Page 47

Chapter 46

“Cruz! To what do I owe this pleasure?” I asked when I swung open the door of my apartment and found my youngest son standing there. He stepped forward and wrapped me in a hug that lasted a tad longer than our usual embraces.

“Hey, Dad. I needed to talk to you.”

My chest warmed at the needed part. It had taken a while for Cruz to feel close to me once he’d found out I was his biological father, so I was thrilled whenever he sought me out for help or advice.

“Whatever you need, son. Come on in. You want something to dri—” My words froze when I saw who was standing in the hallway behind him. “Dr. Hart, what are you doing here?”

I realized it was apropos to have a cardiologist named Dr. Hart, but he was one of the best in the world, as well as being very relatable.

“Paul, good to see you. Cruz asked me to come by.”

My eyes darted between them, and a bit of panic began to set in. My gaze stopped on Cruz. “Are you sick?” The words came out in a croak.

His big hand landed on my shoulder, and he crooked a half-smile at me. “No, Dad. I’m not sick, but we do need to talk. It’s a good thing,” he added at the end. “But it’s going to be a bit of a shock, and I thought…”

“You wanted my doctor here in case I decided to keel over,” I surmised, wondering what in the hell he could want to tell me that might upset me. Then an idea popped into my head, and I smiled. “It’s okay, Cruz. I’m not one of those dads.”

“One of what dads?” he asked in confusion, guiding me toward my brown leather couch. We sat, and I flashed him a knowing look.

“If you and Lehra are expecting, I would be thrilled. I know you’re not married yet, but like I said, I won’t be one of those judgy parents.”

He laughed, his mocha face flushing pink, and shook his head as Dr. Hart sat in the matching chair closest to me. “It’s not that, Dad. I promise.”

“Okay. Well, it’s probably for the best because your mother would be pissed if you told me without her here.” His mother, my beautiful Stella, was in Texas wrapping up some business so she could move here. With me. Cruz’s fiancée, Lehra, had gone with her to help. “So, lay it on me, this shocking but good news.”

My son inhaled a breath and swallowed hard before meeting my eyes with his matching ones. He was such a handsome lad, with his mother’s Latino skin tone and my blue eyes.

“Dad, Evie is back.” The words didn’t register, and I stared at him blankly. “Did you hear what I said?”

It was as if he’d spoken into a long tunnel, like the sound waves were taking a while to reach my ears. But I had heard them. I just couldn’t fathom them.

“My Evie?” I managed to say around my heart, which seemed to have risen up and lodged in my throat.

“Your Evie,” he said kindly. “Your daughter is home.”

My eyeballs hurt with the sudden flood of tears that inundated them. “She’s…” I could barely get the next word out. It was a word I’d thought of for years, a word full of hope. “Alive?” I finished with my fists clenched in my lap. Please, God. Don’t let her have come home in a coffin.

Cruz’s arm wrapped around my shoulders. “She’s alive and well, Dad. I don’t know what all she’s been through, but she seems very happy.”

I. Crumpled. The Evie-sized hole inside me began to fill, and I folded over on myself with the effort to comprehend exactly what this meant. I was vaguely aware of someone doing something to my arm, but the only thing I could process in my one-track mind was the face of my daughter. As a beautiful, loud infant. As a pigtailed five-year-old. As an eye-rolling preteen. As a lovely teenager who loved to make others laugh. And as an almost-nineteen-year-old who had disappeared and left me a shell of a man.

The vague mumblings around me came into focus.

“Doc, what’s going on?”

“Pulse is slightly elevated, but his blood pressure is actually good.”

“Could he be in shock?”

I lifted my head and answered them in a voice hoarse with tears. “I’m not in shock. I’m just calm. Because for the first time in seventeen years, I feel… whole.”

I wanted to sprint all the way to Auburn’s apartment. I wanted to run and leap in the air and shout with joy through the streets of New York, but Cruz insisted on driving me. Dr. Hart concurred. The spoilsports. I felt like forty years had been lifted off my shoulders, like I was a young man again.

Dr. Hart had ridden with us and would stay downstairs in Cruz’s apartment while my son and I went up to the penthouse. Where my daughter was. My baby girl. My Evie.

“Why is this elevator so goddamn slow?” I vented, and Cruz chuckled.

