“You love her that much?”
I blinked at her. “What do you think of when you see the future?”
Her brow furrowed, but I shot her a patient look, silently telling her that I was going somewhere with this.
“It’s changed.”
“Your future?”
She nodded, and her smile was shy as she looked at me. Warmth hit my heart like it was hammering nails into it, and I choked at the sight—she liked me.
Logically, I knew she did.
I wasn’t a fucking moron.
Why the hell else would she want to hang out with me?
Sure, there was free food and I offered to pay for any and everything she might need, but she was a prideful little thing—had to be. Both her parents were stubborn and proud.
Still, to see it, to hear it, it was almost too fucking much.
“I used to think I’d go to Berkeley, but now I’m thinking about NYU or something like that.”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
She tucked her chin down. “Really. There’s more to the US than the West Coast.”
“You don’t have to worry about tuition, Wynter,” I told her gruffly, mostly just fucking proud that my daughter was taking after her mom and not me. “I’ll pay for everything.”
“You don’t have to do that! I wasn’t saying this for that.”
“I know you weren’t, but I’d have paid anyway. I want you to know that.”
Gnawing on her bottom lip, she peered at me and said, “I’m very lucky.”
“I’m the lucky one,” I told her.
She cleared her throat. “I-I see my future being different than the one I always envisioned. I-I wanted to become a professional so my mom could move out, so that she could live with me. She’s still young, really, but she acts like she’s ancient.” She gave a deep sigh. “Whenever I suggest getting a job, you know, so she can move out, she always acts like she can’t use a computer. I’m not sure if she’s lazy or just scared.”
“Maybe it’s a mixture of both,” I drawled, amused by her irritation.
Wynter wasn’t the kind of girl who let much hold her back.
Fuck, it was terrifying how powerful nature vs. nurture could be.
“Maybe,” she agreed grumpily. “She’s been a homemaker for so long that I think she doesn’t know how to change. So, I wanted to be that for her.”
That wasn’t the girl I remembered. But twenty years of marriage to that fucker, Kinnock, had clearly undermined Ally’s confidence.
“I get it,” I told her, “but you should also remember that kids aren’t put on this planet for that. It’s not your job to make sure she gets her life in order.
“I mean, you can make that choice when you’re older. But seventeen is when you should be thinking about parties and boys or girls—” I choked on the latter, but out of fairness, I had to see it from her point of view. Not that I cared who she fell in love with, just… Christ, dating in general was a nightmare prospect for me.
She noticed too—her grin turned wicked at my discomfort. “How very forward-thinking of you, Rex,” she said primly.
“Yeah, isn’t it?” I asked. “But you know what I mean, don’t you?”
“I do. I’m not the party type, but I get where you’re coming from.”
“College is a whole other ball game. Things change when you’re there. You’re an adult, and you’ll be taught and treated as if you’re one.” I thought about Rachel, about the positive changes that had happened while she was away at college. Before all the shit had started. “Your mom was like a different person when she was there. It was good for her. I think it’ll be good for you too.
“Plus, you’ll be in New York! I mean, that’s gotta be cool, right? You’ll have the safety net of knowing we’re close by and that you can call on us if you’re in a pinch. Just try not to get arrested, huh?” I joked, gently nudging her with my elbow.
“I’ll try my best,” she informed me with a grin.
“So, you see how your future changed? Because I came into it?”
That had her tilting her head at me. “I see that.”
“Well, that happened to me when I was thirteen.”
Understanding struck. “When you met Rachel.”
Not a question. A statement.
I nodded. “Everything shifted. I didn’t realize it back then, but it did. I had no legitimate reason to want to hang around a little girl,” I mocked. “So I just used to watch over her. She got picked on a lot, so that made it easy for me to protect her from afar, but she grew more and more isolated as a result.”
“Why?”
“I think I frightened everyone away. Not just the bullies, but the potential friends.”
She should have had a relationship with Indy and Stone, but she hadn’t.
Somehow, she’d grown close with Carly.
To this day, I still didn’t understand what happened there.
“She had no friends?”
“In school, yeah. Two gay kids.”
“Is she friends with them now?”
“Not exactly. They were, but they had a falling out. Anyway, back then, Scott and Craig were ostracized too. Outsiders. They got along great with each other.”
“Why were they outsiders? Because they were gay?”
“That and because they got caught having sex in the locker room.”
A snort escaped her. “See, people would have filmed that now and put it on the Internet. They’d have been popular, not exiled.”
“Different times.” I shrugged then decided to get the subject back on track. “The truth is, Wynter, my future is tied to your mom’s. It has been for years, and that’s not going to change.”
“You told me once that you gave her an ultimatum…”
“I called her bluff. There wasn’t a snowball in hell’s chance that I was going anywhere.”
“You really love her, don’t you?”
“She’s it for me. Simple.”
“That isn’t simple,” my kid argued. “If anything, that’s super complicated.”
I tucked my arm around her shoulder. “That’s love for you.”
Though she huffed, she slipped her arm around my waist and hugged me closer. “I’m going to miss you, Rex.”
“I’m gonna miss you too, kiddo.”
Wynter peered up at me. “What makeover are you going to have?”
“I’ll take a picture once it happens,” I promised, amused. “You trying to matchmake?”
“Maybe. I-I just… Rachel always sounds so weird on the phone. I’m not sure if that’s because of me and because she’s nervous because I know she is, even if she pushes past it.” She shook her head, and I knew that was because she couldn’t assimilate how Rachel could deal with murderers but couldn’t cope with her. “Or if it’s to do with her life. She never sounds happy until you tease her into laughing.”
“I don’t tease her!”
“You do!” She gave me the side eye. “You don’t realize you’re doing it, do you?”