Page 26 of Hero for the Holidays

“I’ve never really gotten to know them.”

There were a lot of reasons for that. They’d kept their relationship so secret, she never messed with his family. He had never wanted Fia to get too close to his dad. That was the thing. Because his dad was a horrible bastard, and he had never wanted to expose her to him. Maybe he just hadn’t wanted his dad to know how much Landry cared about her. Because then he could use her to manipulate him. Then afterward it had been over.

This was just weird. Having her in his house. Acting like civilized adults.

Being close to each other by choice.

When not naked.

He didn’t need to think the wordnakedright now.

He cleared his throat. “They’re not half as messed up as they should be. All things considered.”

“I like to think that’s actually true about all of us. Look at the McClouds. They’ve even managed to work things out.”

“Yeah. Even Gus,” said Landry.

The room suddenly felt a bit small. It was the strangest thing, looking at Fia now. What she’d said to him had nearly knocked him on his ass. How did Lila feel? He could honestly say he didn’t think Lila felt robbed. She had loved her parents. Unreservedly. She had never felt like her life was less.

Being raised by a couple of teenagers...

He looked at Fia with this weird, tempered anger that he now had. He saw the girl she’d been. And for maybe the first time he looked at the woman she was now.

Really saw her. Not overlaid with his own hurt, his own issues. But just her. As she was.

He was struck by how pretty she was. Nothing had ever meant to him the way she had. It was a sad thing, growing up, growing older, realizing that time had sanded the edges off your feelings so much that you would just never be able to feel pleasure or joy or anticipation the way that you once had.

Because nothing had ever been as amazing as knowing that he was going to see Fia at the end of the day. Nothing had ever felt half so amazing as discovering sex with her.

There had never been another lover, another thrill, to match what he’d had with her.

He knew that was age. Age and wisdom, and the magnitude of suffering they’d experienced in the time since they’d been together.

But looking at her now reminded him of it. And it mingled with the present, and created some sort of potent alchemy that left him shaken.

And just then, he heard the slam of the truck door.

“That would be Denver.”

He felt his phone vibrate. He took it out of his pocket.Sending the kid in. I assume we’ll talk later.

And he didn’t know how to pull that apart. Didn’t know quite how to decode it. If it meant that Denver suspected that Fia was there for a reason, or maybe he didn’t even realize it was her.

But either way, he didn’t come in, and then Lila was scampering through the front door.

She stopped in front of them. Looking between them. “Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” said Fia.

He looked at her and saw that her eyes were filling with tears. And he realized he was going to have to say something, so that Lila wasn’t kept in suspense, and Fia wasn’t kept on this knife’s edge. He wondered when the hell he developed any sympathy for Fia.

“Lila, this wasn’t exactly how I wanted to do this. I wanted to give you a heads-up that...that your biological mother lived on the property, but when we talked about the past it hurt you and I didn’t want to make you confront things you weren’t ready for. But things went out of order today. And so... This is Fia. She’s the woman who gave birth to you.”

Lila’s face went white, and it was like his whole view shifted.

It wasn’t Fia in the spotlight, highlighted as a villain, not now.

It was him.

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