Page 22 of Under the Mistletoe

“It’s not okay. Dad threw him out. He wouldn’t even listen to what he had to say.” I sobbed.

Mom guided me over to my bed, and we both sat down. She then grabbed the box of tissues and held it while I grabbed a few and dabbed my eyes and blew my nose before she continued.

“Noelle, you should have seen how upset and angry he was last night when he got home. I’ve never seen him quite like that before. He didn’t even speak to me for hours. Instead, he just sat there, mulling things over in his mind. I knew it had to be something bad. I just wasn’t expecting this. So, when he finally told me, it shocked me.”

“Well, at least you deal with things better than Dad does.”

“I suppose I do, but it’s because I didn’t see what he saw. I might not be as calm as I am had I seen it. However, I also know what it is like to like someone that your parents don’t approve of.”

I looked at my mother, unsure what she meant. Had my grandparents not approved of my father at first? If that was the case, then they both should have been a little more open to hearing us out.

“What do you mean?” I questioned, swallowing hard as I waited for her to answer me.

“We aren’t going to get into that now, Noelle. What I can assure you is that your father will never approve of you and Bentley. He will never approve of any type of relationship the two of you have, aside from the one you had prior to this.”

A sob escaped my throat as my mother sat there watching me. Was that the truth? Would my father really not approve of a man he’d been in a friendship with longer than I’d been alive? That he’d trusted with his life? That he should trust with my life?

“Mom, that isn’t fair.”

“I know, sweetheart, but it’s the way it is. He just simply won’t.”

Anger began coursing through me. This wasn’t fair. I was an adult, simple as that.

“Mom, I can love whomever I want, and I can make my own choices. Dad has no right to stand in my way of who I want to love because of an age gap.”

“I can and I will,” my father barked as he stepped inside my room. “It’s not only because of his age.”

“You won’t. We are in love.”

“Young lady, you don’t know Bentley the way I do. You don’t know the type of person he is. You see what we’ve allowed you to see, but not what is really there.”

Was my father really saying those words? Was he really trying to suggest that Bentley was a completely different man from what I knew my entire life?

“Dad, you are wrong. I think I know him very well,” I answered as I crossed my arms across my chest. “I know he is trustworthy, a gentleman, and a fighter. I know he’d never hurt me, and he’d do anything for me.”

“That is true, but what you don’t know is how he has treated women in the past. That much I know, and I refuse to have my daughter, my little girl, treated that way. There is no way in hell he will do that to you.”

I frowned, not knowing what my father was talking about, but not really caring either.

“Bentley is a good man, Dad. To be honest, I don’t care what he has done or how he has treated women in the past. His past is behind him for a reason. People can change.”

“Noelle, this is just another reason you shouldn’t get involved with him. You are young and naïve and you should care. That is a window into someone, the way he treats others, especially women.”

Anger was building inside of me. My father had zero right to tell me who I could and couldn’t love. He also had no right notto allow me to make my own mistakes, and if Bentley ended up being a mistake, at least it was on me.

“Noelle, I am going to tell you this once, and only once. I forbid you from seeing Bentley again. Your mother and I spoke about this at great lengths last night, and she feels the same as I do. Neither of us wants you to see him in any capacity. You are not to go to Dripping Whiskey ever again either, you got it.”

“No!” I screamed as I whipped around and stared at both my parents.

“Pardon?”

“I said no. I am in love with Bentley, and I want to start a family with him.”

My mother looked at me and then over at my father. When I glanced at my father, I could see the anger pouring out of him.

“Repeat that again. I swear, I thought you said you wanted to start a family with him.” My father chuckled.

“If you want to disown me, then do so. I’m in love with him, Dad. I want to start a family with him, and if you don’t want me in your life, that is fine. I have what I need with Bentley.”

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