Lark sighed. “Soon.”
We held each other’s gazes and I saw her worry. Soon though, she was cooing over her nails. She loved being pampered so much that we played with her hair next. By the time Aaron arrived home with dinner, his muse was a sexy round goddess.
Chapter Twenty Four ~ Dylan
The moment I saw Tad waiting on the street for me, I assumed my weekend with Winnie wasn’t happening. His expression was unreadable as he checked his phone and leaned against my SUV. When he noticed me, Tad gave me a big fake smile.
“Can we talk?” he asked and I felt my stomach clench with dread.
“Sure.”
“Let’s grab a cup of coffee,” he said, already walking towards the shop down the street.
Following him, I bought a small coffee since I was tense now. Tad ordered a large one, even though I sensed he was tense too. Once we sat at a table, he gave me another fake smile.
“Winnie is spending the weekend at your place.”
This wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway.
Tad ran his index finger over the seam in the cup. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I wasn’t giving up Winnie. I even found myself imagining us running away together. With a little money saved up, I could take her away and protect her whether her parents understood or not.
“She has nightmares,” he finally said. “If she says, ‘I’m here’ then you need to tell her you see her. Also remind her of her name and where she lives.”
“Okay,” I said.
“When we moved to Chattanooga a few years back, Winnie had trouble adjusting to the new house. She woke up scared every night and needed her Cookie Monster doll a lot. The doll isn’t really a comfort thing. It’s more like a focus object. Her second therapist taught her to focus on the doll and remember where she got it. Who bought it? How she’s free. She needs reminders when she’s scared.”
“I’ll remember.”
“I’m not blind. I know you and my daughter have something real. I also know she’s getting stronger because of you. She’s pushing herself and I want her to be happy. I don’t want you to be unprepared for the issues Winnie will have. Not just this weekend, but forever. She’ll get stronger, but life broke her years ago.”
Tad tasted his hot coffee. “Not bruised, but broke. She won’t ever be free. I need you to understand that. You can be everything she needs, but she will always have problems. There’s no fixing the damage done to Winnie, but she’s learned to work around it. How to handle fear. Her phobias about people and touching. Her desire to hide away in the house rather than face the world. She pushes herself to work around those problems, but they won’t go away.”
Tad glanced hard at a few loud guys walking past and I got a glimpse of the club guy underneath all the happy talk. He turned back to me and sighed.
“Harlow wants to blame you for triggering things, but the reality is Winnie can’t cope like a normal person. Some people are fragile from the moment they’re born. Winnie was never going to take on the world and kick its ass. She would always be weak. Life stomped on someone gentle and left her barely functioning.”
Tad’s dark gaze softened. “She can be happy though. You make her smile. Don’t forget that when she stops smiling. There are days when Winnie won’t smile. She’ll stop talking too. That’s not about what happened with the Devils or being with you. It’s just how she copes when things build up inside her. Her mom and I roll with her moods. We’ll leave for work when she’s staring at the wall, silent to the world. We’ll return to find her playing videogames with Jace. She always digs her way out. If you’re patient, she can be happy.”
“I love her,” I said, thinking about how much she suffered. I also thought of how she smiled for me. How I made her laugh. Winnie had my number too and could twist me up inside with an easy smile. “I don’t want anyone else.”
Tad smiled softly. “She’s a good kid. I still remember the first time she laughed for me. I was always trying to get her to smile, but she would only watch me. I scared her. The only one who didn’t make her flinch was Kirk, if you can believe that. He found her and she followed him around like a puppy. The only reason she stayed with us that first night was because he told her to. She stared out the front window when he left and remained there, hoping he would come back. It took me a long time to become her dad, instead of a potential threat.”
Tad drank more coffee. “I hadn’t wanted you two to date. Protective dad and all that, but Toni saw Winnie seeking you out like she never did other men. Even after the Devils grabbed the girls and Vaughn started coming around to see Harlow, Winnie wasn’t interested in him. She was the same way with Kirk’s sons. When they were around, she hid in her head. With you, she’s different. Toni forced me to back off. Trust me that I didn’t want to.”