Summer Breeze Kisses - Addison Moore Page 0,69

a joke. “Laney was right. We’re not normal.” The girl backs away, and Laney and Baya take her place. I glance to Holt and his stunned expression. “There are tons of girls your age and younger who would die for a chance with you.”

His features flex with a cloud of grief.

“Iz, I swear, she just sprung out from nowhere. I plucked her off as soon as I could.” Holt wraps his arms around me, but I’m quick to push him away.

“Look”—I nod over at Jemma’s sister, Marley—“there’s someone who’d be perfect for you. She’s nice, and I know she likes you.”

“I’m not into her. I’m into you.” Holt doesn’t take his eyes off me. “What the hell happened?” He turns to Laney. “What the hell did you say to her?”

Ryder and Bryson show up, ready for a fight.

“I have to get out of here.” I slip out of Holt’s grasp.

My phone goes off, and I fish it from my pocket. It’s a group text from Mom to my sister and me.

FYI, your father just walked through the door.

“Oh my, God,” I whisper, leaning against the wall to keep from passing out.

Laney and I head for the exit. She rides home with me, but we don’t say a word.

Somehow we’ve both fallen through the rabbit hole tonight.

Things were getting pretty wild back there, and, now—dear God, my father is back.

But something tells me it won’t be such a happy ending. Today has already been hit by a crap storm. After all, I’ve just lost the only other man that has ever meant anything to me.

I just lost Holt.

Laney and I hit the driveway and storm into the house. There’s no car out front. No news crews or crowd amassing at the door to document our miracle.

“Mom?” I shout, tearing through the empty living room and into the kitchen.

“Come here, girls.” Mom stands with her face slicked with tears.

A tall, muscular man, older with a graying goatee stands alongside her. I recognize those navy eyes, that stern, lantern-jawed face.

“Daddy.” I rush over and collapse my arms around his thick, solid waist. Here it is. I’ve finally lost my sanity and willed my father into being. Tears brim to the surface as I drown in a sea of unfathomable emotion.

Holt and Ryder burst into the room.

“Izzy?” Holt comes at me as if I might be in danger.

“I’m okay.” I wipe down my face with the back of my hand. “This is my dad.” I look up at him, this phantom, this ghost I’ve pulled from deep in my memory. “Since the minute he left, I never stopped believing he’d be back one day.” I run my hands over his shirt just to feel how real he is—how believable my fantasy had become. He’s older—with far more silver in his hair than the jet-black I remember. He looks hardened. His eyes say they’ve experienced two lifetimes worth of grief.

“Where were you? And why did it take so long for you to man up and come back?” I can hardly believe the words as they spill from my lips.

“Prison.” He doesn’t hesitate with the answer.

Ryder wraps his arms around Laney, and suddenly I want to do the same. It’s always been Laney I’ve wanted to protect against the madmen my mother brought into the house. And now I wonder if the most deranged of them all was my father.

“Your dad never left us.” Mom buries her face in her hands for a moment. “They took him away.” She looks to my sister, her lips quivering out of control. I’ve never seen my mother so distraught, so fragile. “Sweetie, we didn’t think he was coming back. Once they threw the book at him, we thought it best to just move on.”

“What happened?” I’m not so sure I want to know, but we’ve come this far.

“Killed a man in a bar fight.” He gives a weak smile that dissipates as quick as it came. “He was going after your mother, and I lost my cool. I cold-clocked him. He fell to the ground and never woke up.”

Oh God. I shoot Mom a look. “Find a man who’ll kill for you, and that’s your pot of gold, huh?” I think I’ve demystified her macabre riddle. It takes all of my effort to restrain my anger for being lied to all these years. “It sounds to me like you omitted a few important details.”

“I was never out to trick you.” Mom wags her head with attitude. “I said he