Or, in his case, the fear of heated lye and needle nose pliers yanking my teeth out.
Luce may have been retired, but I knew he was fully capable of brushing off the old tools if he felt like he needed them.
Hence the avoiding him thing.
But it was Evan’s birthday, so we had to meet them for dinner. Besides, I was going to need to make right with the man if I was going to ask him for his permission to marry his daughter.
“Come on. You can do it,” Louana said as she climbed out of the car and waited for me to join her.
Taking a deep breath, I climbed out, grabbed her hand, and walked up the driveway toward her childhood home.
I knew it pretty well. Even if the only times I’d really been inside it were when I was not supposed to be there.
“Hey, Diego,” Louana said when we walked in to find a massive blue & gold macaw sitting on the back of the couch like he was waiting for us. “How you doing, bud?” she asked, reaching out toward him, but getting a bit of a warning lunge. “He never did warm up to me,” she said, shrugging.
“It’s because he’s gotten so spoiled by Barrett,” Evan said as she came out of the kitchen, giving us a warm smile.
“Happy Birthday, Ev,” I said, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
“Thank you. I told you no gifts!” she grumbled when Louana held out the box.
“Like that was going to happen. Where’s Dad?”
“Out back. Pretending to know how to grill. You want to go give him a hand?” Evan suggested, giving me a knowing smile.
Yeah.
That’s what I wanted to do.
Try to tell him that he was cooking the steaks wrong.
That would go over just great.
“Rip off that band-aid,” Louana said, smacking my ass once then moving off with he mother, the two of them talking about how long the new living room set we ordered was taking to come in.
I was halfway to the back door when Diego flew onto my shoulder with a little squawk.
“You can bring him,” Evan called. “Barrett free-flies and recall trains him. He won’t go anywhere without coming back when he’s called.”
A part of me was worried that she was setting a trap of sorts, but I pulled the sliding glass door open to step on the back patio, finding Luce standing facing the woods behind the house.
He’d never outgrown his love of hoodies, and even as he stood there, he was in a black one with the hood pulled up over his head.
“Done avoiding me?” he asked without turning back.
“Figured I had to stop being so chickenshit eventually,” I agreed. “And Evan is worried you’re fucking up the steaks,” I added.
“I probably am,” he agreed, waving at the grill. “So, you and Lu,” he said, exhaling hard, like he was dreading this talk to.
“Me and Lu. As it was always supposed to be.”
“Until you fucked it all up,” he said, finally turning to pin me with those intense eyes of his.
“Yeah, until then,” I agreed. “I know this is the part where I’m supposed to apologize, Luce. And I have. To Lulu. But I’m not going to do it again. Because I think that leaving had been the right decision, but that I should have said something first.”
“It was too much,” Luce said, frowning at the steaks as I flipped them. “Remember telling Ev that when you snuck in every single night since the day you started dating.”
“You knew?”
“You thought I didn’t?” he asked, smirking.
“And I wasn’t melting in a tub of lye in the basement because…”
“Because I was an upstanding contract employee with the NBPD at the time,” he said. “At least during normal working hours, that is. Besides, the boyfriend of your kid can’t go missing. You’ll always be one of the first suspects. But, yeah, I agree that you two breaking up was probably for the best. But I didn’t like seeing her like that. Broken like that. I spent my entire fucking life making sure nothing touched that girl, nothing hurt her. Until you came. And shattered her.”
“I know I did,” I agreed, my gut sinking a bit at the reminder of the girl I loved being so hurt because of me. Even if it was a long time ago. Even if we had put it behind us. “I plan to spend the rest of my life making it up to her,” I assured him. “And not just because I know you will come out of retirement to make me disappear,” I added, getting a smirk from him. “I love her, Luce. Always did. Always will.”
With that, I pulled the little box out of my pocket.
“It’s only been a few months,” he said when he looked at the ring I’d had not only Vi, but Layna, Gracie, Hope, and Willa weigh in on.