Page 127 of Whisper Sweet Nothings
I snorted. “I get it. I’m sure it’s been hard with you living so far away and not knowing what was going on here.”
“Yes. I mean, I trust my daughter, in every way but her personal life. The only guy she’s been with before now was a real asshole. When she agreed to marry him so young, it was the only time Winnie and I have ever truly fought. We didn’t speak for over a week, and then I came to my senses.”
“So Jaden won you over back then?” I asked.
“Hell no. He was a selfish prick, and I had his number.” He clasped his hands together. “But you’ll learn this very soon, Archer. If you don’t want to alienate your child, you have to let them make mistakes. It’s the most difficult thing to do as aparent. Never liked him, and unfortunately, he lived up to my expectations. But I had to let her figure it out herself.”
“That’s got to be rough.” I blew out a breath. “I think he’s finally moved on now. He hasn’t reached out in a while.”
“Well, she’s got this book release coming up, and trust me when I tell you, he’ll be watching. He’ll come out of the woodwork because he thinks he’s owed something. He guilted her into marrying him because he had zero drive and no plan, and he made her feel bad about wanting things for herself,” he hissed. “And he feels like she owes him now, which is crazy, considering she gave him most of her advance for the first two books she published. But what he doesn’t realize is that I made sure we got her a good divorce attorney, and he doesn’t have a chance in hell of coming after her future earnings. That was worth every penny.”
I nodded. “What kind of man tries to take money from a woman he loves?”
“A selfish one. He was always a spoiled kid. Came from a great family, and didn’t take advantage of all the opportunities he had. Instead, he sponged off of Winnie until she couldn’t take it anymore.”
“That’s fucked up,” I said, shaking my head with disgust.
“I do appreciate you encouraging her to go off and chase her dreams.” Sam’s voice was laced with emotion now. “She’s been made to feel guilty for years when it came to doing things for herself. She’s a caregiver by nature. Hell, I had to constantly remind her that I was the parent and she was the kid when she was young,” he said with a big smile on his face.
“I want her to do whatever makes her happy. I’ve officially fired her as my nanny,” I said with a smirk. “Felt kind of weird to be dating my employee.”
A deep chuckle rumbled from his chest. “Yeah, she mentioned that. But she takes her relationship with you andwith Melody very seriously, and she’s loyal as hell, so leaving you for a few weeks is difficult for her. I think some of that is deep-rooted, because her mom left her at such a young age, so she often thinks doing things for herself means she’s disappointing the people she loves.”
Fuck. I never thought of that. She kept bringing up how anxious she was, and I didn’t realize where it was coming from.
“That makes sense now. I keep telling her that we’ll be fine. And if I could miss work and pull Melody out of school for a few weeks, we’d be going with her. But I know she needs to chase her dreams, and wherever that leads her, I will support her. I promise you that.”
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that a small part of me worried that there were bigger things than me out there for Winnie. Hell, I’d been with a woman in the past who’d walked away from both me and her baby girl for her career.
I didn’t judge her for it. But that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt like hell at the same time.
But I would never be okay with pressuring or guilting someone into choosing me over their dreams.
Part of me was just hoping that at the end of this, Winnie would still choose to be with me.
But in the back of my mind, I knew her career was taking off, and she might just want to be free once she got a taste of all that success.
And I’d support her either way. Winnie had already spent years living her life for someone who didn’t believe in her.
I would not be that man.
I would never clip her wings.
It didn’t mean a little part of me didn’t wish like hell that I could keep her right here forever. I loved her too damn much to do that.
So I was preparing for the possibility that this tour could lead to other things that she wanted to pursue.
Her UK publisher was already pushing for her to come there for a book tour.
And I’d encouraged her to take every opportunity she wanted to.
“I don’t doubt that, Archer,” he said after a pause, bringing me out of my thoughts. “I can see it in the way you look at her. And even when she shares her anxiety with me, she tells me how much you support her. She didn’t have that in her past relationship, so I’m very glad to see that she has it now.”
“She does. I give you my word that won’t change.” This was why I’d hold back on all these big feelings that were consuming me. Because telling Winnie that I loved her right before she left would only make things more complicated for her. My job was to make sure that she knew we’d be fine on our own.
I wouldn’t be a needy asshole.
“I appreciate it,” he said, extending a hand and shaking mine from across the table.
