Page 32 of Single Dad Christmas

He pushed the thoughts aside.

“I was scared,” she said, simply, and then closed her eyes and sobbed. “I’m such a pathetic idiot.”

“No,” Noah groaned, the words like knives in his gut.

“I am. Everyone’s going to know I couldn’t handle it.”

“Hey,” he put his hand on her knee—the only part of her that wasn’t all hunched up. “You did the right thing to call me,” he said, with utter confidence. “And believe me, no one is going to even remember this by the time school goes back. There’ll have been a dozen other parties with a million other things to talk about. Don’t worry, Tay. It’s all going to be okay.”

She was silent for the rest of the car trip. He didn’t want to think about the alcohol fog he could smell surrounding her, nor how she’d stumbled a little when she’d come to the car. He didn’t want to think about how unsafe she was, being drunk in a house of a hundred strangers, most of them over eighteen.

How the hell had she even gotten into the party? Who’d invited her? Who was she hanging out with? He knewnothingabout her, clearly, despite his best efforts to be involved.

A bottomless pit, indeed.

Once inside the garage, he cut the engine and stepped out of the car, coming around to her side and opening the door. She was half asleep. Or passed out.

He reached down and unclipped her seatbelt and she looked up at him with the same expression she’d had as a three-year-old who’d been woken early from naps. His heart squeezed and exploded. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for Taylor. Nothing.

“Okay, pumpkin. Let’s get you into bed. Everything will feel better in the morning.”

“Dad—I’m—,” she closed her eyes then and he sighed. He had no idea what she’d been about to say, but it didn’t matter. He lifted her easily and cradled her to his chest, carrying her with the same care he’d exercised when she’d been a tiny newborn baby, and he’d thought she was so precious and fragile that he might accidentally break her.

He contemplated waking her, so she could get changed, but the best thing for her was to sleep this off, so instead, he laid her into the bed, removed her shoes, and placed a glass of water on the bedside table. Then, he leaned down and kissed her forehead, hoping she knew just how damned much he loved her.

“Louisa,”his touch was gentle. Just a fingertip on her shoulder, gliding over her skin. She was so tired. Her whole body felt heavy. Her mind, too. But her heart was light. She smiled into the darkness, through the exhaustion.

“What time is it?”

“I’m sorry to wake you.”

Something in his voice did exactly that, though. She blinked blearily, trying to bring him into focus. “What’s happened?”

Silence.

She reached out for the lamp she remembered seeing on his bedside tables and pulled a cord. A soft warm glow meant she could see Noah’s face. The tension and tightness in his whole body.

“Noah?”

“It’s Taylor.”

Louisa’s gut twisted with worry. “What about Taylor?”

“She’s fine, but I had to go get her and her friend from a huge party. I’m pretty sure she’s drunk. So was her friend.”

“Oh, gosh.”

“So she’s here, and I thought?—,”

“I should go,” Louisa said instantly, even though there was a part of her that rebelled against that. Even though there was a part of her that wasangryabout that. But Noah’s relief was obvious.

“I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just?—,”

“No, it’s fine. You don’t need to apologise,” she said, thinking how much she wanted him to, even when this obviously wasn’t his fault. “These things happen.” Especially when you started dating men with teenage daughters. “Really, it’s no big deal,” she promised.

“It’s just—I know I said I wanted you to meet her, but she’s—tonight was?—,”

“No, I get it,” she said, something strange and heavy overtaking her heart, ice in her veins. “We already agreed we’d keep this on the down low; meeting her wasn’t part of it. It’s no big deal.”

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