I gave her neck a squeeze. “But, the bottom line is, in this room there are a lot of people who love you. And you have to be you, you should have fun, live your life but you have to learn to do it smart and not put yourself in a position where people will worry about you or hurt because you’re hurt.”
She bit her lip.
I leaned closer.
“Honey, you’re you and the people in this room love you because of who you are. You aren’t who your Mom says you are.”
She sucked in a sharp breath.
“She has her issues,” I went on quickly. “I know at your age it’s hard not to take them in. But they’re hers. Let her have them. Don’t take them on.”
“Tyra –”
“That,” I cut her off, “now that you can talk to me about. I’m here and we can talk about anything you want to talk about. I cannot guarantee I’ll keep it from your Dad. What I can guarantee is, whatever I do, it’ll be in your best interests. It’s up to you if you want to trust me again. All I can say is, you can. I’ll have your back. It’ll just be my decision how I have your back.”
Her lips twitched before she replied, “Yeah, you kinda proved that last night.”
“Kinda,” I agreed, grinning.
Then her pretty face lost all its humor and she whispered, “I can’t go back to her.”
Tack joined the conversation at this juncture.
“You’re not.”
I dropped my hand from Tabby’s neck and we both looked at Tack.
“But, it’s not official, like, court official and if she gets wound up and –” Tabby started.
Tack turned fully to his daughter. “Darlin’, you’re not goin’ back to your Mom.”
“But it’s not official, Dad,” she returned.
Oh boy. There it was.
She’d been worried about this just like me.
Tack studied her.
Then he declared, “Right. So I’ll make it official.”
I blinked.
“You will?” Rush asked.
Tack shrugged and turned back to the bowl he was whipping pancake batter in as he muttered, “Yeah.”
“Court official?” Tabby asked and Tack looked over his shoulder at his daughter.
“Legal, babe, yeah.”
Tabby’s shoulders slumped with relief.
Yep. She’d been worried about this.
As for me, this was another thing Tack had to worry about which I didn’t think was great.
Tack turned away from the bowl, moved to the counter opposite Tabby and me and put his hands on it.