Page 109 of Changing Tides

“No. I just don’t want you to take your battling emotions out on my ship.”

I toss the brush in the bucket and stand to face him. “What am I supposed to do, Gramps? If you were me, would you beg her to stay to make Mom and Nana happy? Forget the fact that she withheld my daughter from me? Pretend like it wasn’t all a game to her?”

“I’d simply ask myself if I’d be happy if I never saw the woman I was in love with again. If I’d be happy to never see my child again. Because this isn’t about your mom or your grandmother. This is about you andyourfamily.”

My family.

Possessiveness blooms inside me.

“I don’t know if I can trust her.”

“That’s fair. I’d have a hard time trusting a gal who put her child’s happiness and well-being ahead of her own too.”

“How was keeping Leia from me putting her first?”

“You were a stranger, son. To both of them. A mother protects her cubs from strangers.”

“I’m her dad.”

“It takes a lot more than planting a seed to be a dad, son. She took her time vetting you. Now, in a perfect world, she’d have done that before deciding to have a child with you, but we don’t live in a perfect world. The baby came first, and then she had to get to know you. I’m not saying it was right or wrong. I’m just trying to help you see the reasons she made the choices she made. Taking her time to learn what kind of man you are, opening her heart, and risking it first before letting you have access to Leia’s heart. Allowing Leia to fall in love with you naturally because she wanted to and not because she was told you were her father and she had to.”

“Fuck,” I roar as I kick the bucket across the deck. “I don’t know what to do, Gramps. I’m so damn angry, but I do love them. I want them.”

“Well then, go tell her that.”

“You make it sound simple.”

“It’s words strung together. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.”

“I’m gonna need the day off.”

He grins and slaps me on the back. “I’ll have your mom dock your paycheck.”

I race to the cottage, fueled by desire and rage. I have no plan and no idea what I’m going to say, but I’ve spent the last three days trying to come up with something and couldn’t, so I just have to wing it.

I park on the road, sprint to the front door, and knock. She doesn’t open for me, but I see the curtains shift, and I know she’s in there. I hop off the stoop and go around the side of the house. I climb the steps to the screened-in porch that leads to the kitchen.

The sliding doors are locked.

I beat my fist against the glass.

“Answer the door, Avie!”

She peeks around the wall from the living room. “Go away, Sebastian,” she calls.

“Not until you talk to me.”

She disappears, and I start pounding the glass harder.

“I swear to God, I’ll break this door,” I bellow.

“Stop it,” she yells as she reappears and makes her way over to face me. “Are you drunk?” she asks, anger sparking in her eyes.

“No, I’m not drunk.”

“You’re acting like it. I’m not going to talk to you while you’re acting like a Neanderthal.”

I lay my head against the door. “You’re pissed at me,” I murmur.

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