Page 57 of Save Me

"And did trying to pay the debt help?"

"Fuck no." I swallow. "Isla did."

He jerks his chin in a nod. "She has a way of doing that. She helps without even realizing she's doing it. It's just who she is."

"Yeah." I stare out over the grounds, watching wind rustle leaves in the branches of the willow planted in the middle of the lawn. "I've fucked up a lot in my life, Mac. I'll probably fuck up a thousand more times, but I love your daughter. And I'm trying like hell to be a man she can be proud to call hers." I cut my eyes at him. "I'm sorry as hell I drove away that day and Bella ended up embroiled in all of this. Had I known…"

"I know," he says, holding my gaze. "I have contacts at the police department, Brantley. I knew before I ever came to see you that day."

"Fuck," I whisper, my heart in a vise.

"Anyone could have made the same mistake you did. Not saying I'm not mad as hell, but my anger was never directed at you. Bellamy is the one who put her in danger. He's the reason all this shit happened," Mac growls. "He's the one I'm fucking livid at. But you can't rail at a goddamn ghost. I'm thinking maybe you know that better than most."

"Yeah, I do."

"I'm not going to ask what he did to you. I can guess. It's always the same story with motherfuckers like that," Mac says, his voice quiet. "But I am going to ask…can you put it behind you? Can you learn to be at peace with it? Because that's what you're going to have to do if you want to love my daughter the way she deserves. You can't love her—reallylove her—if you've still got one foot in the past."

"I'm working on it, Mac. I…fuck," I huff. "I started attending meetings again. I've been in therapy for years. I've got an appointment with a psychiatrist to figure out the rest of it."

"Good," he says, pride in his eyes. And then he narrows them on me. "I won't allow you to break her heart. She's had enough of that in her life. You love her the way she deserves, and you and I won't have a problem. But if you fuck up, drinking is going to be the least of your problems."

"Understood," I say, grateful as hell that he's giving me a chance. I clear my throat. "For the record, she was nervous the whole way over here, thinking you were going to be angry with her for not telling you about me sooner. I'd appreciate it if you took it easy on her about it. She didn't tell you because she didn't want to disappoint you."

"That's not true," she says from behind me.

I spin around to find her standing a few feet behind us, her lips pulled down into a frown. "I wasn't afraid he'd be disappointed," she says softly. "You aren't a disappointment, Brantley. I was afraid he'd ship me off to Texas with Bella because he told me to leave it alone, and I clearly didn't do that." She shrugs, grimacing. "I couldn't risk leaving you behind, but youaren'ta disappointment."

"You should have told me the truth, sweetheart," Mac says, his voice soft when he speaks to her. "I don't like knowing you've been dealing with all of this—both of you—and I didn't have a fucking clue."

"I'm sorry," she whispers. "I just…I didn't want to lose him. You shipped Bella off. I didn't want to be next."

Mac sighs, pulling her forward into his arms. "I didn't ship Bella off for the hell of it, Isla. I sent her because your sister doesn't always know when to stop. She doesn't always recognize danger, even when it's right in front of her. She's too goddamn fierce to realize that she's not infallible. That's not you. You aren't hellbent on conquering the entire fucking world singlehandedly. You know when to back off and when to protect yourself and your heart. She doesn't. She would have gotten herself hurt because she never learned that it doesn't have to be her versus everything."

"She knows, Daddy," Isla says. "Cormac is teaching her."

"Yeah. I know." Mac sighs like he's fucking miserable.

Isla squeezes him tight. "I love you."

"That's good, baby girl. I love you too. But you still haven't told me about that ring on your finger."

Fuck.

Isla squeaks, shoving her hand behind her back like that's going to undo the fact that he's already seen it. I'm betting he clocked it as soon as she got out of the damn truck. He's just been biding his time, waiting for her to tell him.

"Start talking, Isla Marie," he growls.

"Please don't be mad," she pleads, her bottom lip quivering. "We came to tell you, but then got sidetracked. And I came out here to tell you but got sidetracked again!"

"You're supposed to tell mebeforeyou get married, not after it's done." He cuts his eyes in my direction. "And you're supposed to ask for permission to marry my daughter."

Fucking hell.

"You always told us that we aren't property," Isla says. "We're our own people, and people don't belong to other people. You said it wasn't up to you to decide our futures for us, it was up to us. So he didn't need your permission, Daddy. He needed mine."

"I knew all those lessons about independence would come back to bite me in the ass one day," Mac mutters.

Isla smiles sweetly at him.

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