Page 70 of All You Need Is Love

“Marshall, I’m so sorry.”

Huh? “Dad—”

“No, let me say this. I should have …” His dad pinched the bridge of his nose. “I should have told you this a long time ago. And I swore if I ever saw you again, if I ever got the chance, I would.”

“You had plenty of chances. You knew where we lived.”

“You’re right. You’re right.” Dad picked up a framed photo from the other side of his computer screen. Marshall recognized it as the last family picture they’d taken. And … they looked happy.

They had been happy, as far as Marshall knew. His chest tightened at the way his father ran a finger down Mom’s cheek on the family picture.

Replacing the photo on the desk, Dad scratched behind his ear. “My son is more of a man than me.”

Had his father—his father—just complimented him?

Before Marshall could process any of this, Dad went on. “I take full responsibility for everything, Marshall. For believing the rumors about your mother. For caring so much about what other people thought that I let you go. For not being the father you needed.”

Marshall’s throat went dry.

“At first, I stayed away from you because I was embarrassed—at the scandal, yes, but also at my own actions. But that was idiotic. And I’ve accepted the ostracism between us as a just punishment.”

Is that why he was all the way out here in California, away from everything and everyone he’d ever loved? Why he looked so far from the trim, disciplined man he’d always been?

And is thiswhat Marshall’s own future held if he went right back to the path he’d been on before Walker Beach—before a woman like Shannon had looked at him and seen more than he’d seen himself?

He shuddered at the thought.

Then he refocused on his father, who tugged at the short white whiskers on his cheeks. “I shouldn’t have blamed you for Mom’s death. I’m sorry for that.”

“You were right.”

“No, I wasn’t.” He gulped back a lump. “I wish you hadn’t stayed away. That you’d fought for us. At least for me, even if you and Mom couldn’t work things out. I’ll admit, it hurt. A lot.”

His dad shook his head. “I’m so sorry, son. More than you could ever know.”

“I didn’t come here to beg an apology from you.”

“Go ahead then. Punch me.” His dad held his hands wide. “I deserve much more, I know.”

“I didn’t come for that either.”

“Then why are you here?”

Why was he here?

“You aren’t him. You can make a different choice.”Shannon’s voice echoed in his brain.

He pushed out a breath from his tight lungs. “I guess … so I don’t make the same mistakes you did. The same ones I’ve been making.”

Instead of pressing for details, his father sat back in his chair, fingers steepled together, head cocked. Almost as if he were … listening.

But his dad didn’t listen. He told. He commanded. He chided.

And yet, today, he didn’t speak.

Marshall forced his knee to stop bobbing. “Specifically, I walked away from a woman who I could love, and I realized that it’s because I have never resolved this thing between us. I became the one thing I never wanted to be.”

His dad flinched. “Me.”

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