to utter it, you think for one second I’d take all the beauty that is Hadley Walker and make her say that cocksucker’s name when she introduces herself, sign that fuck’s name? Hell fucking no. I don’t even like doing that shit. I love your daughter, I’m hers always. But we will never get married.”
If I’d thought Jasper’s features had been set to stone when he learned I’d never marry his daughter, they turned to granite upon hearing my reason why. Then the room turned radioactive when Jasper stalked from the room.
Fucking hell.
“That wasn’t about you,” Clark told me.
“It sure as fuck was.”
“We’ve had you four years, Brady. Time for you to wake up and start paying attention. You do that, I guarantee you those nightmares you have will ease.”
I stared mutely at Clark because I’d been putting off an important conversation I needed to have with him and he’d opened the door, but I couldn’t find it in me to walk through.
I’d find out that the man Nolan Clark was, I didn’t need to walk anywhere. He’d carry me through.
“I lived with my nightmares so long most days it felt like I’d been born with them. I couldn’t think back to a time I didn’t have them. The more I fought them the worse they got. The more I tried to bury shit the worse it was until one night I had Reagan on the floor pinned under me, begging me to wake up. It was in that moment, completely wrecked, I knew I had to unpack all the shit I was burying.”
He looked around the room. “My brothers helped me with that. They listened when I needed to unburden myself. My woman helped me, too. So this is where you need to open your eyes and see us. See what we’ve given you. Then see what you’ve earned. That’s a place in our family. Long before there was you and Hadley, we’d taken you in, we’d claimed you. You are not that motherfucker’s son. You’re ours. All of ours, Brady. We claim you. You wanna marry Hadley and the only thing holding you back is giving her the Hewitt name, then give her Clark, give her Lenox, give her McCoy, give her Walker. Any of us would happily give you our name. No, son, it would be our honor to give that to you. You’re smart, so after you think on this for a while you’ll come to understand Jasper’s reaction. And it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with the asshole whose seed made you but gave you nothing else, then took everything from you. For men like us, we cannot fathom how a man could do that to his son.”
My jaw started to ache I was clenching it so tightly in an effort to stop my chin from wobbling. More emotion than I knew what to do with rushed to the surface, making me feel like I was going to come out of my skin.
“Never had a father. Never had a woman who cared about me. Never had a family beyond the sister I adored, but she was taken from me,” I rasped. “So I hope when I tell you I appreciate you taking me in and giving me what you’ve given me, it means something to me. And that comes from my soul. But you’re right, it seems I missed some stuff and I need to spend some time thinking about that. If the offer’s on the table for me to talk my shit out, I’d like to take you up on that.”
“The offer’s on the table,” Clark confirmed.
“That offer stands with all of us,” Lenox told me.
“Appreciate it.”
My cell rang, interrupting the heavy conversation. I pulled it from my pocket, saw it was Hadley, and took the call.
“Everything okay, babe?”
“You tell me. You said you were on your way home thirty minutes ago.”
“Sorry, got held up. Leaving in a minute.”
“No worries. I was just calling to make sure you hadn’t run off with a hot babe. And if by some chance you did, I’m telling you you’re missing out on the new purple panty and bra set I found. And I bought it on sale so I don’t mind if you rip them off me tonight. As a matter of fact, I’ll be disappointed if you don’t.”
“I should’ve led with this but I’m in a meeting with your uncles. Maybe we can talk about this when I get home, yeah?”
“Then