Page 43 of The Love Ambush (The Sullivans #1)

Gentry

I am never drinking again. I feel like someone scooped out my brain and replaced it with jello, which isn’t great because I need to have all my wits at full speed ahead with Dad standing on my doorstep, his child bride by his side and a moving truck on the street behind them.

It’s been an hour since we got back to Catalpa Creek. The fact that he’s already here with all his stuff has my danger alerts blaring.

“Wow, Dad,” I say. “You’re here. Come on in.”

He gestures at the truck. “Where should I tell the guys to unload all this?”

“Um, we weren’t expecting you, so we’re going to have to make room. Maybe put everything in the garage for now?”

Dad looks over at Trisha, who’s staring at him with a worried crease between her brows. “You said you told them we’re moving in.”

He laughs uncomfortably. “I did tell them. At the wedding yesterday. They haven’t had time to make…” He looks back at me. “Why don’t we come in and have a look around? See where we might fit.”

He brushes past me before I have a chance to invite him in.

“How did you have time to pack up and get here?” I ask.

Dad waves a hand. “We packed and sent the truck here before the wedding.” He’s looking around the place with intense concentration, and I avoid the urge to apologize for the mess. “I knew you’d need us, kiddo.”

Those danger alerts blare even louder, and I have to breathe through my nose to quell the panic. Dad’s name is still on the lease. I can’t tell him not to move into his own house. And maybe he really wants to be close to his daughters.

I can be civil for my sisters. “None of us ever uses your old room,” I say. “You two can totally take it over. We’re pretty set on furniture for the rest of the house, though, so you might want to put the bulk of your things in storage.”

Trisha looks at our worn couch and gives Dad a pleading look. He misses or ignores it.

“We’ll figure it out,” Dad says. “Don’t you worry. Why don’t you take your sisters out to do something fun for the day, and we’ll get settled while you’re gone?”

He’s kicking us out? This doesn’t feel right. Panic rises again, and I breathe deep. For my sisters, I have to give Dad a chance. No matter how certain I am that he’s going to break all our hearts again.

It’s a Sunday, and I can’t think of a single thing I can offer to take the girls to do that will get them out of the house, except… “Sophie was saying on the way home she could use some new jeans. And Emily really needs new soccer cleats.”

He grins. “Perfect.”

“Except, we’re short on funds at the moment.” Do I feel bad asking my estranged father for a small fraction of the child support he never bothered to pay? Not even a little bit.

“Sorry, kiddo,” Dad says breezily. “We’re tight until I find a new job. We spent all our fun money getting here.”

Of course, he did. “Can’t the girls just stay in their rooms, Dad? They’re tired from the trip home, and I’m sure they don’t want to go anywhere.”

“You’ll figure out a way to lure them out,” he says. “We don’t want them underfoot.”

“I think I saw one of those indoor bounce house places on the way here,” Trisha says as she sits in my favorite chair and shifts uncomfortably. “Don’t kids love bouncy houses?”

I shake my head, way too tired to explain that her new stepdaughters outgrew bouncy houses about eight years ago. “I’ll talk to them.”

“Don’t talk to them,” Dad says. “Explain what’s expected and insist on compliance.”

I breathe out slow through my nose and grit my teeth so I don’t tell him exactly what I think of his advice. Starting an argument won’t solve anything. If Dad’s going to abandon my sisters again, it won’t be because of me.

For my sisters. I’m doing this for my sisters.

I go to Sophie first because if she’s in, Emily will usually go along. Oh, Emily will still complain and insist she doesn’t even like her big sister, but she’ll go wherever Sophie goes. Often, she won’t go somewhere by herself without Sophie.

“Okay,” Sophie says after I explain everything. She climbs off her beanbag chair and pulls her long, thick hair up into a loose bun. “Give me a few minutes to get changed. Maybe we can get breakfast and have a picnic at the park?”

I stare completely shocked. “That’s a great idea.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” she says. “We have to give Dad a real chance. If he needs some space to unpack, we can give him that. Emily deserves to have her dad at home with her.”

My eyes burn. She’s doing this for Emily? “You’re a good big sister, Sophie.”

She rolls her eyes. “Go tell Emily. I’ll be ready soon.”

Emily’s on her stomach on her bed, her feet in the air as she reads a book and listens to music through her earbuds, her head bopping. There’s no way to let her know I’m here without scaring her, so I move into the room and into her line of sight slowly.

She startles and lets out a small screech before pulling out her earbuds and glaring at me. “Gentry. You scared me.”

I sit on the edge of her bed, biting back a laugh. “I’m sorry. I was trying really hard not to.”

