Page 131 of Sinful as They Come
I watched as Joe glared at me for a few more seconds before looking over at Holly. She was avoiding her dad’s gaze, tucking some hair behind her ear.
“Holly, I’m begging you to tell me that this is a joke,” Joe sternly said. “Because right now, I’m not quite sure what to think.”
“Daddy,” Holly whispered. “He’s right. I love him. I love Sawyer too.”
My heart skipped a fucking beat. She loved me. She loved me. She loved me. I squeezed her hand. God, I should been jumping for joy. I should have been holding her tight and kissing her, because the sweetest girl in the world loved me back. But the situation was fucking dire.
“I know you don’t approve,” she said. “Not right now, at least. But once you get to know him, I promise you, you’ll see what a good guy he is. He’s sensitive and kind and protective and – and he’s so talented! He’s the best painter in school. You know he’s sold a painting to Eric, and he’s working on a project with the library, and everyone there loves his work. He has so much potential and so much talent. I love Sawyer a lot, Daddy. Please don’t judge him before you get to know him.”
My eyes never left Holly’s face during her little speech. There was something in her voice that I didn’t hear from people very often. Proudness. Fondness. Like she was more than happy with me, like she wanted to show me off, like she wasn’t ashamed of me or where I came from. My heartsoared a little and skipped a beat and fluttered and all that good shit. My hand grabbed Holly’s even tighter, watching her closely as she turned to face me, giving me the sweetest of smiles.
“I don’t care about any of that,” Joe said far too casually for someone who had just heard his daughter pour her heart out.
“What?” Holly asked.
“I don’t care about any of that. So he knows how to use a paint brush. Is that supposed to change my mind? Is that supposed to make melikehim?”
“Sawyer isn’t the guy you think he is,” Holly said with a hand to her chest. “Please don’t judge him the way other people do. Just get to know him. Just—"
“You really think I’m gonna let you be with someone like him?” he spat out. “He literally lives in atrailer park, Holly! Is this what you wanna do with your life? You wanna marry trailer park trash?”
There it was. I rubbed at the back of my neck. My heart was racing again and not in a good way now. I knew he was gonna bring that up. I knew it. But I wasn’t ready for it. I never was. Not when Carter did it, not when some other asshole did it, and especially not when someone’s who’s respect I was trying to earn did it.
“Don’t call him that!” Holly cried out. “Sawyer works so hard, Daddy. Do you know how many hours he has to work after school, just so him and his cousin have somewhere to stay? Life’s not easy for everyone. We’re the lucky ones. I’m so thankful to live here, to have a roof over my head. Sawyer’s roof is different to ours and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“We all need to sit and calm down,” Nicolette suggested. “Joe, we need to talk about this properly. Please.”
Joe rubbed at his temples. “Nobody here seems to be getting what I’m implying here, so I’m just gonna come right out and say it.”
“Yeah, please just say it already,” I spat at him.
He shot me a look. “I will not have my daughter be with someone like you. Someone who isbeneathher. She can do better. I don’t know if she hit her head or something, but whatever’s gotten into her is gonna get out of her eventually. She’s gonna wake up and realize that you aren’t goodenough for her.”
“Why’s that? Huh?” I stood my ground. “She just gave you my résumé. What is it about me that you hate so much?”
“You’re gonna ruin her life!” he snapped. “You are not good enough for someone like my daughter. She’s gonna go places. What’s your plan exactly? Selling more paintings to rich guys in the neighborhood? Guys you can only look up to, because you’re never gonna make it that far?”
“I don’t need a fucking mansion,” I told him with gritted teeth. “I don’t need a house with five hundred fucking rooms that I don’t even get to stand in. I don’t need any of that shit, and I certainly don’t look up to any of those rich assholes you call friends.”
“Here we go, there’s the Sawyer Westbrook I know.” Joe clapped his hands. “Rude, vulgar, and classless.”
“You think that was vulgar, huh?” I asked.
“I do. And that’s exactly why you’re never going to be good enough for someone like Holly. Wake up and realize that whatever’s happened here with you two was short lived. What made you think you even had achancewith someone like her?”
Normally I would have smacked the shit out of someone who was disrespecting me like that. But I couldn’t. Not to Holly’sfatherof all people. My hand was heavy as I grabbed at my tie, giving it a rough tug. It wasn’t enough. I needed air. I needed escape. And I needed Holly to tell me she didn’t believe a word he was saying – or at the very least, didn’t give a single fuck.
“Holly, tell him,” Joe snapped at her. “Tell him you were delusional. That none of it meant anything.”
“No, that’s not true,” she pleaded. “Why won’t you listen to us? I want to be with Sawyer!”
“You don’t know what you want! You don’t. I don’t know what kinda brainwashing he’s done here. It doesn’t even matter, because from this point on, you are not allowed to see him again.” He pointed a sharp finger at me.
“You can’t keep her away from me,” I told him lowly.He didn’t even know that I knew exactly how to sneak into his daughter’s bedroom. That I knew what her bed looked like. That I knew whatshelooked like, eyes rolling into the back of her head as I gave her my cock. “And you can’t keep me away from her.”
“I’m her father. Whatever I want for her, that’s what happens. If I want to keep her away from trailer park trash like you, then I absolutely will,” he said.
“Joe!” Nicolette gasped. “Come on. There’s no need for that.”
