Chapter 32

32

SUTTON

S eated between Hawk and my dad, I watched the play with a sense of dread growing inside me. Winnie was a star, for sure, delivering every line with flair, and confidence, and ease, but as the production continued, I saw her getting more and more upset.

She was trying not to show it, but I noticed her looking around. With every pass she made of the audience, her disappointment intensified and my heart grew heavier.

Calen still wasn’t here.

Hot tears welled in my eyes. I saw the furrow on her brow deepening, her own eyes becoming shimmery at the same time as mine. Watching her go through this was awful, seeing how her disappointment kept growing. But her performance never faltered.

It killed me to know there was nothing I could do about it, nothing I could do to make her father care enough to show up or even to call if he wasn’t going to.

Discreetly pulling my phone out of my pocket, I checked it again, but there was still nothing there. No text. No missed call. No freaking notification of him throwing a DM at me on social media just as a damn heads-up.

Hawk’s hand moved off the armrest between us to give my leg a reassuring squeeze. When I glanced at him, he shot me a quick smile. Dad glanced at us, glowering when he saw Hawk’s fingers resting on my thigh, but then the play drew to a close and Hawk shot to his feet, whooping and hollering at the top of his lungs.

“Go, Winnie!” He whistled loudly between his teeth. “That was awesome! Wooooo!”

I was so stunned at the noise he was making that it took me a moment to join in, but then I leaped to my feet with the rest of our families and whistled just as loudly, screaming Winnie’s name. Hawk wrapped his hands around his mouth to do the same.

When she heard him, she lit up again. Her gaze slid to his and held it as she dipped into a bow with the rest of the cast. My heart swelled as I watched the moment pass between them, with Hawk getting louder and louder and Winnie’s smile beaming in response.

It still sucked that Calen hadn’t even bothered to come to the play after flying all the way out here to see her, but Hawk was doing an excellent job making Winnie feel seen and celebrated. Calen had never made the effort to do that, constantly making her feel like she needed to do something to earn his attention, acceptance, and love.

The kids bowed one more time before they all rushed off the stage, and Hawk kept cheering until Winnie was right in front of him. Grinning widely, he scooped her up without any hesitation, lifting her right off her feet and spinning her in a circle.

“You were so great, Win! You carried the whole production,” he gushed, those sparkling blue eyes proud and smiling on hers. “If you’d let me, I’d like to take everybody out for ice cream to celebrate.”

“Yes,” she squealed happily, tossing her arms around his shoulders and hugging him tight.

Gratitude spread through me as I watched them together, so freaking relieved that Hawk was here to distract her from the fact that Calen wasn’t. Eventually, my dad nudged Hawk’s arm and extended his hands toward my daughter.

“Stop hogging our star, son,” Dad said gruffly. “Her granddaddy wants to congratulate her too.”

My parents took their turn then, animatedly talking to Winnie about her performance, hugging, and kissing her. When she finally broke away from them, I pulled her toward me, just holding her and breathing her in as I tried to swallow my tears.

For all my uncertainty about whether moving her here had been the right thing to do, I suddenly knew without a doubt that this was absolutely the best place for her to be. It didn’t matter if Calen was near or far because he wasn’t going to make the effort anyway and his parents had never been very involved either.

They were too wrapped up in their lives as part of the Scottish upper crust, and they didn’t have much time for things like watching a school play or sitting down on a carpet to play with their little granddaughter when she’d been a baby and a toddler.

While Emery, her dad, and the boys embraced Winnie next, my parents boasted to other grandparents behind them and Hawk watched over Winnie like a proud father. I knew this was what she needed. This was what she’d always needed, the unconditional love and support of family who genuinely cared.

“Alright, troops!” Hawk said above the din, circling a hand above his head as if rounding us up. “The ice-cream express is leaving in five. Let’s go, let’s go!”

The kids shrieked and ran, laughing as they practically tripped over each other in their race to get to the cars. Winnie and I rode with Hawk, and he spent the whole drive to the restaurant trying to keep her distracted.

“What did you think of your first Thanksgiving play?” he asked. “Was it fun?”

“Soooo much fun,” she replied happily. “Logan is going to try out next year too. I don’t know why he didn’t do it this year, but I told him he had to because it’s the best.”

“What about Duncan?”

She shrugged, laughing as she gave him a look that said as if . “He says he’s not into theater. I’m going to work on him, though. The theater is magnificent.”

“That it is,” he agreed. “What about Thanksgiving itself? Are you excited for it? A little birdie told me we’ve got some amazing desserts waiting on us tomorrow.”

