Page 137 of Smitten with the Single Dad

“But don’t you love us?” Jake asked. “What did we do wrong? What can we do to make you stay?”

She squeezed him into her tighter. “Oh,orsetto, I love you more than my heart has space. My heart has grown bigger to accommodate my love for you. You have done nothing wrong. Your love and kindness has helped me more than you will ever know.”

“Then why are you leaving?” Griffon asked before looking to Wyatt. “Do something, Dad.”

“She’s made up her mind, Griff. We all knew this was temporary.” His throat was tight, and his body vibrated with a thousand different emotions as he sat there preparing for the fallout when she left and he had to pick up the pieces of his sons’ eviscerated hearts.

“Can’t you stay a few more days?” Griffon begged. “Please?”

“I wish I could. But I will come back to visit you. And we can write letters to each other.”

He shook his head. “It won’t be the same.”

There was a knock at the door and Wyatt cleared his throat, then got up to answer it. The whole family was there. Bennett and Justine with the girls, Brooke and Clint with Talia, Dom with Silas, and even Jagger. Burke and Evie were behind them all.

“We came to say goodbye,” Brooke said, stepping into the house. She shot Wyatt a glare that he didn’t understand, then she rolled her eyes and shook her head. Justine did something similar.

What the hell was that about?

Both Griffon and Jake were crying as Vica stood up from the couch. She hugged and kissed them both several times before finally making her way to the door where she went through every family member and said goodbye. Lastly, was Wyatt.

It was like hugging a stranger, and he hated every second of it.

“You’re a wonderful man, Wyatt McEvoy. Thank you for saving me.”

He pressed his lips together. “Thanks, uh … for your help in the restaurant.”

Her brows hiked up her forehead and her eyes widened before she nodded, pressed her lips together in a small smile, and said, “You’re welcome.”

He could have sworn he heard Clint, Bennett, Brooke, and Justine all scoff.

“I’m taking Evie over to Seattle tonight for a deposition in the morning,” Burke said, a sling across his chest to hold his left arm in place where he’d been shot in the shoulder. “So I offered to give Vica a ride.”

Wyatt had been so caught up with his surprise at her decision to leave that he hadn’t even asked if she needed a ride to the ferry, or how she intended to get there.

Pulling in a deep breath, Vica gave him one last smile, leaned in for another hug, kissed him on both cheeks, and stepped over the threshold and out into the driveway.

Burke snagged Wyatt’s gaze and shook his head, adding an eye roll for good measure.

What the fuck was everyone’s problem?

Griffon and Jake came to stand by Wyatt on either side of him and he wrapped his arms around his sons, each boy trembling as they fought, and failed, to hold back their tears.

“I love you, Vica,” Griffon said.

“I love you too, my little wolf.”

Her gaze only flicked to Wyatt’s briefly before she nodded at Burke, and he took her duffle bag from her and tossed it into the bed of his truck. She climbed into the backseat, and Evie and Burke climbed into the front.

The whole McEvoy clan stood in the driveway and watched as they drove away, hearts crumbling to resemble the gravel beneath their feet.

When Burke’s license plate disappeared, so did Dom, Jagger, Bennett, Clint, and the girls. Only Brooke and Justine remained. Along with Wyatt and his boys.

Brooke gave Wyatt a look. “You never said it back.”

Wyatt wrinkled his nose. “Huh?”

“When she told you she loved you. You never said it back,” Justine said.

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