Page 89 of Born Daddy

“She has. I don’t think she ever cared much for Hartford, and I think the familiar will do her some good.”

“Is he staying in Connecticut?”

Rogan’s dad grunted. “Who gives a shit what he does?”

He had to chuckle. In some ways, he and his dad were very much alike. “True. So, what’s up?”

“Well…” His dad sighed. “I don’t want you to think I’m meddling where I’m not welcome, but I need to hear this from you personally—not from your mother.”

Rogan’s gut clenched again. He’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop from the moment he discovered that Mitch had blabbed to everyone from the old neighborhood about him and Tate and the fight.

“Whatever you need to ask me, that’s fine. I’ll give it to you straight.”

“I appreciate that, son.” He cleared his throat. “This kid—I’m sorry. Tate. Are you sure?”

So many unspoken questions were contained in that simple statement. Rogan imagined his Dad wanted the answers to them all.

“Yeah. I am. He doesn’t know about any of it and was used by Cam. Thank God he was never abused or hurt the way Cam hurt the others. To be honest, I still believe he’s lucky to have escaped with his life.”

Rogan rubbed his forehead, absentmindedly smoothing out the creases that had to be there. “As for everything else, yes. I’m sure. He’s the one, Dad.”

After a few beats, his dad responded. “Then that’s all I need to know. I’m happy for you. For what it’s worth, he seems like a nice young man.” His dad let out one of the sighs that always signaled the subject was closed and it was time to move on to the next thing. “Will you both be coming to the lake for Labor Day weekend?”

Something happened to Rogan that hadn’t in years. Heat rose to his face. From now on, any discussions of weekends would make him hard. They’d have to figure out how to handle family get-togethers.

“Absolutely. Tate loved it.”

“Good. Bring sleeping bags if you guys want to stay over.”

Rogan’s eyes burned, the acceptance of both Tate and their relationship couched in the offer was more than he’d hoped for so soon.

“Thanks, Dad.” He cleared the emotion from his throat. “We’ll be looking forward to it.”

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