Novel Xoo
74
Her voice was rising. “Ford, I know my word doesn’t mean much right now, but I swear to you, on Everly’s life, that you know everything. I’ve kept nothing else from you.”
I grabbed her hand off my chest and brought it up to my mouth, kissing the back of each finger. “I don’t think that at all. I trust you.”
“I’m sorry-”
I hugged her against me, holding her as close as I could get her. “It’s over. I don’t want you to give it a second thought.”
She rested into me, silence building between us until she broke it with, “Why didn’t you ask me about it?”
“When Hannah told me, I was going to mention it to you. Discuss it in some way. And then life happened, and it slipped my mind.”
“But … did it really?”
I held her face, so she could look at me. “Listen to me. I’ve learned many things from my daughter and the way she was brought into my life. You can’t judge a person for the decisions they make even if it’s right or wrong in that moment. What matters is how they handle it.” I softened my voice as I said, “You told me the truth, Sydney. Whether it took an hour or a day or a few months is insignificant. Time isn’t always the deciding factor.”Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.
She gazed back and forth between my eyes. “Why are you so forgiving?”
Why?
Fuck, there were so many reasons for that.
Reasons I wasn’t getting into now.
Since I knew we were both done with dessert, unable to fit in another bite, I lifted her off my lap and set her on the deck.
I linked our hands and said, “Come with me.”
I brought her down the long stairway to the beach, where we left our shoes at the very bottom and sank our bare feet into the sand.
We were only a few paces into the waves when I heard the softness of her voice.
“This is so pretty.”
I had known the feel of the water would help change her mood. The saltiness hitting her nose. The grittiness of the beach below her feet.
And she needed to feel my forgiveness, so I held her hand up to my mouth, keeping it there as I replied, “When I usually come here, I’m carrying bags and a cooler and toys and boards and towels-every goddamn thing a five-year-old uses.” I glanced toward the ocean, the sun just starting to dip below the horizon. “I’m so busy riding the waves with her and building sandcastles that I never take a second to really look around.”
“To realize how much you love it.”
I stopped walking and turned toward her.
“How much I love it,” I repeated.
Words that hit me.
Words that triggered a response.
I cupped her face, studying her eyes and cheeks, her lips that I was still so fucking obsessed with. “Sydney …”
Her teeth ground into her lip, like she was anticipating what I was about to say.
I kissed her, just briefly, a brush of lips and air. “You know how wild I am about you.”
Her arms circled my waist, gripping me. “And I’m so wild about you.”
“But there’s more.”
She nodded. “For me too.”
I lowered, keeping our lips inches apart, and I breathed in her coconut scent. An aroma that was stronger than the ocean. And I felt something that was deeper than anything I’d ever experienced with another woman.
“Fuck …” I pressed our noses together, needing her to feel my words as I said, “I love you.”
And then I kissed her.
Harder this time.
Emptying my chest.
Emotionally surrendering.
“I love you,” she breathed back.
TWENTY-TWO
SYDNEY
I
opened the backseat door of Ford’s SUV and said to Everly, “Jump in, my little muffin.”
She climbed into her high-back booster seat and got settled. “Syd, I’m pooped.”
I laughed, adjusting her placement and securing her in, locking the seat belts in place. “That makes two of us, girlie.” I checked to make sure it was all tight. “Comfy?”
“Yep.” She yawned, and once Ford joined us in the doorway, she added, “Daddy, that hike was haaard.”
“I was trying to tire you out. Did it work?”
I knocked him on the shoulder-for Everly and for me. “It worked. We’re exhausted.”
“Exhauuusted,” Everly echoed.
I shut the door and giggled to Ford. “That kid,” I said before I went over to the other side of the SUV and climbed into the passenger seat.
Ford started up the car and pulled out of the lot. “Are we stopping for ice cream? Or are my girls too tired?”
“Ice cream!”
“We’re never too tired for that,” I told him.
His hand went to my thigh, and I watched him look into the rearview mirror and ask Everly, “Are you all packed for Utah? As of this morning, there were two empty suitcases in your room and clothes everywhere.”
“I need my pink dresses,” she huffed.
I glanced over my shoulder at her. There were beads of sweat on her forehead, and her ponytail was slick in the front. Even her wisps were matted down. There was a smear of dirt on her cheek, and her hot-pink sunglasses were tilted on her face.
I reached back and fixed her frames, making them even. “Tell your dad we need time to pack. We’re girls; we can’t be rushed.”
“We can’t be rushed, Daddy.”
He slowed for the red light, smiling at me. “We leave at seven tomorrow morning. That isn’t much time.”
As I faced the front, I wrapped my fingers around his. “Don’t worry. We’ll get it done. We just need to feel out each outfit and decide if we’ll be in the mood to wear it on our trip. It’s called options, Dad. Get with it.”
“Get with it, Dad,” Everly repeated.
You’re going to get it, he mouthed at me, joking.