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“Then why did you come?” he asked. There were new wrinkles around his eyes. More salt and pepper in his mustache than ever before. But there was also a kindness I’d forgotten existed since he’d caused me so much hurt all those years ago.

“My girlfriend and I just broke up,” I said.

“The single mom?” he asked.

My eyebrows knitted together. “How did you know?”

He glanced toward my mom coming into the room, and I turned my head just in time to see her say, “We still keep up with you as much as we can... We miss you.”

“We?” I demanded, looking at Dad.

He looked down, away.

Mom’s voice came loudly, “Damn it, Jack, we’ve talked about this.” When I looked at my mom, I saw angry tears in her eyes.

Dad gritted his teeth. “So what? I’m supposed to admit I was wrong, and it’ll all go away? It’s beenyearswithout a word, without a phone call. And when you looked at me in that diner, I could see it in your eyes. You hate me. You want nothing to do with me.”

“You raised me and then you wrote me off the second I disagreed with you! What was I going to do? Beg my dad to love me?” I choked on my words, hating how weak I felt saying them. I was a billionaire, had a thriving company. Shouldn’t I be past this by now?

He shook his head, his voice gruff. “Of course I love you. But when Easter came and you didn’t show up, then Thanksgiving came and you didn’t show up, and then Christmas... months turned into years turned into a whole damn decade. I thought you’d made your choice. You were done with me.”

I shook my head. “You never called me either. Mom’s the one who’s been having Liv sneak me zucchini bread for years.”

“Of course. She missed you,” Dad said. “Hell, I missed you.”

His words wrenched my already broken heart around in my chest. “Why haven’t you called if you miss me?” I asked, not believing it.

“I tried to call you at your office a couple years ago, and your assistant told me I wasn’t on the approved list.” He shook his head. “I could have tried harder, but I figured you seemed to be doing well. Why would I mess that up for you?”

My heart was holding on to all the hurt, all the anger, but it was fading despite my efforts. “Why would you miss someone who, in your mind, only cares about money?”

Dad ran his fingers through mostly gray hair. The top half of his head was pale where he wore his hat. “We know that isn’t true, Gage. Anonymous donor rebuilds the baseball field in Cottonwood Falls with state-of-the-art equipment? Another anonymous donor makes sure the school has brand new textbooks every three years? Not hard to guess who has that kind of money. And buying that schoolhouse for your brother and his wife?” At my surprised look, he nodded. “Tyler told us. Not to mention, your mom saves every press release about you—and they’re all good. Donating to small-town farmers and ranchers. Investing in infrastructure abroad? You’ve done it all. You proved that you were the one guided by your heart, Gage Griffen, and I was the one guided by fear.”

My legs felt weak, and I sat at the table. The same table where I’d done homework and eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner for so many years. But I wasn’t the same idealistic kid who used to sit here and dream about a life on the ranch with the girl I loved and a house full of babies.

I was a guy who’d given up on the love of my life to play hardball with a politician who cared more about his bottom line than doing the right thing.

“I’m not sure that’s true,” I said.

Mom sat next to me, laying a comforting hand on my arm that almost brought me to tears. “What happened with Farrah?” she asked. “We never met her, but you two looked so happy in all the photos.”

I had to swallow down the painful ball of emotion in my throat to speak. “I fucked it up. You know she wanted me to come and make up with you guys when I told her about the fight? She said she wanted a whole family to be behind her and her kids.”

Mom laid her hand over her heart. “She did?”

I nodded.

Dad cleared his throat. “When we saw that interview with you and her on the news, your mother told me in no short order it was time for me to put my pride behind me and make amends with you. The thought of me dying without ever knowing my grandkids. Without telling my son that I’m proud of him...” His voice broke up. Then he looked at me with murky hazel eyes. “I promise I won’t make that mistake again. We’re here for you, Gage, and whoever you choose to love.”

“I love her, and it wasn’t a choice,” I said. Falling for Farrah was just as inevitable as a raindrop falling from the sky. “And I love her kids. I haven’t known them very long at all, but it’s this feeling like...I want to experience life through their eyes.”

Mom and Dad exchanged a glance.

Dad said, “Gage, if I’ve learned anything while we’ve been apart, it’s that hanging on to being ‘right’ is the worst thing you can do. I may have gotten to stand by my opinion, but I missed the chance to stand by my son.”

Moisture pooled along my bottom lashes, and I wiped it aside. “This whole time, I’ve been waiting for you to reach out, Dad. My assistants never told me you tried to call and that’s on me... But you could have gotten my number from my siblings too. I thought—” I had to clear my throat to speak. “I thought you hated me.”

Dad shook his head, putting his hand on my back. “I never hated you. I was mad at you for showing my own shortcomings. There was a twenty-year-old kid with the guts, and the brains, to do what I couldn’t. And after a while, when you didn’t come by, I figured you were better off without your old man stomping on your dreams.”