Page 42 of Fall Hard

He winced slightly, brown eyes the same shade as mine managing to look wounded at my words and that pissed me off. He had no right to be upset that was what I’d thought when he’d called. They’d been pretty clear that they wanted nothing to do with me. “I want to talk.”

I folded my arms across my chest, my heart aching as I looked at his familiar form. He had a few more lines on his face, like he’d aged several years in the past few months, and his salt and pepper beard was now more gray than black but it looked surprisingly handsome against the umber of his skin.

“Where’s Mom?”

“She’s at home.”

Home. As if that was still a word I could associate with the place that they lived, the house I’d grown up in. The silence grew thick between us with all the words I held back and everything he didn’t need to say until Jamie stepped between us.

“I think it’s best you go.” Her voice was sharp and right up until she’d said that, I would have agreed.

“No,” I said instead. “Let’s talk.”

Jamie nodded, her dark eyes worried as they assessed my face. “Okay. We’ll be outside if you need us.”

I smiled slightly and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek as she left, shutting her bedroom door softly behind her. Bryn didn’t look at me as she walked past but I caught her hand before she could leave.

“Will you stay?” I murmured quietly and her eyes flashed to mine, surprised. “Please.”

“Of course,” she said gently and I breathed a little better when she stayed by my side.

My dad watched us keenly, his eyes falling to the place where I still gripped Bryn’s hand. I held it tighter. I wasn’t going to compromise who I was for him. Not for anyone.

I only dropped Bryn’s hand when I moved to the sofa and gestured for him to sit, too.

“So, talk.”

“How have things been, Olivia?”

“Fine.” Was he seriously going to attempt small talk? “Tell me why you’re here.”

He sighed heavily. “I have a friend on the board. When we left… When you enrolled,” he corrected, as if not ready to voice the ugly truth: that when they’dabandonedme here was the more accurate descriptor. “I asked them to keep an eye on you. They said you might be kicked off your course?”

That was the reason he’d come all the way down here? I’d been avoiding making a decision about my course, but seeing as he was making his disapproval clear… “I no longer wish to continue my studies.”

Bryn watched the two of us silently, only intervening to squeeze my hand once as we became more and more formal the longer we talked.

“What I do or don’t decide to do with my life is no longer your concern. You saw to that.”

“Olivia, you will always be my concern—”

“No,” I said, standing up sharply. “You don’t get to toss me aside and then pick me up again when it suits you to control my life.”

His eyes were wide and his lips bloodless from how tightly he pressed them together. “You’re right.”

“I—what?”

“I didn’t just come here because of Radclyffe. I just… wanted to see you.”

“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask, voice hushed.

“Because you’re my daughter, damn it. Things went too far.”

I didn’t know what to say, except—“What about Mom?”

He shrugged like it didn’t particularly matter. “She agrees.”

But she wasn’t here. So in other words, she still hated that I was a lesbian and couldn’t see past that to the fact that I was her daughter. “I don’t want to be somewhere I’m not welcome.”

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