However, I couldn’t decide how I felt about the therapy session with Iona.
I definitely knew it was uncomfortable as fuck.
I’d told the woman things about my childhood only Lachlan and Robyn knew. Things I hadn’t even told Arro.
She asked me if I thought they were things Arro should know about me if I felt about her the way I did.
Why hadn’t I told Arro?
For a moment, it stumped me.
Iona told me to really think about it.
Arrochar’s eyes flashed across my vision. In my mind, she wore an expression that hadn’t crossed her face in weeks, the one she wore every time she’d looked upon me—until that night.
What was that expression?
“Hero worship,” I murmured.
She looked at me like I was her hero.
Fuck.
That was why it was so difficult to tell her about Robyn. It was why I tried to keep the shittier parts of my past from her, because I didn’t want her to stop looking at me like that. Like I could fix any problem and battle any demon for her.
But she didn’t stop looking at you that way after you told her about Robyn.
The truth didn’t scare her off.
My lies had.
Hands clenched around the wheel, I focused on the drive, feeling far more drained than I could’ve imagined. If this was therapy, it was brutal.
The sight of the Welcome to Ardnoch sign was a relief; even more so was Arro’s cul-de-sac and her bungalow.
Her home made me smile. Arro was never about flash, but about comfort and space. She’d told me she bought the bungalow because it was big enough for all her books and the knickknacks Lachlan had agreed she could take from the castle. My smile transformed to a frown, however, when I saw not Jock’s vehicle out front but Robyn’s.
Where the hell was Jock?
Parking on the street, I hurried up Arro’s front walk. Her curtains were drawn, so I couldn’t see anything but faint light between the cracks.
Robyn answered after I rang the doorbell.
“Robbie,” I greeted, confused, peering past her into the hallway for Arro. “What are you doing here? Where’s Jock?”
My daughter leaned against the doorjamb, casual, relaxed in posture, but there was something calculating in her eyes. “Jock’s fiancé is sick, so he had to go home to take care of him and his son. I said I’d guard Arro until you got back.”
I scowled at that. “Putting you both in the crosshairs. Wonderful.”
She smirked. “Yeah, Lachlan wasn’t too happy about it, either, but I reminded him that just because I married him doesn’t mean I stop being who I am. And we both know I can handle myself.”
It wasn’t said with arrogance. It was a statement of fact. Pride swelled inside me. While I’d always worry about Robyn, as was a father’s prerogative, how she’d handled herself with Fergus and Lucy soothed those worries. Robyn was strong, capable, and well-trained.
And suddenly it dawned on me, making me feel stupid for not having recognized it sooner, but that was what Arro needed. I’d been so set on being the one to protect her that I hadn’t recognized what she really needed was to feel like she could protect herself.
“You’re letting the cold in.” Arro appeared in the doorway beside Robyn. She flicked me an annoyed look I’d almost grown used to. Anything was preferable to the devastation in her expression when we’d argued in the cabin. “Mac.”
“Arro. I’m just back from my jujitsu class, and I’ve decided you’re coming with me every Thursday from now on.”