“I did it for you.”
“I know Huck. We were in love. He would have fought for me. He’d have taken me away.”
He didn’t say anything, but he wasn’t bending in his thoughts toward Huck Manning.
“You threatened him.” He was stone-faced. “Oh my God. What did you do?”
“I told him I wasn’t going to put you through college. That I’d take all the money away.”
I’d had a scholarship, but it had been a partial one. My dad had told me he’d pay for the rest of tuition and room and board, and I’d been thankful for that. Maybe that was why I’d stuck around all these years helping him, as if I owed him or felt indebted.
But it had all been a lie.
“I did it for you, pumpkin.”
“You didn’t do it for me. You did it because you hate Huck Manning. I have no idea what he did or why, but he’s not what you think. He never was.” Tears slid down my cheeks.
I turned away, felt sick. Six years. Six years and I never knew the truth. “All this time, I thought he hated me. That I wasn’t special enough. Good enough. That what we’d shared had been a lie.”
That he’d taken my virginity as a feat to achieve instead of something special. A beginning for us.
I thought of the baby we’d made that night. When I’d learned I was pregnant, I was already at school. Huck had been gone. The baby was a culmination of our love, but it hadn’t been real. For a bit I’d hated the baby I’d carried because it was a reminder of the lie of our relationship.
When I’d lost it… I’d thought it was meant to be. I hadn’t been worthy of being a mother. Since our relationship was dead, so was any proof of it.
He’d walked away for me.
“So? Like I said, not even a year later he came back with another woman’s baby. Proof I was right.”
The only thing it proved was how wrong my dad had been. Huck was a good man. He’d walked away from me because, while threatened, he’d done what was best for me. Same went with Claire. He hadn’t cared what people thought of him, only of doing the right thing.
And everyone thought he’d been a fuckup. He’d thought that of himself.
God, was he so wrong.
“He might not have even left if you hadn’t interfered.” I was done remaining calm. I was shouting now, wiping at my eyes. I could barely see him through the tears.
“Then you’d have learned what kind of man he was the hard way.”
“Like I am now with you.”
I was done here. Done with him. Dad had interfered in my relationship with Huck. Broke us up. Destroyed my heart. Let me believe lies.
“Sarah!” he shouted. “You leave and you’re done here. You’re out. You won’t make it in this town as a mechanic. I’ll see to it.”
I looked back at him. This was what he’d done with Huck six years ago. But the threat he’d made to Huck had been directed at me. Huck had walked because of the consequences. But now, me?
How had I never seen this side of my dad? I took in his threat. He wanted me to be scared, to tuck my shoulders under and cower. Remember my place. Cede to him. Again.
Now I saw the man for what he was. A loser. He was barely doing his job, slacking because he knew his own daughter would take care of any issues for him. But when things didn’t go just his way, he got pissed. Tossed out ridiculous threats.
He didn’t give a shit about me. Or if he did, he had a horrible way of showing it.
He was the one who was scared. The one who was losing everything, because if I walked, he’d actually have to do some work.
His words had no weight.
I had no idea what I was going to do, but I wasn’t afraid any longer. I wasn’t going to hold myself back from what I wanted. I knew what it was. Who it was.
I didn’t say a word, only turned around to leave. I froze in my tracks when I saw Huck. He stood just outside the open garage door, hands on hips. He was in his police uniform, just as I’d seen him on the call before dawn. His eyes were narrowed, his jaw clenched. He wasn’t looking at me, but past me to my dad.
My heart lurched and… God. He was here. For me. He seemed bigger. Broader. More intense. Just… more.
He’d walked away all those years ago to make me happy. Now he was here when I needed him most.
I had no idea how much he’d heard, but based on the look on his face, enough.
We both knew the truth of what had happened. How my dad had ripped us apart. How he was willing to do anything to… keep tabs on me? Control me? Steer my life in the direction he wanted it to go?
Huck didn’t say anything, just held out his hand. It was right then that I had a choice. I could go to Huck. Take back what we’d lost all those years ago. To take him for the man he was now. Go blindly into a thing with Huck based on the man I’d known all those years ago. Not the lies. The whispers. Not even my assumptions, but based on the fact that he’d loved me once. Proved it. Walked away to do so.
I went to him. Put my hand in his, and walked out of the shop.
12
HUCK
I helped her into my police SUV, taking care with her as if she were breakable, even though I was in a rush to get the fuck out of here. Reaching across, I buckled her seat belt. She took my hand, looked up at me,