“Dad, we’ve only been in here for two seconds.”

“Longest two seconds ever,” I muttered, staring at the numbers over the door.

On Cruz’s floor, I waited by the elevator with the utmost impatience as he let Dr. Hart into his home. What the hell is taking him so long? I peeked around the corner to see my son jogging down the corridor toward me.

“Can’t you run any faster than that? I thought you were a Marine!” I called, causing him to break into a sprint the rest of the way.

“You’d make a good drill sergeant,” he said, but I was already stepping into the elevator and sliding the card Auburn had given me into the penthouse slot. Approximately ten hours later—at least, that’s what it felt like—the doors opened, and I saw my oldest son’s door.

She’s in there. Evie is actually in there.

All of a sudden, I felt nervous and placed a hand over my heart. The beat was hard—so hard it vibrated against my palm—but it was steady and sure.

“You okay, Dad? Do I need to call the doctor up here?”

I shook my head, still staring at that door, the only barrier between me and my daughter. And I was ready.

“No. I’m fine. Let’s go.”

The door swung open as if I’d willed it to happen. I think it was Auburn who pulled it open, but I couldn’t be sure because… there she was. Standing beside the couch, twisting her fingers together at her waist.

My Evie.

It was her. On the car ride over, I’d convinced myself I would find an imposter, but this was definitely my daughter. She looked different, no longer the eighteen-year-old who I’d last seen. Her hair was darker and shorter, but my own blue eyes reflected back at me from her pretty face.

“Daddy,” she said on a sob, and my goddamn feet began to move like I was an Olympic sprinter. And then she was in my arms.

All my broken pieces began to sew themselves back together as we held each other, my head on her shoulder and her face in my neck. We cried. A lot. And for a very long time.

Then I couldn’t help it anymore. I had to look at her. Pulling back, I cradled her face, her precious, precious face, in my hands and memorized every inch of it. “I love you,” I said, and I realized those were the first words I’d spoken to my daughter in seventeen years.

And they were the right ones because nothing was more important than love.

“I love you too, Dad.” That filled in the rest of the Evie hole in my soul, and I kissed every inch of my daughter’s face. Soft, gentle kisses of pain and longing and adoration. I’d dreamed of doing this for years. Showing my Evie how loved she was. How much I’d missed her spirit and her laugh in my life.

“Are you okay?”

“I am.” Her hands slid down my arms and grasped my own. “Let’s sit down so we can talk.”

I almost stumbled on my way to Auburn and Gianna’s red couch because I couldn’t stop looking at my little girl. Well, she was all grown up, but she’d always be my little girl. I was aware of sniffles and sobs from around the room, from Kassie and Gianna, but also from my sons.

“First of all, Dad. This is my husband, Dane Osbourne.” Cruz had informed me on the drive over that Evie was married, and I finally pulled my eyes away from her to look at the man who had come up beside her. He had dark hair with a splash of gray and a full, neatly trimmed beard. His eyes were dark brown and on my daughter, like he too wanted to make sure she was all right. I appreciated that about him.

“Dane, I’m Paul Bouvier.” I stuck out my hand, and he returned the gesture with a firm handshake, which I also appreciated. Then I swiped at my face, finding it soaked with tears. “I’m not usually such a mess.”

Our eyes met, and he nodded with a slight smile. “Completely understandable, sir.”

Everyone settled onto the comfortable furniture with Evie between me and her husband. I was still processing the fact that she was married.

Gianna squeezed my shoulder. My first daughter-in-law was always such a comforting spirit. “Paul, do you need something to drink?”

“No, thank you, sweetheart. I’d just like to hear what happened to my daughter.”

Evie leaned back against the couch cushions and blew a breath toward the ceiling. “It’s a bit of a messy story. And long too, so if anyone needs to use the bathroom, I suggest you do it now. Otherwise, you’ll mess up Auburn and Gianna’s pretty, and no doubt expensive, furniture.”

I couldn’t help my smile. That was the trademark Evie wit I’d missed so much. She always had a way about her that put others at ease with smiles and laughter.

“We’re fine,” Auburn said, and Evie glanced at Dane.

They seemed to share some kind of secret conversation before my daughter nodded at him and then said to the room, “Okay. Here we go.”