Page 128 of Defend Me

Biting my lip, I shrugged. “You wouldn’t get me my own horse and he looked lonely. Really, it was his fault.”

He surprised me by chuckling. “When me and your mom decided to have kids, I didn’t expect to get you.”

“Would you have wrapped it up if you knew?”

“No, I would have made sacrifices like Abraham and pray that it earned me God’s mercy.”

“He also almost sacrificed Isaac, so maybe we can avoid the altars and all that.”

“So, you did pay attention in church once in a while.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “You made me read the Bible for an hour every time I got in trouble. Pretty sure I got through it a few times.”

“A few times a year,” he joked.

Alex opened an envelope with an Xbox gift card and clutched it to his chest like it was made of gold. Shifting on my feet, I looked at my dad.

“Sorry I don’t come around enough. It’s not that I don’t want to and I know that Miranda invites me, but…” I took a deep breath and fought the urge to retreat into my shell of silence. Maybe an analogy would help. “You know how vampires work, right?”

He looked at me with a raised brow. “Sure.”

“Cool, so I’m like that. I’m a major night owl, the sun is my enemy because you passed on your super pale genes, I’m rarely seen by people, and I have to be explicitly invited in.”

“I don’t understand where you’re going with this.”

“Fuck.”

“Tilian,” he scolded.

“Shit, sorry.”

He sighed, probably remembering that I was hopeless. I grimaced and considered grabbing the cake knife to cut out my tongue so that I’d stop making things weird. I much preferred being my problematic self, but Brooks’ words had shocked me and I wanted to fix it.

“You don’t invite me,” I said quickly.

He turned fully to face me, which didn’t help. I stared at his shoulder, dreading the inevitable eye contact he’d want to make.

“We invite you all the time. Once a week.”

“Miranda does. You don’t.” Swallowing hard, I finally looked up at him. “I just assume that you don’t really care either way.”

“Why wouldn’t I? You’re my son.”

“Yeah, but… I’m me. Your wild child, as mom used to say. A… problem.”

“You are a problem,” he agreed, then he smiled. “You wouldn’t be you otherwise. Nothing about you takes away from how much I love you.”

“Really?”

“Of course. You were older when your mother left and I think I made the mistake of spending more time trying to make sure Vi and Alex were okay. You’ve always chosen to take care of yourself and do your own thing. Me and you have butt heads a lot, but Tilian, if we hadn’t, we might not be where we are right now. I might have never learned who Alex is and accepted that he isn’t broken. You were the one who forced us to open our eyes to so many things. That’s who you are- fearless and willing to fight for the things that you believe in, the things that are right.”

My eyes watered and I had to look away. I found Brooks staring at me from across the room. He offered me a smile that might’ve made me more emotional.

My dad nodded toward him. “Miranda won’t stop talking about him. He’s good. Better than the other boyfriends you’ve brought home.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Most of them were to piss you off.”

“Oh, I know. That’s why I was never nice to them.”

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