
He said to my back, “I’d really like to meet Taylor one day. I’d like to meet the girl that you fell in love with.”
I looked now and said simply, “No” before I left, and I didn’t spare him another thought. As far as I was concerned, we were even now, if a son could ever be ‘even’ with his own father…
TAYLOR
Professor Gayle was dating my dad.
“Call me Carol. You must.”
She had insisted with a warm smile and a glow on her face. She was my professor. She was the reason behind Jeremy’s insistence I join the Honors Study Group, and she was now my dad’s girlfriend. I looked between the two as they stood side by side, both waiting for my reaction. And what that was...I had no idea.
I said to my dad, “I didn’t know you were dating anyone.”
He was wearing a Cain University staff shirt, tucked into jeans, and loafers. His hair was combed in place, and he seemed worried, gauging my reaction. When he called and said he was bringing someone home for me to meet, I joked to Logan that I was going to meet the girlfriend. The joke was on me.
I blinked a few times.
My dad rubbed the side of his face, his eyes darting from Carol to myself. “Yeah. Uh, well, you know how these things happen sometimes.” He coughed. “Logan Kade, honey. Logan Kade.”
My neck grew warm registering his hidden meaning. We had a similar meeting like this a month ago. My dad was not happy to find out that Logan Kade was not only my boyfriend, but the one who tackled the guy who tried to shoot me.
Rankin went to prison. Word trickled down from his boss that he was supposed to stay away from the Kades. There’d been no mention of me, and hoping to get back into his boss’ good graces, he wanted to take me out. It was supposed to be a way to get back at Delray. He thought his boss would reward him and not turn his back on him, which is what happened. The attack on me was his third strike. He had enough on his record to be sent away for half his life, and we were told by a detective that he had no allies on the inside.
And even though Logan tackled Rankin, my dad didn’t take that into account. Eric stepped in front of a bullet for me. He had the scar to prove it, along with a week stay in the hospital, but he’d be fine, too. And while I was grateful to Eric, and we were on better terms, I wasn’t going back to my first boyfriend. Ever. My dad didn’t want to accept that, even when he had no place to hope for that outcome.
I was with Logan.
He had to get used to it, but for the first week, he blamed Logan for why the attack happened in the first place. Even after Jason came back and explained the real reason—his gambling. My dad didn’t want to believe one of my best friends, so Claire was brought in for reinforcement. She was more than happy to recall Jason’s history and the poor choices he’d made since graduating high school. Jason finished it up with a grudging acknowledgement that Logan Kade wasn’t to blame, saying, “Yeah…maybe he’s not that bad of a guy. I guess. Maybe.” As he added the last ‘maybe’, he was staring right at me, and a warm feeling spread through me. He was speaking to my father, but I knew it was really to me.