Page 83 of What I Like About You

“I deserved that,” Dalton responded, making his way over to the other Adirondack chair and parking himself in it. “What else you got?”

“That’s it for now. I’ll think of more later,” she said, before adding, “But I still love you.”

He nodded, knowing she did and that her reaction was because the only way Leona knew how to do anything was with her whole heart. That including letting him have it when he deserved it.

“Okay, so dude,” Kyle said, pushing up off the railing he was leaning on. “Let’s focus on how you fix this.”

“There is no fixing this. She’s right. I didn’t really offer her a good solution. She’s built this whole empire, and I asked her to basically give it up to run away with me.”

“Women tend to like to hear that they are right, you know,” Cullen interjected.

“So you go there…” Drea suggested.

“I can’t.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?” Leona asked.

“What the fuck is with that question? Can't, won’t…same difference.”

“Big difference, dude. Big difference,” Kyle said.

Pushing up from the chair, Dalton started to pace back and forth, suddenly full of nervous energy. He could still hear her words loud and clear, telling Dalton he “could extend your father some of that forgiveness.” Easier said than done.

“I didn’t exactly leave Atlanta on the best of terms,” he finally said, pausing to lean against the railing. “My last words to my father, shortly after finding out he’d been carrying on an affair with my step-mother prior to my mother’s death, were ‘I’d tell you I hope you rot in hell, but even that’s too good a fate for you.’ And I meant it.”

“Ouch,” Leona muttered.

“One doesn't just show back up years later after saying that.”

“For as often as he calls you, dude, I think he’s probably over it,” Kyle said.

“Do you still mean it?” Leona asked.

“Maybe? I’m still hurt by what he did. I can’t believe he would betray my mother like that. He was never a great dad, but he’d always talked about how she was the great love of his life. I don’t know how you do that to someone you love.”

“As someone who knows a thing or two about family secrets and the drama they cause,” Drea said, “specifically in the arena of family members behaving badly, I know how hard it can be to forgive someone. But it’s worth it.”

“So I don’t really see a downside to going back, mate. Make good with your family, get the girl,” Cullen said.

“Except for my life here. You know—my job, you guys,” he told him.

“We’re going to be in Atlanta a lot. You forget who’s running that team your father bought. He managed to hire two of my best mates, and I’ll be making a bunch of appearances. And if you think for one second she’s not going to make me take her with me, you’re delusional,” Cullen said, nodding in the direction of Leona, who was beaming as he spoke.

“And I’ve never been! So this is a great excuse to go,” Drea added in.

“You’re still assuming that Zara agrees to take me back…again…”

“I have a feeling she will,” Drea said, a mischievous grin on her face. “And if she doesn’t, come back here and be our first mate again.”

Dalton sighed, running his hand over his face. Why did it all seem so simple now? Why couldn’t it have made this much sense last night before he and Zara had told each other to fuck off? “Well, fuck. I guess I better look into flights to Atlanta.”

“Can we help you plan the grand gesture?” Drea asked.

“That’s the kind of thing a man needs to plan on his own, Sweetness,” Kyle said, pulling her into him and kissing her on the top of her head. “And after this week, just what makes you think it’s not something he can’t devise on his own?”

Drea shrugged in response, looking a little disappointed, and Dalton couldn’t help but laugh. He loved these four like they were family, and he was going to miss the hell out of them if this all worked out.

Which he hoped to God it would.