Page 48 of Playing for Keeps
He shrugged. “Pride, I guess. I kept thinking I could fix things without sacrificing what I already had. But then I lost my wife and Naomi, she hasn’t really talked to me much since I moved out. After you and I talked about that misunderstanding with Del, I knew that if I went forward with the deal to sell the place that I might lose you too.”
Rylan’s chest hurt. She set the papers down and touched a hand to her father’s arm. “I told you that stuff with Del wasn’t your fault, Daddy. Besides, you can never lose me.”
Will leaned in and kissed her on top of her head. “I almost did. I saw it in your eyes that day. You felt like you were losing everything, all the things that had made you happy, and I didn’t want any part of that.”
“Last week, well on that day last week, it wasn’t about you. Del had said some things and…” she stopped. She didn’t want to talk about this anymore. “Thank you! Thank you so much for trusting me with this.”
She wrapped her arms around her father’s shoulders and hugged him tightly. Will hugged her in return. “Thank you for wanting it as much as I used to,” he whispered.
When they pulled away, Will tweaked her nose the way he used to when she was younger.
“Now, why are you sitting in here alone on Christmas Eve? Didn’t you tell me you had plans to be with Camy tonight?”
Because he still had his arms around her Rylan couldn’t turn away. She could, however, shake her head. “No plans.”
“No plans, or you canceled the plans because of what happened with Del?”
Rylan didn’t respond.
“Uh huh, I thought so. Look, babygirl, I told you that Del and I spoke. We ironed everything out. That arrogant little snot, Mal ran straight to the sheriff twisting our conversation around to make it seem like Del had asked us to hide the car for him.”
Rylan nodded. “I know. Sheriff Johansen came to see me to tell me that’s how he got the warrant so quickly. Because Mal had talked to you and knew that Del’s truck and the Wimbley car was there. He didn’t question it since news of the Wimbley murder had just come through. But later after they found nothing at Del’s house, he sat Mal down and threatened him with perjury.”
“That lying little weasel,” Will said.
“And Camy told me that Mal’s father had been in contact with Del’s boss for a while because he’d wanted to check up on the real reason why Del left the DEA. And since Del’s boss was afraid of what Del might say on the witness stand, he shared his own version of what happened to make Del resign.” She sighed because it had all been so much. For days she’d felt like she was involved in some type of drama reality show.
“Hope they toss all the liars in a jail cell, starting with Mal,” Will said with a huff.
She shrugged. “They might. The sheriff said he was going to get to the bottom of everything. I heard the FBI’s involved now too.”
“And none of this has anything to do with what you and Del were building together,” her father added.
“That’s done,” she told him in a resolute tone and moved out of his grasp this time.
“Doesn’t have to be.”
“He doesn’t want me. He never did. It was all just a…misunderstanding,” she said quietly. “And I don’t want to talk about it anymore. You want some hot chocolate?”
Will nodded and took off his jacket. “Let me just say this one thing and then you can go into that kitchen and fix us some hot chocolate. When you have love, real and true love, in the palm of your hand. You need to close up your fingers and hold on to it as tight as you can.”
He’d crossed to her, taken her hand and demonstrated his words.
“Don’t let it slip away, Rylan. Don’t ever let it slip away.”
Del was in a room full of people on Christmas Eve. And yet he’d never felt as alone as he did at this very moment.
He blamed that on the fact that he was the weakest link on his team and they were down fifteen points in the trivia game Camy had insisted they play. When Noah, Jeret and Rock finally got tired of him missing the answers they unanimously decided to evict him from the team. So, he’d left the living room where everyone was sitting around laughing, drinking and having a good time, and went into the dining room.
He sat at the old cherrywood table and toyed with the same white lace tablecloth that his mother used to pull out at Christmastime. When he grew tired of doing that, he reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone. No text messages. He logged into the social media app. No messages.
He sighed heavily.
“You two have got to be the most stubborn people in all of the state of Virginia,” Camy said when she walked in carrying a tray with empty glasses.
“Not now, Camelia,” Del snapped.
He should’ve known better.
