Not. I minded quite a bit.
“Not at all,” I lied.
“Actually,” Rowen started to say, but just as she’d gotten the first word of her comment out, the garage door opened and in walked my father…and Logan.
My heart skipped a beat and my palms started to sweat.
And those damn butterflies in my stomach started to swarm.
“Hey, guys. I brought a dinner guest.” Luke paused at seeing Theo sitting at the counter. He turned to his wife, then looked at me. “Um, Reese, this is Logan. Logan, this is Reese, my wife.”
My mother looked at my father and her mouth turned into a little tiny ‘O.’
“Uhh.” She held out her hand to Logan. “Nice to meet you, Logan. These are my kids, Rowen, Derek, and Katy.”
Logan looked at Derek and Rowen, then at me, and back again.
I knew what he was seeing.
I looked like my father, through and through.
Rowen looked like Reese.
Though, that was to be expected since Rowen and I weren’t biological sisters, but step-sisters.
Reese had met my father when Rowen and I were both young. They got married and had one more child, Derek.
Where Rowen had Reese’s coloring, emerald green eyes and brown hair, Derek and I had Dad’s ice blonde hair, pale coloring, and blue eyes.
I’d heard my dad being described as a Viking so many times that I couldn’t count, but that really was the best description I could use when I was trying to explain my father to someone.
He was large, bulky, and looked kind of mean until you got to know him.
I was not that.
Everyone looked at me and saw a spoiled little princess.
I wasn’t.
I hadn’t been spoiled my entire life.
My father had raised me as a single dad until I was five, when he’d met Reese. My mother had died before I was born. My father could’ve easily treated me like a spoiled princess, but that just wasn’t who Luke Roberts was.
He wanted me to be able to stand on my own two feet. To be able to succeed in this world.
Which explained why I tried too hard to graduate early, take as many classes as I could, and ultimately go to school for the first twenty-five years of my life, busting my ass when most others would’ve thrown in the towel.
I wanted to succeed. I wanted to make my father proud.
“Sorry,” Theo stood up. “I can go.”
My mother waved him down, or at least I thought she did.
But my eyes were still glued on Logan.
And the way he was looking at me like he wanted to apologize.
Shit.
“Katy, you want to come outside and help me grab everyone a beer?” Dad asked.
No, no I did not.
Did I say that to my father’s face, though?
No, no I did not.
“Sure,” I said, finally peeling my eyes away from Logan long enough to look at my father.
My father who was already striding out the back door and not waiting for me to comply. He was just expecting me to…which I did moments later.
Walking out the open sliding glass door, I closed it softly behind me, then turned to my father who wasn’t anywhere near the cooler. He was at the swing set that he’d built for Rowen and me when I was ten.
He was sitting on the wooden swing that he’d made for Rowen, leaving the other one with my name engraved in the seat.
Uh-oh.
“Daddy…”
He looked up and his eyes caught mine.
That was when I saw all the pain in them that he was keeping concealed from the others.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
“Listen,” I said. “Logan giving me a ticket wasn’t something I was going to come running to you about. Honestly, I was hoping that you never heard about it, because it really was my fault. I was the one who left my car in the middle of the road and on a sidewalk. I was the one who got out to chase after Lou.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not talking about the ticket. I’m talking about the fact that Jakobe was getting out.”
I sighed. “I figured it’d make its way back to you that day, to be truthful. Detective Hastings said that he left you the paperwork about the parole. I haven’t really wanted to think about it. Thinking about it makes me remember how stupid and stubborn I was, and I don’t like remembering when I was wrong.”
His lips tipped up at the corner as he smirked, but it quickly fell away.
“I just want to help you, Katy,” he said softly. “I know that you’re wanting to be independent. I know that you just got your new job. I know that you’re trying to act like you’re not scared, but you don’t have to act like that with me. I’m your dad. I’ll always love you, no matter what situation you find yourself in.”