Page 32 of Fall Love

I just needed time in Rusty’s Wrecks. And after promising not to step into the garage, with its gasoline and petroleum oil fumes, I took the time I’d originally wanted.

A moment between me and Dad.

Only, I’d been so drained from the cry and the emotional explosion toward Tate and then fighting with Lumi one more time about the potential sale, I’d been exhausted.

Instead of talking to Dad like I’d hoped, I pulled his old shirt off the hook where I’ve kept it on the back of his former office door and set it over my large lap like a blanket when I took a seat in his chair behind the metal desk. The one with a dent in the side, rust on the drawers, and my dad’s name roughly engraved in a corner on the surface.

And I took a nap.

I didn’t feel better after the rest, but I did have some clarity.

I couldn’t prevent the sale of the garage. And I couldn’t prevent Tate from being in his daughter’s life.

I didn’t want to keep him out because of my relationship with my dad. A little girl needs her father. At least, I hope that’s how Tate feels.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, because I’m not great at apologies.

“For what exactly?” Lumi counters, a motherly tone in her voice.

“For enthusiastically voicing my opinion. Again.” I sigh.

Lumi just stares at me. “And again, we are still in the position we were previously in.” She lowers her voice. “It’s time to cut our losses and sell.”

I understand the phrase, and yet it stings. Because the thing we will be losing is our dad’s legacy. The one his grandfather started, and his father ran for years before Dad took over. Before his daughters took over.

Letting go of Rusty’s Wrecks feels like letting go of Dad. I’m losing him all over again.

I grip the edge of the butcher table, trying to maintain a grip on my emotions.

“But do we have to sell to him?” I grit.

Lumi sighs. “We aren’t selling to him. He simply represents the company making the purchase. Bucky Beaver Body Shop.”

“Sounds like a sex store.”

Lumi snorts and shakes her head. “Not a very enticing one.”

There actually is a sex shop in the local area, but we boycott it now. Plus, Saint’s sister Kaye runs an entire adult-pleasure toy company, so Lumi has a direct line to anything I need.

“Speaking of him . . .” Lumi tips up one brow. “Tate Love? You really had no idea.”

“No idea,” I parrot. “He doesn’t live around here, which explains why I never saw him around before or afterward.” And it also explains why I was eager to have sex with him in the first place.

He’d leave.

“But he has ties here. And now . . .” she waves toward my belly. “He has even more ties.”

“More like a knot,” I grunt.

“He had a right to know.”

“And I told him.” I hold my head higher, meeting her eyes. “Now I’m just waiting for him to go away.”

She stares at me, long and hard, before her eyes soften. “You know not everyone is like Danny’s dad.”

Her son’s father was more like a sperm donor. He’d been here for our mother’s funeral and gone within a week. Lumi told him about Danny, and he chose not to be involved with raising his son.

Didn’t matter. Danny turned out amazing, and now he’s some hotshot in New York.