She presses a hand over her chest and sits up. “Sure you did. What do you want?”

“Dad’s here with Trisha. They want—”

She smiles so wide it looks painful. “Dad’s here? Why didn’t you tell me?” She leaps off the bed and runs out of the room.

I follow her downstairs and onto the front porch. Dad’s on the lawn, directing two men with boxes, but he stops everything and opens his arms when he sees Emily.

She runs into them and squeals. “I can’t believe you’re here already.”

Dad looks genuinely happy to be hugging his daughter. I swear his eyes are glistening with tears.

“Maybe he did want to be here with us all these years and he really believed he couldn’t be,” Sophie says next to me. I didn’t even notice her stepping out onto the porch.

“Maybe.” Looking at the happiness on his face while he hugs Emily, I can almost believe it. I want to believe it.

Emily steps out of the hug and squeals again when she sees the moving van. “You’re moving in today? Do you want me to help?”

Dad pats her shoulder. “That would be great, sweetheart, but we’ve got it covered. Gentry’s going to take you and Sophie out for a fun day.”

I can’t see Emily’s face, but she seems to droop just the tiniest bit. “Okay. I’m sorry the house is such a mess. We never have time to clean.”

“That’s all going to change,” Dad says. “We’re going to make time to keep the house looking good. I know the past few years have been hard on you and your sisters, but I’m here now.” He looks over and sees Sophie, his smile growing wider. “There she is. Good to see you, Soph.”

Sophie doesn’t run into our father’s arms, but she hurries down the steps and hugs him. “I’m glad you’re here,” she says against his chest.

Dad shoos us all off. We head to town, get lunch from the local deli, and have our picnic. Emily chatters on and on about how great it’s going to be now that Dad’s living with us and how pretty Trisha is.

A sick feeling in my gut makes it hard for me to eat, but I force it all down.

“Now you can go back to art school,” Sophie says as we’re cleaning up after lunch.

I stop, shocked. “What?”

Sophie bumps my shoulder with hers. “Levi showed us your painting. You’re really good. You should be in art school.”

Pain surges through me so hard I nearly trip and fall into the trash can. I’ve been doing such a good job of not thinking about Levi, but just the mention of his name and I’m a total wreck. I miss the idiot. And I’m still mad at him for not warning me about Dad.

But I miss him more.

“Why would Levi show you my painting?” I ask as I drop our trash into the can.

“He wanted to see it,” Emily says. “We just happened to be there.”

“I think he wanted us to see it too,” Sophie says. “I think he wanted us to know…”

“To know what?” My throat is tight, and my head is throbbing, and I feel close to tears. This is all too much.

Sophie waves a hand. “Nothing. The point is, you should go back to art school. Dad’s here now, and we all know you’d make a terrible nurse.”

I gasp. “I would not.”

Emily laughs. “You can lie to yourself, Gentry, but you can’t lie to us. We’ve seen you freak out around blood.”

Can I really go back to art school? The local university, Maple Ridge, has a decent program, so I wouldn’t have to go far from the girls. It wouldn’t be the elite program I was in before, but it might be good enough.

My heart leaps with excitement at the idea. I could make art my life again. My hands itch to pick up a paintbrush.

“Do you think we can go home now?” Emily asks.

We’ve been out for exactly one hour. “We haven’t given them enough time,” I say. “We could go to the library for a bit.”

“We always go to the bookstore or the library,” Sophie says. “Why can’t we do something I want to do for a change?”

My headache gets worse at the thought of the argument brewing. I so don’t have the energy for this. “What would you like to do, Sophie? We have the whole afternoon.”

She stares at me. “I don’t know. Something fun.”

“The library is fun,” Emily says. “There’s nothing else to do in this stupid town.”

Sophie glares at Emily and opens her mouth to say something I’m certain won’t help the situation.

“How about we go to the library?” I say. “And while we’re there, you can come up with a fun place to go next, Sophie.”

Sophie crosses her arms over her chest, scowling like the twelve-year-old she was not so long ago. “Fine. Whatever.”

“Great.”

The drive to the library is blessedly silent, and both Emily and Sophie, despite her protests, get immediately sucked into scanning the shelves in their respective favorite sections of the library.

Ellery bumps into me on her way to return a book to the teen section that was misplaced.

She takes one look at me, and her ever-present smile falls. “Oh, no. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I say, but I’m not even convincing myself. “Can you recommend a good YA romance for Sophie?” That usually works to redirect Ellery’s attention.

Ellery, never one to mince words, shakes her head. “Nope. We’re talking about whatever this is.” She draws a circle in the air around my face with one long finger. “Come on. I can take my break now, and you’re going to tell me everything.”