She mimed zipping her lips. “Dessert is going to be a surprise, but I’m pretty excited. Thanksgiving doesn’t have carols. Did you know that?”

“Yeah, I did. Mostly because it’s not Christmas.” He grinned. “I’ll sing with you if you want me to, though. We could make up our own Thanksgiving songs.”

“You’d do that?” she asked.

He shrugged. “The neighbors might complain because I sound like a cat being skinned when I sing, but sure. We can even practice tonight. The games arcade where we’re going has a karaoke booth.”

“Yeees!” she exclaimed excitedly, grinning so wide her cheeks had to be hurting at this point. “I want to. I want to.”

We parked, and before I could even say a word to him about how much I appreciated all this, Winnie grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the games arcade. The boys caught up and converged around them. He laughed, picked Sawyer up to fly like Superman above his head, and led them into the packed kids’ area.

My mom came to stand next to me while we waited for our table, her gaze locked on Hawk and the kids. “He’s good with Winnie. With all of them, really, but he’s certainly going out of his way with her.”

“He is,” I agreed, smiling. I watched them until they disappeared into the karaoke booth. “We should go sit down and order the ice cream. The kids are still riding the high now, but they’re going to crash soon. I’d like to be home when that happens.”

Mom chuckled. “Dad and Henry are already on it.”

When I looked toward where she was pointing, I saw that the two men had already snagged a booth and were giving our order to a server while Emery wound her way through the crowd to her brother. She disappeared into the karaoke booth with them and emerged a few minutes later, her cheeks flushed with laughter. She led them all back to the table like the Pied Piper.

As we all sat down, Dad and Henry abruptly cut off the intense conversation they’d been having and Dad turned to look at Hawk. “Your dad tells me you’re good with turkey fryers?”

“I, uh, I’ve had some experience with ours,” he said, not unfriendly but clearly puzzled by the question as he looked back at my dad. “Why?”

“Well, it’s our family tradition and I might need a bit of help setting it up tonight.”

“You got it.” Hawk grinned before he tucked into his ice cream. He ended up coming home with us instead of going with his sister and dad.

As soon as we got to our house, Dad marched Hawk outside and Mom turned to smile at me. “Why don’t you let Winnie sleep in the big house tonight? She’ll enjoy it and it’ll give you and Hawk some time to talk.”

“Thank you.” I glanced at Winnie, who was nodding before I’d even asked her. I chuckled and reached out to ruffle her hair, motioning toward the stairs with my free hand. “Alright, then. Let’s go. Time to hop in bed.”

Winnie grumbled a little bit but came upstairs with me and let me get her settled in my old bedroom, which she was slowly but surely claiming as her own. She even had pajamas and some clothes in the cupboards and her toys were neatly packed away on the shelves against the walls.

After she’d brushed her teeth and we’d washed the makeup off her face, she cuddled into the bed, staring up at me with huge but tired eyes. I stroked her hair out of her face, giving her a sad smile, and I bent over to kiss her forehead.

“I’m sorry he didn’t show tonight, Win,” I murmured, desperately trying to hide the emotion in my voice. “I know how important it was to you. I’m going to talk to him about it, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed quietly, averting her gaze and fiddling with her fingers on top of the covers for a moment before she looked at me again. “Hawk showed up, though. I’m glad he was there. He said I did really well.”

“You did do really well, but Hawk would’ve been there and loved it even if you forgot all your lines and ran offstage halfway through. He’s a good friend that way.” I looked into her eyes, wishing so hard that I could give her everything she needed and that she’d forget about Calen’s approval completely, but in the end, I knew that wasn’t possible. “Always remember how special you are, sweetheart. Daddy not showing up has nothing to do with you. You are amazing, and precious, and so loved. He’s just…”

God, I’m tired of making excuses for that man.

“He’s just Daddy?” she finished for me.

I sighed and nodded, bending over again to kiss her good night. “That’s right. He’s just Daddy, but I’m always going to be there for you, okay? I love you, baby. Sleep well.”

“Love you too, Mommy.” She hugged me tight, holding me and unknowingly putting all the pieces of my heart that had shattered tonight back together.

I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve her, but I would take all the pain Calen was causing us now over and over again if it meant I got to have my daughter in every lifetime and every parallel universe.

No matter what he did, I would be in the front row for her.

Always.

As long as she knew that, she and I would be okay. I just needed to keep reminding myself of that until one day I could actually start believing it regardless of whether Calen decided to drop in on us again.