Open Your Heart (Kings Grove #4) - Delancey Stewart Page 0,65

there.

“You looked happy,” he said again.

“Oh my God, Dad.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Harper. I made so many mistakes.”

He had. And so had my mother. I honestly couldn’t piece it all together, couldn’t figure out how I felt about everything he’d just said. I’d need some time to think about it, to understand. But I did feel the anger I’d held for him begin to slip away.

We rode in a silence for a long time then, letting the trees grow and the hills turn green on the sides of the road as the valley floor dropped away and the mountains rose around us. We wound around the foothills toward the mountains that held Kings Grove protected like a jewel between their soaring peaks, and I had the distinct sense of coming home.

Everything my father had said, everything I was understanding now about my life…it made me wonder how much I really wanted to leave this place. It had been taken away from me once. And maybe I never would have stayed—maybe my instinct would always have been to find something bigger, something that was my own. But now, after the things I’d done and seen, the idea of Kings Grove wrapped around me like a warm afghan knitted by someone’s grandmother, and I was reluctant to give that away.

“I might go to Austin sooner than I’d planned,” I said, trying out the words as much to feel my own reaction as to see my dad’s.

He looked over at me. “Oh yeah?”

“Maybe.” I swallowed, finding a new respect for the man who’d brought me back here, the father who’d finally found a way to bring me home. “Would that be okay?”

His lips pressed into a line and he didn’t answer for a long minute. “Harper,” he finally said. “Your life is your own. And if you choose to leave again, it’s fine. This time it will be your choice.”

My choice. My life had been controlled in ways I’d never even realized. But now, I really did have to make a choice. Maybe for the first time ever.

When Dad dropped me off at the big house, the first thing I did was take a deep breath, filling my lungs with the clean crisp mountain air and closing my eyes as I let it work through me. It was a little like drinking water first thing in the morning when you can feel it sliding through you, slicking over parched dry spots as it swirls down your throat. I felt the air work through my lungs and all the way out to my fingertips. I was glad to be back.

There was a light on in Cam’s house, but that had been true since the dogs had come to live with him. He could play tough all he wanted, but he wouldn’t leave them in the dark if he was going to be out at night. I’d even stepped up on to the porch during the day to hear the television on low. I’d peered through the windows to see a couple of the curious pups sitting and staring up at the big screen, heads cocked to the side as they’d watched.

My own house was dark, and since it wasn’t nearly late enough for Tuck to have turned in, I guessed he was out somewhere. I wished he were home. I didn’t really want to be alone. There was too much confusion flipping around inside me, and while I didn’t necessarily want to talk about it, I also didn’t want to be alone to think about it.

I was just finishing up getting my stuff put away and trying to organize myself for work the next day when Tuck and Cam came in, laughing and loud.

I leaned over the railing from the landing upstairs. “Hey guys.”

Tuck’s easy smile remained, but Cam’s dropped from his face, and it occurred to me he wasn’t happy to see me. The idea stung like a slap. He’d been dismissive when I’d said goodbye before going to Austin, and now he looked almost upset to see me again. I swallowed hard, pushing down the hurt.

“Hey you,” Tuck called up. “We’ve got a ton of film to show you.”

“Oh yeah?” I started down the stairs. Though Cam hadn’t said a word, his eyes stayed on me the whole way down, and when I stopped in front of him at the bottom, I couldn’t help staring into those piercing blue eyes for a minute, trying to see what was going on