Page 95 of Singled Out

“On some level I did. Or I loved the man I thought he was for all those years.” Her voice pitched low, full of emotion. “I’m pretty sure he had other women the whole time we were married.”

I didn’t have a high opinion of my father, but that still stunned me. “I had no idea.”

“I didn’t either at first. As the years went by, he worked longer hours, came home later. He could’ve worked day shifts and had his employees cover nights at the bar, but he didn’t. There were plenty of nights he claimed to fall asleep on the couch in his office, and I suspect he might have, but not alone.”

Jesus.

My dad had managed Billy’s, a small bar that closed about fifteen years ago. He’d been gone a lot of evenings; that was true. As far as I knew, that was what his job required. That’s how it’d always been.

I guess now I knew why.

Looking back with a new perspective, it was so obvious.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“I’m over it now,” she said.

“Are you though? You haven’t been involved with anyone since.”

“That’s something we do well in this family, isn’t it? Avoid relationships?” She laughed, trying to lighten such an ugly truth. “Are you going to be the first to find the courage to change that, Max?”

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, still reeling from everything she’d revealed, but the truth had never been clearer. My dad was a world-class self-centered asshole. Apparently he always had been.

Harper wasn’t that.

She was caring and sexy and laughed easily and often. She made me laugh, made me look at life differently. Made me love her.

And she loved me.

She’d said she would never hurt Danny, and I knew she meant it. It was my job—mine and hers together—to make sure our relationship didn’t get to the point where we hurt Danny.

If I could convince her to give me another chance.

“I believe I am,” I said, a new determination burning in me. “I just need to figure out the best way to apologize and convince her.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Harper

Friday morning at five after seven, I was giving myself a private pep talk as I headed toward the diner’s coffeepot that had just finished brewing. My heart was heavy, but lamenting over my life wouldn’t make me feel any better. All week I’d been forcing a smile at work and reminding myself about two hundred times a day I was going to be okay and this broken-heart bullshit would eventually get better.

I pivoted to take coffee to the two tables that were already occupied and nearly dropped the pot when Dakota walked into the diner.

Patrick, the other server on shift, met her inside the door to seat her. They small talked. Then she pointed to the counter and made her way toward it. After filling everyone up on caffeine, I beelined back to the counter.

“Is something wrong?” I asked Dakota, who’d settled on one of the middle stools at the otherwise empty counter. “Did we get another no on the shop?”

Dakota smiled sleepily. “Nothing’s wrong. Can’t a girl get some breakfast?”

When I’d left the apartment twenty minutes ago, she wasn’t stirring yet. I’d thought nothing of it because she was never up before nine or ten. Her blond hair was thrown up in a messy bun on top of her head, her face unmade-up. I’d be more alarmed if she’d taken more time on herself.

“A girl can get some breakfast,” I said, relaxing a notch. “I’m just used to you getting yours closer to lunchtime. Waffles and bacon?”

“You know it.” She glanced over her shoulder toward the door as Luke Durham and Chance Cordova walked in.

I jotted down Dakota’s order and poured coffee in her mug, not needing to ask her whether she wanted some, then pushed the creamers closer.

“Goddess. You guys need bigger mugs though.”