Page 77 of You Loved Me Once
Daddy hobbles a little down the stairs. “Well, I’ll be,” he chuckles. “The girl listened to me for the first time in her life.”
“Dad!”
Westin laughs and starts to walk toward him. “Hi, Mr. Adams, it’s great to meet you. I’m Westin Grant.”
They shake hands and Dad slaps him on the shoulder. “It’s great to meet you too, son. Come on in. You must be tired from your drive.”
“It’s only a little over an hour, Daddy,” I scoff.
“One would never know that based on how hard it is for you to get your ass out here and see your old man,” my father tosses back.
Touché.
“Here we go,” I mutter as we head into the house.
“I like him,” Westin whispers.
“Give it time. You’ll change your mind.”
We enter, and sure enough, the house is trashed. How, in one week, they were able to reverse everything I did baffles me. I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I want to scream at him, but it won’t help. Instead, I move things off the kitchen table and chairs and take a seat. Westin and Dad follow me and now it’s time for the talk.
“Dad, why didn’t you let the cleaners in?”
He turns quickly, glaring at me. “I told you before. This is your mother’s house and I’m not letting some strangers come in and move her stuff.”
Tears fill my eyes, but I shove them down. “I understand that, but the house has to be cleaned. Did you eat the food?”
He curses under his breath. My father and I had an amazing relationship that’s been reduced to me having to scold him. This is not what I envisioned. “I eat every damn day, Serenity. I don’t need you telling me what to do.”
Westin’s hand grips my thigh and he clears his throat. “Ren tells me that you fix cars?”
Dad nods once. “Since I can remember, I’ve been fixing engines.”
“My dad has a love for cars. I actually restored my first car.” Wes sounds proud.
I glance over at him since he just mentioned getting a new car at sixteen.
“Really?” Pride fills my father’s tone. “How about that?”
Dad gets to his feet and heads to the fridge. He grabs a soda for himself and offers one to Westin.
Cars, bikes, and my mother is all anyone needs to talk about to win Dad’s heart. So far, Westin is off to a good start and I didn’t even tell him what to say.
I lean in, speaking so only he can hear, “I thought you got a new car.”
He whispers back, “I got two. One I could drive and one I had to fix.”
Two cars for his sixteenth birthday? Who does that?
Westin and my dad start to talk about the car he restored. I expected Westin to be trying to get back to Chicago by now, but instead, he’s looking relaxed and carefree in the chair at the kitchen table. My heart, which has been trying so hard to not lose another piece, is pulling away and seeking him out.
I get up and start cleaning a few more things. This place is a mess and I really need to get to work making it livable.
The two of them talk and I lean against the counter with a smile. My father has never done this. I feel horrible for the guy I brought home in high school, when Daddy told him he had a hundred acres and no one would ever find his body. Then, when he met Bryce, he threatened to beat the shit out of him. After that, there was no one else. I never imagined he’d react this way to Westin.
The screen door makes a loud bang and I jump. “You got him to leave his room? Nice,” Everton says as he tosses a six-pack on the counter and grabs one.
“Yes, well, it helps when you talk to him.”
