Page 79 of Roll With The Punches

Chapter Twenty-One

Brandon wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill the girls—metaphorically, of course—or give them a pass and let their guilt eat at them.

Jeff had made an excellent point on the phone. They had slaughtered Brandon’s trust in them with this lie.

Series of lies.

Not just slaughtered his trust in them, but shaken to the very bedrock foundation his trust in himself as a father.

Whatelsedidn’t he know? He’d thought he was pretty good at keeping tabs on his daughter. Had she been lying to him about other things?

Okay, this can’t be allowed to go unchallenged, at the very least.

He leaned against the couch and motioned to them with his left hand. “Start talking.”

They exchanged a guilty glance.

“We’re sorry, Dad,” Em quietly said.

“Not good enough.”

“Really sorry,” Grace softly added.

He slowly shook his head. “How are weeversupposed to trust you after this? That’s the sad thing, here. I’m not upset at you two for being gay and dating. I’m not even upset at you two getting caught fooling around, because you’re teenagers. Duh. I’m upset that until less than an hour ago, I would have sworn to anyone that I could trust the two of you not to lie to us, and here I find out you’ve been telling us alotof lies. For how long now?”

Em’s face reddened. “Over a year, sir,” she softly said.

LowercaseS, of course.

“Over…a…year.” He let the silence hang between them for a long, uncomfortable moment. “Ayear. What else have you lied about?”

Em shook her head. “Just…about us.”

“Are you drinking?”

Both girls shook their heads.

“Drugs?”

“No,” they said.

“Smoking?”

“No, Dad.” Emma brushed tears from her eyes. “We…we weren’t telling anyone about us and it was easier to not update you.”

“Because then you could fool around behind our backs.”

Finally, they both nodded.

“Have there been times you told me you were somewhere and you weren’t?”

“No,” Em quietly said, her breath hitching. “We knew if we came here and we were alone that we’d have privacy. I never lied about where we were.”

“Just about what you were doing.”

She gave him a little nod.

He let another long, guilty silence enfold them. No, he couldn’t let them skate on this. They were smart. Damned smart. If he didn’t slam home empathy to them now, the lesson that trust shattered couldn’t be taped back together in an instant, he was failing in his duties as a father.