My parents were comfortable. Hell, my dad had a high-level job at Gremlin. It wasn’t like we were struggling, but this place was insane.
The dressed-in-all-black guard came up to my car and knocked on my window.
“Hi?” I said as rolled it down.
“Is that a question or a statement?” he asked with a smile.
“Both, I guess. I’m looking for Landon?”
The guard raised his eyebrows at me.
“That was a statement,” I clarified, tapping my steering wheel.
“Name?” he asked.
“Rachel Dawson.” For the love of God, I wanted my cell phone. God, what if he wasn’t home? What if he was just generally busy? Was I intruding? It was shades of John Hughes over here with the lack of communication.
The guard pressed the radio at his shoulder. “I have Rachel Dawson here to see Landon?”
The response was garbled, but the guard smiled at me patiently while we sat in the most awkward silence known to man. The radio sounded again, and the guard nodded. “You’re clear. Head on up to the front door.”
“Thank you,” I said and followed his instructions once the gate separated to let me through.
After making my way up the winding drive, I put the car in park just in time to see Landon jump the bottom steps to get to me.
I threw the emergency brake and killed the ignition but didn’t bother to pull the keys out.
“Hey, Rach, what’s going—umpf.” He grunted as I hit him nearly head-on, diving into his arms. They instantly closed around me, cradling my head to his chest in his safe, secure embrace.
I sagged, all the adrenaline and energy that got me here suddenly gone. For a moment, I simply stood there and breathed him in, pretending we were back in Fiji, or even Nepal. Anything but where we were, and he let me, not questioning my need or pushing me.
“I’m sorry I barged in,” I finally said, looking up at him.
“You’re never barging in. You’re always welcome,” he promised, kissing my forehead. “But maybe you’ll tell me what’s got you upset?”
“My dad moved out. They’re getting a divorce.” Saying it aloud made it feel so real.
“Oh, baby.” He brushed my hair back from my face, stroking my skin. “I’m so sorry.”
“I never caught on that they were unhappy. I was home all summer, and the months up until I left for Madagascar. It all happened right under my nose. How did I miss it?”
“Because they didn’t want you to know. Parents do their best to protect their kids, and they probably thought they were doing what was best for you. I’m not saying it was right, but you can’t blame yourself for not knowing.”
“How does that happen? You choose your person, and then one day decide that they’re not your person anymore? I don’t understand how that happens.” Or why I couldn’t stop it—why I couldn’t see it.
“I wish I could tell you,” he said. “I don’t have all the answers.”
“Just tell me that won’t happen with us,” I begged. “Tell me that it doesn’t always end like that.”
He sucked in his breath and gazed at me intensely, like he could see into my soul. “I promise you that I will never cheat on you. I will never lie to you again—I learned my lesson when I lost you. I will be yours for as long as you want me, Rachel Dawson, because you’re the only woman I will ever love. Do you understand me?”
I nodded, and he clutched me to him, tucking my head under his chin as he rubbed circles on my back. “Remember, we are what we decide to be—you and me.”
“You and me,” I repeated, closing my eyes.
“Do you want to come in?” he asked.
I’d already started to nod when a guard leaned over the stone fence that separated the driveway from the house. “Sir, her father is here.”
Landon tensed. “Do you want to see him? The beauty of having security is that I can say no.”
“It’s okay. I was a little harsh on him.”
Landon waved him in, and a minute later, my dad parked on the other side of me. He climbed out of his immaculate convertible and ran his hand over his silvered hair. “Rachel.”
“Dad,” I said, keeping Landon’s hand firmly in mine as I turned to face him.
He looked back at Landon and grimaced. “Can we talk alone?”
“I’m just going to tell him what we say anyway.”
He sighed and walked toward us, a manila envelope in his hands. “I’m sorry about what happened this morning,” he said.
“Me, too. And I’m sorry for what Mom did. You don’t deserve that.”
He swallowed, pain flashing across his eyes. “Yeah, well, sometimes it’s the people we love most who hurt us the deepest.” His gaze flickered to Landon, and I knew he was thinking about what had happened years ago. “You need to know that I tried. I won’t say anything more, and I don’t want you to take this out on your mother, but…I tried to make it work, Rachel. We just can’t. I can’t. I had to go.”
I dropped Landon’s hand and went to my dad, hugging him tight. “I’m so sorry, Dad. I shouldn’t have been such a wreck. I was just in shock. It’s always been the three of us, and now…now I don’t know.”
“I know. And we both love you very much. That’s not something you should ever doubt, okay?”
“I don’t,” I told him, giving a tighter squeeze before pulling back.
“And I know this is important to you,” he said, fidgeting with the envelope. “The other papers, I’m not sure where they are. Once your birth certificate was in after your adoption, nothing else ever mattered. We shut the door on how you came to us and concentrated on being the family you were always meant to have. There’s not a lot of information in here, but maybe it will help you feel like you’ve found whatever it is you’re missing.”
I took the envelope from him with a slightly shaky hand. “Thanks, Dad.”
He nodded and looked back at Landon. “I’d really like you to come home with me, Rachel. If not me, then your mother. Anything but here…with him.”
My stomach sank. “Dad, not today. I know you and Landon have some harsh feelings between you, but I seriously don’t think I can take anything else today.”
“He’s not good for you, Rachel.”
“He loves me,” I countered. With everything else that had gone to shit today, it was the one thing I was certain of.
“Not enough,” he said softly, sadly.
“What do you mean?” That sick, nauseating feeling was back in my belly.
“Today has been hard enough on you. Why don’t you just come home with me and we’ll have a good, long talk about it?” he offered.
After this morning, I’d had quite enough of being managed.
“No. You tell me now.”
“Rachel,” Landon said, coming up behind me.
I turned toward him. “What is he talking about?”
Landon looked straight over me to my father. “You really want to hurt her like this?”
“You were the one who didn’t stay away,” Dad snapped. “Someone that willing to walk away in the first place isn’t deserving of my daughter. She’s worth a hundred of you.”
“On that, we agree,” Landon said.