Page 16 of Seeking Two Lovers

I hadn’t ever told my dad about the full extent of abuse Blaine had endured at the compound, and I wasn’t about to uncover the truth of his hurtful past without permission. Ever since Mom’s accident, Dad and I had become wicked close, but I refused to reveal secrets that weren’t mine to share.

I’d been a little kid lost without his mom, and Dad had the love of his life torn from his side. We’d clung to each other, but no matter how close or good our relationship, nothing could replace what we’d lost.

Being ten years old and having to hear your dad sob while alone in his bed every night does shit to a kid’s brain. Makes you recognize insecurity and fear abandonment—even if it takes years to put a name to both.

At least Dad fully understood my feelings for Blaine when I’d come out to him, and he’d agreed to keep my unrequited love to himself. It had been at Dad’s prompting for us to leave the East Coast where my love might feel safer and heal from the bit of trauma he’d known about.

“He’ll be fine,” I stated, hoping like hell I spoke the truth. “Any chance you could get me the name and number of that detective you used a few years back? I’ve got shit that needs dug up and exposed for what it is.”

“Anything for you and that boy of yours,” Dad stated quietly, his gruff voice an attempt to hide his generous spirit I’d inherited.

As his only offspring and still seen as the golden child he’d always believed me to be, I knew Dad would give me whatever I asked for, same as always—same as I would do for those I cared about and loved. He might not have the nurturing heart of a mother, but he offered all he could.

Same as me.

I jotted down the information and promised to call him later with my findings.

“Before you go…” He paused, a rare display of insecurity in his tone.

My brow furrowed. “Yeah?” I asked when he didn’t continue.

“Would you be averse to me dating again?”

His words took a few seconds to compute in my head. Dad hadn’t shown interest in other women. Ever.

Dad. Dating.

A sweet exhale deflated my lungs, and I found myself grinning just as the clouds outside my office windows broke, allowing beams of sunshine to create rectangles of light on my office floor. “It’s about damn time. Seriously, Dad. I hate that you’ve been alone for the last nine years without me.”

“It’s been good.” His tone sounded like a smile. “I’ve done a lot of healing, worked through my grief. Dahlia says I’ve made amazing steps toward living again.”

Dahlia. His therapist—his person from what I’d figured out with how much he talked about her.

“It took you long enough to realize she’s the one, Dad.”

“She really is.” He sounded all dreamy like he gazed off into the sunset, imagining her in a white dress walking hand in hand with him on the beach.

I scrubbed a hand down over my face. Fucking romantic sap. I tended to keep that part of me under lock and key since Blaine wouldn’t ever accept my loving words and dreams lavished on him.

“You have my blessing,” I told Dad even though he hadn’t asked for it.

“Thank you, Greyson.”

“Love you.”

“Love you more,” he kidded back as always, and I hung up a few second later, my throat tight.

I’d often wondered if he hadn’t dated since Mom’s passing because I would see it in a negative light. Sure, we’d lost the woman we’d both loved, but life continued, and I longed for him to be happy.

Mom would, I didn’t doubt. Even at ten, I’d known she’d wanted the best for him—same as she had for me.

Fuck, did I miss her soft smiles and kisses goodnight. The tender arms of unconditional love and affection I used to soak in.

A deep yearning for nurturing slumbered inside my heart like I was still ten years old, but I couldn’t ask Blaine for it. It had been enough that I could give him just a taste what I yearned for.

But the memories of Mom that my conversation with Dad had brought to the surface had me wishing for more. I realized how much I missed out on in life. Dad was moving on…did I have it in me to look as well?

I blinked at the information I’d written down, pulling myself from grief that still made me wish things could be different between Blaine and me.

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