Just like that, Autumn plops in between his legs, snuggling up close, her back to his front as Ash wraps his arms around my daughter and gives her a squeeze, dropping a kiss on the side of her neck.
What the ever-loving fuck?
“I think you know why they’re going outside together. They want to be alone,” Fable murmurs as she stops to stand next to me. She’s staring out the window as well, slowly shaking her head, though she’s not scowling. I know I’m scowling. I can’t believe that little shit is touching my daughter like he owns her. “I knew this was going to happen,” she adds, like the all-knowing mother figure she is.
“What was going to happen?” I tear my gaze away from Ash and Autumn, my heart twisting in my chest. My baby girl isn’t a baby any longer. I know this. I’ve known it for a while, but it’s hard for a father to look at his daughter, and not see a precious little toddler screaming Daddy! Daddy! every single time she caught sight of me.
Now she’s a seventeen-year-old, in her senior year, about to graduate and leave our home to go to college, and she’s sitting way too close to one of the horniest players I’ve got on my football team.
I fucking hate this.
“I think they’re together. As in, they’re in a relationship,” Fable says, like it’s no big deal.
But it’s a huge deal. “We’ve got to break them up.”
“What?” I turn to see Fable is staring at me, her green eyes narrowed, her cheeks turning pink like they do when she’s upset. “Why in the world would you want to break them up?”
“He’s not good enough for our daughter,” I say with a fierce shake of my head.
“Andrew Callahan, I can’t even believe you would say something like that.” The disappointment in my wife’s voice is undeniable. I just thoroughly pissed her off. “I thought you liked Ash.”
“I did. I do. But come on. Let’s be real, no one is good enough for our daughter. None of these kids are. Hell, I couldn’t stand that little Ben Murray wimp,” I say, not bothering to hide the disgust in my voice.
Fable rolls her eyes. I must frustrate her on a daily basis. “Ben was the sweetest boy. I adored him.”
“I never liked him.” I shake my head, glance through the window one more time to see Ash and Autumn’s heads bent close together as if they’re kissing, and I can’t take it any longer. I leave the living room completely, heading into the kitchen with Fable hot on my heels.
“Don’t you dare go outside and cause a scene,” she says.
I turn to face my wife. “Like I’d do that.” That wasn’t my plan. Not really.
Fine. I was going to head out there, make a lot of noise to get them to jump apart, and then I would’ve asked Ash to help me with…something. A made-up project, maybe.
She stops short and makes a funny little face. “Hey, I don’t know. Just seconds ago you’re saying he’s not good enough for her and now you’re making your way to the back door like you’re going to barge outside and tell him to keep his hands off your daughter.”
That’s a good idea too. But I’m guessing Fable’s joking. “You’re really okay with the two of them together?”
Fable stands quiet for a moment, and I know she’s mulling it over. I trust my wife’s judgment completely. She doesn’t make rash decisions—not anymore—and we’ve been together for so long, we can usually read each other’s thoughts.
But I’m shocked when she finally gives me her answer.
“I’m okay with the two of them together. I like Ash. He reminds me so much of myself when I was a teenager. My mom was a nightmare, you know this, and I don’t think Ash’s mom is much better,” Fable explains.
“His mother is piece of garbage, and that’s me being polite,” I say tightly. I watched how that woman talked to her son over breakfast. I made sure I was facing their table. I even heard a few of the things she said to him. She tried her best to manipulate him, even crying while she said she missed him so much and wished they could be a family again. She kept saying she wanted him to come back to their apartment.
Her behavior made me suspicious, and I could see the guilt written all over Ash’s face as she kept talking. And talking. I’m not sure why she wants him back so badly. When he’s home, which isn’t much, she yells at him all the time, even smacks him around a little when she’s completely wasted. Ash never fights back, because he’s not about to hit a woman, especially his own mother. That’s what he confessed to me a few days ago.
Just hearing that story broke my heart, yet it also infuriated me. Yes, I like Ash. I think he’s a fucking amazing quarterback, he’s a decent kid, but he follows trouble. He also causes trouble. He’s reckless and does stupid shit, but hell, he’s seventeen. Of course he does.
If he keeps his head on straight, he could possibly go on to do amazing things. He’s talented. Smart. His grades are decent. He has tremendous potential. I could help him with his future if he’ll let me. Guide him. Just like I plan on doing with my son.
But if I’m being real with myself, I don’t want him with my daughter. She doesn’t need someone with so much baggage. Asher Davis comes with an entire set of baggage, and it’s loaded with a bunch of bullshit.
“I think these two have circled around each other for years,” Fable says, her voice soft. “He’s just looking for someone to love him. To believe in him. You remember what that’s like, right?”
She’s getting to me, and she knows it. When I was seventeen, I was a fucked-up mess. That was a full four years before I even met Fable, and my life was in the absolute toilet. Any girl who tried to approach me at school with a pretty smile and a raging crush on me, I denied them. It didn’t matter how nice or how pushy they were, or how attracted I was to them. I didn’t want any of them to get too close.
I didn’t want them to find out my secrets.
But Fable showed me that she really cared. That she wanted to help me. That my secrets didn’t matter. She healed me. She changed my entire life.
For the better.
“Drew.” Fable is now standing directly in front of me, and she’s such a shrimp. She’s looking up at me with all her love for me shining in her eyes, an imploring expression on her face, and I can feel myself start to weaken. I’d do anything she asked me to, and she knows it. “Let Autumn work her magic on him. She’s such a strong-willed, smart girl. She can help him. Just like I helped you, and you helped me. Give him—give them a chance.”
I exhale harshly and hang my head, slipping my arms around my wife’s waist when she stands on tiptoe and wraps her arms around my neck. Pressing my forehead to hers, I mutter, “If I catch him in her room in the middle of the night, I’ll cut his balls off.”
Fable laughs, the sound light and full of happiness. “And I’ll cut his dick off, so we’re in agreement there. I don’t think they’re at that stage yet.”
“Fable.” I pull away a little so I can stare into her eyes. “Be real. She’s seventeen. He’s seventeen…”
She sighs. “Maybe I need to talk to her about getting on the pill.”