He presses kisses to my hair. “I’m so happy for you.”
“This is all thanks to you,” I tell him, kissing him on the lips.
He shakes his head and laughs. “It’s sort of thanks to my Dad.”
I smile, tears pooling in my eyes. “Yeah, I guess it is.” I sag against Jace, exhaustion overtaking my body now that I can relax. “I can’t believe this. I feel like I’m dreaming.”
“No dream,” he murmurs. “This is one-hundred percent real.”
“Wow,” I breathe. “I think I’m in shock.”
He chuckles. “That’s understandable.”
I rest my head on his shoulder.
For years, I hid from my past and Jace ran from his, and somehow, we ended up in the same place.
Life works in funny and mysterious ways.
At the time, you might not know why something is happening, but it all happens for a reason.
I climb off his lap and grab the laptop, typing back a response with a smile on my face the whole time.
Jace
“Are you going to answer that?” Nova calls from the bathroom.
I eye my phone on the couch beside me. The Imperial March theme song blares from it. I’m not one to assign songs to people’s numbers for when they call, but the song was too fitting for my father so I went with it.
“It’s my Dad, so no.”
She sighs and pokes her head out of the bathroom, her hair hanging down in a wet sheet.
“He’s called every day since New Year’s Eve,” she reminds me.
“I have nothing to say to him.” I turn the page on my kindle book, then realize I hadn’t finished reading the page I’d just flipped.
I can feel Nova glaring at me. “I don’t have the warm and fuzzies for the man, believe me, but don’t you think you should just talk to him? It must be something important if he keeps calling.”
“Trust me—all he wants is to continue our conversation from before, maybe wring me over the coals some more, that’s it. But if it’ll make you feel better I’ll call him back,” I finally relent.
“It would.”
I sigh and close the book.
My dad isn’t one to call and keep calling, so I know Nova’s right and something more must be up, but it’s one of those things I just don’t want to deal with. The man is constantly making my life unpleasant, so I’ve learned to avoid him.
I pick up the phone and call him back.
“Jacen?” he answers immediately.
“What do you want, Dad?” I figure it’s best to cut straight to the point. I lean forward, resting my elbows on my legs and pinch the bridge of my nose.
“Things got … heated on New Year’s Eve before we could have dinner, and there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Then talk to me now,” I grumble.
“No—we’re going to meet for lunch, tomorrow.”