Page 109 of Perfect Pursuit

“Questionable, how?”

“I can’t share.”

She flicks her middle finger at me, dismissing me.

“The fact she was a phone sex operator didn’t have you worried?” I shout, needing to redirect some of my righteous pain before I collapse from beneath the weight of it. Surely someone can see where that might have derailed me.

Austyn stares at me, slack jawed. I’m certain I got my point across when she bursts into gales of laughter. “Oh, that’s rich. Truly.”

“What’s so damn funny?”

“Fallon’s done nothing more than what I do.”

“I think it’s a bit more than that,” I emphasize.

“All she had to do is sell her voice, Uncle Ethan. What’s the big fucking difference?”

“You don’t have men jacking off to yours,” I shout.

“Like hell I don’t,” my niece purrs.

Her husband growls. “Thanks for that mental image, baby.”

“You’re a musician!” I bellow.

“So? I still do it for money.”

“So did she,” I grit out.

“Her reasons behind it are a lot more noble than mine and completely cancel out any potential morally gray ick factors, in my opinion.”

I’m about to point them out when Jesse, the fucker, raises his hand. I bite out, “What?”

“I just want to know how you were even aware of it.”

“Stay out of this, Jess,” I warn him.

Instead of helping, their lack of anger over the revelation about what could have been my and Fallon’s coming out only fuels my own. “You don’t know everything you think you do about Fallon, Austyn.”

Austyn rolls her eyes at me. “Come on, Uncle E. There isn’t a thing about Fal I don’t know.”

“How about the fact I’ve been talking to her constantly since you two graduated high school?”

My niece snorts in derision. “Like I didn’t figure that out? Please. She’d get this stupid ass smile on her face when you’d text her.”

My hands slap down on the table before I thunder, “And you were okay with it?”

“As long as you cared about her, then why wouldn’t I be?” Austyn confounds me by asking in return.

Even as my sister nods emphatically along with my niece’s words, I feel the blood drain from my face. My brother-in-law, Beckett, just shakes his head before offering up his own words of experience. “Ethan? I rarely offer advice as I’m not the best role model?—”

“What do you have to say about this?” I snarl.

“If you don’t want to wonder what every day of your life could have been like with her, I’d be doing everything possible to fix your mistake. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself twenty years later waking up at night grateful you were gifted a second chance.”

Without a word, I shove back from the table. Just as I make it to the door, one voice stops me. “Ethan.”

God, my father. He hasn’t butted in until now other than to ask about Fallon’s mother.

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