Page 126 of Crossing the Line
“Wow.” Waverly didn’t know what to think. Her mother in rehab, her father in therapy. What was her world coming to? “Uh, how’s it going?”
“Good. Painful, but good,” he admitted. “And speaking of painful, I have to tell you something.”
Waverly closed her eyes. More pain. There was always more, a never-empty well of it in this lifetime.
“I went to see Xavier.”
“What?” This time she did drop her hot dogs. Her father picked them up for her.
“The fire will sterilize them,” he predicted.
Still in shock, she took the stick back from him.
Robert cleared his throat a pressed on. “When we were in Greece, he—shall we say—encouraged me to step up and be a better man.”
“Oh, God.”
“I went there with the intention of doing the right thing by my daughter, threatening him with bodily harm if he ever so much as thought about you again.”
Of course this was the moment her father chose to stand up for her. When a father’s interference would add to the humiliation.
“How did you know we were… he and I were…” she couldn’t find a way to end the sentence without tears or awkwardness.
“After he got done putting me in my place on the yacht, I could see how much he cared about you,” Robert told her.
“And so you went to return the favor.” Waverly heaved a heavy sigh.
“That was my intention. Until I saw him. I’ve seen men destroyed before, but nothing like that.” Robert shot her a glance. “He looks worse than you, and you nearly died.”
For some reason it made her want to laugh. The absurdity of it all. She’d almost died, and when she knew she was finally safe, that she once again had that gift of life, she’d lost her will to want it.Could she find it again? Could she grab onto that gift and run with it, finally? Even without Xavier?
“How was he?” she asked, hoping she sounded casual. She wanted to know the details of his suffering, wanted to know that he hurt like she hurt.
“He was so drunk I had to help him to the sofa,” Robert told her. “He hasn’t left his condo since he left you here the day you came home. And, from the smell of it, hasn’t showered either.”
“He’s probably just mourning a near miss with his perfect record. Almost lost a client,” Waverly muttered.
“Oh, he talked about you—well, slurred. But it wasn’t about you being a client. It was about how he wasn’t good enough for you and that you deserved a man who could keep you safe from danger. Someone who wouldn’t fail you like he had.”
“Why is he such an idiot?” Waverly wondered.
“I know how he feels, Waverly,” Robert confessed. “I’ve felt that way about you and your mother for a very long time. I wasn’t good enough, and I did my best to prove just that to both of you.”
“I wasn’t looking for perfect, Dad. I was looking for real.”
“I’m starting to understand that. And maybe someday, so will Xavier,” he sighed. “You have to understand, I owe him. He kept you safe when I couldn’t and wouldn’t. You’re here with me because Xavier Saint was a good man.”
“Whose side are you on here?” Waverly asked him.
“Always yours. From now on, always yours,” Robert told her.
Waverly pulled her hot dogs out of the flames. She tucked them into buns and handed two more to her father.
“I’m going to need you to be on my side for something.”
“Name it,” he said, adding onions to his dogs.
“I’m going to college.”
