“I know what it’s like to realize that someone you trusted is actually a terrible person,” she murmured softly. “When I finally saw my ex-husband for what he was, my heart broke for Finn. Just like it’s breaking now for you. You deserve to have a father you can look up to. A family you can believe in. Finn deserves that, too.” She lowered her eyes. “You both deserve so much better than you’ve gotten, and it makes my heart hurt that you’ve been treated so badly.”
He pulled away from her to cup her chin. “You are, by far, the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
Her cheeks turned pink, giving her a radiant glow like nothing he had ever seen before. “I love you, Simon. And I’m here for you, no matter what.”
“My father is a disappointment, but I’m still the luckiest man in the world. Because I have you,” he said. “And I’m hoping that Finn and your parents will put up with me.”
“Finn and my parents adore you,” she told him. “They love you. They might not be your blood relatives, but they’re your family, too, Simon.”
The old him, the man he was before reuniting with Heather, would have dismissed her words. Dismissed them and walked back to his apartment to shut himself away from the world. He would have thrown himself into work, letting the stress numb him to his own pain. But he wasn’t that man anymore.
As painful as his father’s betrayal was, he didn’t want to shut out the world. He wanted to share his burden with Heather. Wanted to look out for Finn, because he knew what it was like to be abandoned by his father. And he wanted to tell Heather’s parents what happened tonight, because he was starting to think of them as second parents. Even though his own blood family had let him down, he still had another family right here waiting for him. That gave his life more meaning and purpose than any company ever could.
“They are my family,” he said finally. “All of you are. I don’t want to sleep just yet. I do want to talk. About what happened tonight. About my dad.”
“I’ll go wake my parents, then.” She gave him another kiss. Only this one was lingering. Full of all their shared pain and love.
As she headed to one of the bedrooms, he took a deep breath. All his life he had wanted to impress his father. Make his old man proud. That urge to get his father’s approval was finally starting to vanish. It was now being replaced by a new dream. Now, all he wanted was to do everything in his power to make his new family happy. And maybe, just maybe, make them proud, too.
Chapter 18
Three weeks later
“Hey, Simon. I think I caught one!” Finn tugged on his fishing line, trying to reel in his catch the way Simon had taught him.
“Hang on, let’s reel it in together.” Simon put down his fishing pole and grabbed Finn’s line, both of them pulling with all their strength.
When they dragged the line out of the lake, Finn burst out laughing. “It’s a shoe!”
“We can’t eat that for dinner.” Simon laughed, and unhooked the shoe to set it down in the boat. Tossing it back into the lake wasn’t good for the environment, and keeping a place as incredible as Cold Springs clean was just as important to him as it was to Finn.
Out here this early in the morning the lake was placid, and as shiny as a sheet of glass. There was nobody else out on the lake, so they could enjoy the peace and quiet.
“Can I try again?” Finn asked.
“Sure. You’ve got to always keep trying,” Simon explained. “Don’t ever quit.”
“My grandpa says that all the time,” Finn said with a sage nod. “I won’t quit trying ‘til we get a fish.”
Simon smiled. This vacation had been just what they all needed. A trip to out of Seattle was a great chance for them all to bond and get some much-needed rest. Not to mention, he planned on this trip to be a fresh start for all of them.
And they needed a fresh start after dealing with his father’s terrible behavior. Despite that, Simon had made brief, awkward visits to the hospital to see his father. The visits had helped him learn more about his dad’s condition. His father’s first surgery had gone well and he was scheduled for a simpler procedure a few weeks from now.
It looked like his dad was on the mend, though their relationship was still strained. At least his father had been scheduled for a therapy session after his next surgery. Simon had refused to see his father outside of a medical environment, which meant they would only see each other in the hospital or in a therapy session. He figured having a mediator would keep things from escalating into something toxic.
He couldn’t have gotten through it without Heather and Finn. After discovering his father’s lies weeks ago, Heather and Finn had been there for him. Doing everything they could to make him feel better. They had done everything from making him a surprise cake—he hadn’t pointed out that it had been lopsided—to going to the hospital with him to visit his father. Having people in his life who genuinely cared about him had banished a lot of his anger. And now that he had a family, he had no intention of taking it for granted or letting it go.
Simon cleared his throat. It was time to do what he had wanted to do for some time. “Hey, buddy...can you guess why I wanted to go fishing with you today?”
“To catch fish?”
He laughed. “Yeah. But I also wanted us to spend some tim
e together.”
“I like spending time together,” Finn said. “We’ve been on vacation for days now and it’s been the most fun ever. Too bad Mom doesn’t like to fish.”
Heather had opted to stay in bed in their cabin, since fishing was decidedly not her idea of fun. Lucky for him, that meant he now had the chance to ask Finn a very important question.