Chapter Twenty-Six
If one more person asked her if she was okay, she was going to scream.
Libby thought she couldn’t wait to get back to work and dive into her normal life, and now she wanted nothing more than to go home and forget about all the whispers and pitying stares from well-meaning coworkers. Maybe curl up in her air-conditioned house with a book and a glass of ice tea. Even a week later, her body still hadn’t acclimated back to D.C.’s changeable weather, and the windless summer day made the air soup-like. Her blouse stuck to her spine as she left her office building.
She double-timed it across the parking lot to her car. No doubt about it, the words “air conditioning,” “book,” and “ice tea” were synonyms for heaven, especially in this kind of weather. The only thing that could possibly make her night better would be a cat curled up on top of her feet.
The thought brought on a sharp stab of longing. She missed Sam.
Maybe it was time to think about getting herself a cat. It would mean less time in the office, but maybe it was time for that, too. Maybe she needed to focus on something other than work.
She hit the button on her key fob to unlock her Subaru’s doors, and as she reached for the handle on the driver’s side, she sensed movement behind her. Not Kenneth, she told herself. Still, her heart tripped, her fingers slipped off the door handle, and she dropped her keys.
Not Kenneth. Not Kenneth. Not Kenneth.
But what if he’d gotten out…?
Working up a horror movie scream just in case, she whirled—and found her father.
She swallowed the scream with some effort and took the time to reach for her keys on the pavement at her feet before facing him. “What are you doing here?”
“I was driving by,” he said in a light, casual tone. “I saw you coming out of the office and thought I’d stop.”
He was so full of bullshit, and it ticked her off that he felt the need to gloss over his true intentions. “You’re checking up on me.”
“I’m your father.”
“And I’m twenty-nine years old!” Libby wrenched open her car door, threw her briefcase inside, jammed the keys into the ignition, and started the engine. She’d been meaning to have this conversation with him but hadn’t had the energy since returning home. Nevertheless, there were things that needed to be said, things that she couldn’t put off any longer.
With the car A/C blasting, she straightened and turned back to him. “Dad, this has to stop.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes,” she said more gently, “you do. I know everything you do is out of love, but it’s too much. It’s smothering. You have to stop.”
“You’re my daughter. It’s my job to protect you.”
“You can’t protect me from everything. If you try, it’s going to drive a wedge between us.” And as much as he sometimes annoyed her, the thought of losing him over something so fixable, of never seeing him again due to their shared stubborn gene, made her throat tighten up. “I don’t want that. I want you in my life, Daddy—just not controlling it.”
His shoulders hunched slightly, which she hadn’t thought possible. He always walked, stood, ate, and probably even slept with the erect posture of a Marine in formation. In her entire life, she’d never seen him slouch. “I just want you safe and happy.”
She rubbed his arm. “I am safe now.” Happy was another beast altogether, one she hadn’t tamed yet. True, for a short time in Key West, she’d thought…
But that was over.
She’d make her own happiness, starting tomorrow. She’d go to the animal shelter and pick out a cat. She’d cut back her hours at work, find a hobby or two, and eventually start dating again. In time, she’d find her own kind of happiness.
She supposed she had Jude to thank for that. She’d been frozen in the past for eight long years, unable to move forward, but three weeks in paradise with him had started thawing her. Then his betrayal had cracked away the last of the ice, leaving her exposed, forcing her to make a decision. Change or perish.
She chose change.
Her father was staring at her with worry pinching his eyes, the creases radiating outward until they disappeared under the edge of his service uniform cover. “You’re not happy.”
“No,” she admitted. “But I will be.”
The air settled thickly in the silence that fell between them.
Finally, in another uncharacteristic move, he shifted on his feet. “What happened between you and Wilde after I left Key West?”
“Dad…” She sighed. Okay, so change wouldn’t be easy, especially not for someone like her father. She had a feeling this was the first of many similar conversations. “I thought we just discussed this. What happened is none of your business.”
“No, I think it is.” He motioned to her car. “Get in.”
“Why?”