Page 20 of The Lost and the Found

Logan

I let outa tired sigh as I pushed the door opened to the restaurant. It was still early, not even lunch time, yet, but there were already a few groups of people eating. I took a seat at the bar top and ordered a water when the bartender came over.

It was still too early to start drinking, and I had to get back to work after this. No use going in buzzed.

I watched the place while taking small sip of my water, and it wasn’t long before the seat next to me was pulled out and a large shadow fell over me. I looked over to him and tipped my glass higher in greeting.

“When did you get here, boy?”

“I’ve just arrived. How are you, old man?”

He laughed a loud and hearty laugh that stole the attention of the whole restaurant before signaling for the bartender to get him a drink. I frowned at the shot of whiskey placed down in front of him.

“A little early for a drink, no?”

Mathew threw the shot back, his eyes on me the whole time. “It’s never too early for a drink.”

I didn’t say anything to that.

Mathew didn’t usually drink this early, though he had been known to hit the harder stuff occasionally. I knew why he was drinking today, though.

“Happy birthday,” I said softly.

“Thanks, boy.”

“I wished you wouldn’t get so sad every time this day came around. We should go out to celebrate it tonight. I’ll call Veena and we’ll go somewhere nice.”

“Nice,” he repeated, a bitter smile overtaking his face. “There is nothing nice about today. How long has it been? Fifteen years?”

I nodded, though he didn’t need confirmation from me. I knew he remembered.

“How do you think she’s doing right now?” His eyes gleamed, and I hated the sadness I saw in them.

“I think she’s doing great,” I said. “I think she is everything worthy of being your daughter and that even if she faced hardship in life, she’d quickly adapt to her environment and come out of it stronger.”

And that was true enough.

Hayden Bishop was the strongest person I knew, and I’d only gotten to know her for the past month—and most of it had been through my own observation of her from afar.

He smiled a little at that. “She’d always been smart, even when she was only eight. She’s twenty-three this year, yeah?”

I nodded. Yeah, she was twenty-three.

Hayden was taken from us when she was eight, and we couldn’t even report it to the authorities because Mathew didn’t have custody of her. It wasn’t even considered kidnapping when the person who took her from us was her mom.

I didn’t tell Mathew I found her a month ago. Mostly because Hayden didn’t seem to remember anything from her life with us before her mom took her away, and I didn’t know how she would react if I told her. And I knew Mathew would insist on seeing her right away.

Sometimes I wondered if I was making the right choice, or whether if I even had the right to make such a choice, but it was done.

The only thing I could do now was look out for his daughter as best as I could. Yet, a part of me knew I wasn’t just looking out for her because of Mathew.

Hayden brought out all of my protective instincts. I wanted to take care of her in ways I never wanted to with anyone else, and the part that I despised most about myself was that I knew I wasn’t just doing this out of the goodness of my heart.

I wanted her.

I wanted Hayden Bishop badly enough to be selfish for at least a little while longer.

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