Chapter 51

51

STERLING

A t six a.m. the next day, I sat across from my father at the breakfast table. It had become something of a habit for us to eat together in the mornings, and for the last few days, I hadn't even needed to set an alarm for it.

My body clock was on farm time, and at five thirty a.m., I'd been wide awake. After grabbing a quick shower, I'd dressed and come downstairs, getting a pot of coffee on just before my dad had appeared.

Neither of us were morning people, and we hadn't spoken at all since he'd walked in. After silently making our toast and pouring our coffee, we settled down at the kitchen table. I glanced at the ceiling, picturing Daphne in my bed up there.

Just before I'd left my bedroom, I'd taken a moment to drink in the sight of her there. Lying on her stomach with her long brown hair fanned out across the pillow, her arm had been stretched out to my side of the bed, as if she'd been reaching for me in her sleep.

Her features had been relaxed and smooth, a soft smile on her lips that had done things to my heart—and my cock. All I'd wanted was to climb back into that bed with her, pull her into my arms, and never leave, but I'd known Dad would be waking up and that I needed to have a conversation with him before she appeared.

Dad was munching on his toast, an actual newspaper open in front of him and a cup of coffee in his other hand. I cleared my throat. My fingers wrapped around my own coffee as I looked at him from across the table.

"So, I, uh, I have a girl upstairs."

Daphne might still have been sleeping when I'd crept out of bed, but I was sure she would be awake soon. I didn't want her to be embarrassed if she came downstairs and he made a scene—in his own way—about her being here. I knew he loved her, but I also knew he could be quite gruff when he was caught off guard. This way, at least he would be prepared. Hopefully, he'd take seeing her in stride now.

Dad grunted, nodding his acknowledgment that he'd heard me, but his eyes didn't leave the paper until I spoke again. "It's Daphne LaSalle."

He finally glanced up at me, his eyebrows lifting. His eyes searched mine. He didn't say anything for a moment, just staring at me and blinking hard. "Daphne LaSalle, huh? She's a good girl. You two together now?"

I shrugged. "We're something."

"Just something?" He frowned. "She's not the kind of girl you're ‘just something' with. I thought I'd taught you better than that."

"You did, but it's a bit of dilemma."

To my surprise, he didn't return to the newspaper. Setting it down instead, he picked up his coffee and focused on me. "Everyone always thinks it's a bit of a dilemma when they start dating, son. That's why so many relationships never get off the ground. What's going on?"

It was my turn to just blink and stare for a long beat. I couldn't actually believe he was interested in knowing about this. Interested enough that he was even deviating from his morning routine for it. No one got between Dad and his paper in the mornings, so this was huge.

Feeling like we'd taken another big step forward, I decided to open up to him about it. For all his faults, my father was a pretty wise man. A man of few words, sure, but sometimes, he just had a different take on things. It'd happened often when I'd been growing up that his take had been exactly what I needed to hear.

It was weird talking to him about a girl, though. He'd always had zero interest in my dating life. Mom used to ask questions about my relationships but Dad? He'd run as soon as she'd started asking questions.

Now, however, his gaze was firmly fixed on mine. His posture relaxed as he waited for me to come out with it. I dragged in a breath, running my free hand through my hair, and tried to figure out where to even start.

"Honestly? I would love for my relationship with her to have a chance of getting off the ground, but Eric would have my balls if he knew she was here."

Dad took a moment to think it over, then shrugged. Fucking shrugged.

"Eric is her brother," he said as if that explained it all. "He would have the balls of any man who was messing around with her. I wouldn't take it personally."

My eyebrows jumped up. "How do I not take it personally? I know he's not a fan of her dating. Don't get me wrong, I realize that it's not easy for him to watch her grow up, but she's an adult now."

"Yes, an adult with feelings and a heart. And her brother doesn't want anyone breaking that heart and making her cry."

"I'm not trying to do that." I grimaced. "He only seems to have gotten worse, if I'm being honest. I mean, I love the guy, but he's completely irrational about it."

Dad frowned. "Two grownups are allowed to have fun however they want together, but I bet Eric's real issue is the idea of anyone jerking his baby sister around. You're leaving at some point, and if it's anything like last time, you'll be a ghost again. It has to be hard on him, having to stand by and watch her making questionable choices when all he wants is to protect her."

"So I'm a questionable choice?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes at me and shook his head. "That Peter was definitely a questionable choice. You're better, but you're another guy who is going to hurt her."

"I would never?—"

Dad cut me off. "Emotionally, son. Just by leaving, you're gonna hurt her."

