Page 20 of Entwined Hearts

“Maddy’s doing fine,” I say.

“Because you’re playing daddy,” he says.

“Someone has to,” I say, my voice cold.

“So, what’ll happen when you take off climbing again?”

My gut burns like he cut me. Paige was the one to urge me to contact Marvik when we returned. But only because she promised she would be okay. “Paige can manage,” I say, but my words sound hollow. “I won’t be gone that long.”

I eye Paige, but I know she won’t speak up.

Dad looks like he’s about to say something else, but he shakes his head and returns his attention to his food.

“Done!” Maddy says from her end at the table. “Can I have a squeegee? Please?”

Paige sighs. “All right. But clear your plate first.”

Maddy slides out of her booster, carefully carries her plate to the counter, then pulls out the container of homemade popsicles from the freezer.

Paige’s phone chirps, and she jumps up to grab it off the counter. “It’s him,” she says, glancing at the screen, her face tight. She answers the call, then disappears into her bedroom.

“A family should be together,” my dad says, his watery eyes lasering in my direction.

“Not if it’s tearing them apart,” I reply.

“Just because he has problems doesn’t mean she should abandon him.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” I glare back.

“Scott’s a good man.”

While I believe that to be true, it doesn’t make this any easier. It never has.

“He’s serving our country,” he says. “She needs to serve him.”

“Don’t even go there,” I say, knowing this road we’re heading down will only end in disaster.

“She was doing fine until you showed up.”

If being bruised and terrified counts as fine, then yeah, everything was peachy.

“Paige asked me to come,” I say.

He gives me a look that sends warning bells to my fists.

“Since when did you ever care about anyone but yourself?”

I see a red so bright I have to clamp down on the roar forcing its way up my throat. Of course he shoves the one thing I can’t defend back in my face.

Paige steps from the bedroom, her eyes filled with anguish. “Scott’s coming home.”

I close my eyes, cursing softly.

Six

Colby

The time until the climbing trip to the Buttermilks drag so slowly I swear I can feel my hair grow. Anya’s invitation loops through my mind almost daily. Does she just need a partner? Or is there something more?

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