Page 115 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

“No explanation needed,” said Jonathan gruffly, his posture going rigid. “Any boy gets near you, and I’ll break them in half.”

Hannah laughed, clearly enjoying having fun at his expense. “You can take it easy. I don’t actually date. I find boys to be an unnecessary distraction from my educational goals. I want to be a partner in my own law firm one day. Boys could get in the way of that.”

“Oh thank God,” said Jonathan, touching his chest as if he might be having sudden-onset heart attack symptoms.

It was impossible to keep from laughing. As I thought more about my daughter’s career aspirations, Stoker’s novel came to mind, and the fact Stoker had said Jonathan was a lawyer as well. “She gets that from you, doesn’t she?”

He nodded, appearing a bit misty-eyed himself. “Yes. And my eyes.”

Hannah beamed at him. “And your hair. Noticed that right away when I got here. Can we leave your bachelor pad now?”

Jonathan grunted. “It’s not my—”

I laughed. “She’s joking.”

“Oh,” he said with a nod, still looking a bit green around the edges. “Yes, let’s get out of here.”

Hannah stepped away from me and hurried over to the fresh flowers. She picked them up and brought them to me. “Here.”

I took them and leaned toward her, kissing the side of her head. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Mom,” Hannah replied before stepping toward Jonathan. She hesitated a second.

He stilled, and I watched him draw in a deep breath and hold it as if afraid to move or make a sound.

Hannah offered a tight-lipped smile, lowered her head, and then leaned, pressing her shoulder against his upper arm. Her head came to a rest on his shoulder. That left her facing in one direction at his side, her back to me, and him facing me dead on.

He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, reaching slowly with his free hand toward her back. He placed his hand on her upper back, and she tensed at first before relaxing against him.

It was a rather unconventional embrace, but it worked for them.

Jonathan let out a shaky breath as he stood there, his eyes closed, his head upward, and his hand on his daughter’s back. “Thank you,” he mouthed, and I knew he wasn’t talking to me or Hannah.

I brought the flowers toward my face, smelling them as I struggled to keep from bursting into a fit of tears and happy gasps at the sight. For eighteen years, I’d worried about who her father was and if he would impact her life negatively in any way. If I’d learn he was some evil villain, or if one day I’d stumble upon him to find he had an entire other family and wanted nothing to do with his daughter.

Seeing the two of them there, bonding in a way that worked for them, nearly broke me while also managing to fill a void in my soul that I hadn’t been aware existed.

Something scurried out of the flowers and over my hand before racing down my arm. When I saw it was a centipede, I lost my shit, threw the flowers, and screamed, breaking the special moment.

“Willa?” asked Jonathan, looking confused.

Hannah swung around and saw the bug. She caught Jonathan’s arm as he tried to run at me. “Bug.”

As I looked down at the flowers on the cave floor, another bug raced out of them. My gaze whipped to Jonathan.

He licked his lips, fighting a smile. “Love, how about I get you new, bug-free ones, and we just leave those there?”

Hannah snorted. “Good thinking. She hates bugs. Hey, why are there broken chains?” She paled and looked toward Jonathan. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know what kind of weird things my father is into.”

He shook his head fast. “No! It’s not that. I didn’t chain her up. I ripped them off her right before we…” He snapped his mouth shut, took Hannah by the elbow, and marched her to me. He bent, kissed my head, and then shocked me by kissing the top of Hannah’s head too. “Willa, take our daughter outside and wait for me there. I need to get my boots on.”

ChapterThirty-Six

Willa

I followedbehind Hannah as she made her way out of the cave. We headed down the pathway that ran against the rocky exterior of the cave before making it to the edge of the river.

Hannah pushed her damp hair back from her face and shivered.

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