"I know."

"And look, Eric only knows you from back in the day. He only knows your history with women back then. He's never seen you serious, and he has no reason to think anything has changed. Try to put yourself in his shoes for a minute. Would you have trusted you with his sister?"

I paused for a beat, my mind racing back to those early days when we'd first discovered girls didn't have cooties. "Yeah, I guess I see what you mean. I got around a little bit before I got with Fiona. It's not like that with Daphne, though."

He held up his palms. "I didn't think it was, but if you really do want a chance of getting this relationship off the ground, you need to let him see that it's not like that with her. Better yet, you need to show him."

"Well, I mean, I would have, but I'm going back to New York," I said.

My dad folded his hands in front of him and sighed. "And there you go. See? Eric is right to be concerned."

"I would ask her to come with me, but she won't do it and I don't want to ask her to give up everything she knows and loves for me. Especially because once I get back to the city, I'm hardly ever even going to be home. I practically live in my office."

"That's no way to live, son," he said. "It's your choice, of course, but you need to ask yourself what will make you happy. The girl or the job."

I sighed and scrubbed my hands over my face. "Tonight is the reunion and I leave on Monday, the day after the fall parade. She's helping out with that, so this is probably going to be the last time I see her for a while. From where I'm sitting right now, there's just no way to make a go of this thing."

Dad didn't say anything for a long minute. Leaning back in his chair and sipping his coffee, he just stared into the middle distance—or he was looking at the stove. I couldn't quite tell if he was seeing it or not, but that was where he was looking—Mom's domain.

Something about the way the lines on his face deepened told me he was thinking really hard about this, but he'd known I was going back and when. I had no idea what he was mulling over so intensely, but it made a little more sense when he finally spoke again.

"I thought you hated your life in the city," he said, tilting his head slowly to one side as he looked at me like he was trying to find something on my face. "If that was true, then why do you want to go back there? Why leave at all?"

That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?

I'd been kind of hurt when I'd told him I'd be getting on that plane for my flight out after all, and he had just accepted it. But now, I realized that he'd been working up to asking me these questions. It felt like he'd simply been waiting for the right time, and since he and I were talking openly now, I supposed he had found it.

"I don't really want to go back, but I have to, right? Just logically." I shrugged. "I've got a great job at a firm that's almost impossible to get into. I'm first in line for a promotion most people would give their left nut for. I have my apartment and my cars. It seems crazy to turn my back on all that, but I'm not going to turn my back on you either. Even when I leave, Dad, I need you to know that I'm still going to be there."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked cautiously.

It seemed I'd also found the time I'd been waiting for to broach this with him. "I've got a few ideas about the farm. If you're willing to hear me out."

"Alright," he said finally. "Let's have it. You want to hire these guys, don't you?"

"I do," I replied confidently. "You need help around here and these new hires have already gotten the lay of the land. I think they handled themselves really well at our busiest time of year, which means it could only get better now that things will start slowing down again. The farm can get ahead instead of trying play catch-up all the time."

Dad didn't turn me down immediately, which was a pleasant surprise. Deciding to keep going now that I had the ball rolling, I laid it all out for him. "Jake and his team have agreed to keep working on the maintenance and repairs. They'll be fitting us in between other jobs, so they'll probably be coming and going for a few months, if that's okay with you?"

"As long as they stay out of my way," he said after considering it for a moment. "Jake does good work, but he's not coming into the house."

"The gutters?—"

"They can clean the outside, but I don't want people traipsing in and out of here as they please. The only other person I want in here is you. And I suppose your girlfriend, for as long as you can call her that."

"Deal," I said, ignoring that last bit. "I've also reached out to?—"

Daphne came creeping down the stairs, her eyes wide and panicked when they met mine. Dad must've heard the creak of one of the old floorboards because he suddenly smiled.

"I already know you're here, Daphne. There's coffee." He stood up and nodded good morning to her when she joined us in the kitchen. "Maybe my son will show I raised him right by making you a cup. Well, I'm off to work. Good to see you, Daphne."

With that, he turned and walked out. I grinned and filled a mug from the cabinet. I brought it to her at the table, along with cream and sugar. I didn't know how she took it.

We drank coffee together like we hadn't gone back on our agreement to be just friends. Between that and the fact that I was leaving in a couple days, I wondered just what the hell happened next?

In a little over forty-eight more hours, I would be buckling up my seatbelt and taking off to settle back into a life over four hundred miles away.

It wasn't that far, but it sure was far enough to make a romantic relationship damn near impossible.