He trails off and looks down at his hands.
“It wasn’t his fault.”
The words fall out of my mouth before I can stop them - before I can rationalize in my head how this’ll only start a fight.
“Excuse me?” Dad’s voice is edged, his brow furrowed.
“You know what I’m talking about. The night of the crash.”
Dad barks out a thin laugh. “Of course it was his fault.”
There’s no winning this, and no reason to have this argument with my father, again, here at whatever time it is at night in the half-dark kitchen. But I can’t stop the anger and the frustration that comes tumbling out.
“He was there trying to stop Rowan from being there, Dad!”
“Who was only there in the first place, because of the damn shadow hanging over that boy, Ivy!”
His voice booms louder than it should this late at night, and he shakes his head.
“Because as lovely as his parents were, and as much as I loved them and as much as we showed him love and tried to give him what was missing after they passed, he still turned out exactly like I never wanted him to.”
I can feel the heat rising in my face as I think of the boy I knew - the kind, loving, broken but not beaten, selfless boy I fell in love with.
“He didn’t.”
“Yes, he did, Ivy,” Dad growls, his voice edged before his face softens. “Look, I know how you felt, and I know how young love is-”
“Apparently not.”
He shoots me a look, but keeps going.
“I also know that eight years later, you’re a grown, confident, bold, successful woman, honey. You’ve moved on and up from this town, and you don’t need anchors like Silas Hart weighing you down.”
“Dad-”
“Yes,” he says firmly. “Yes, I know what happened that night. But whatever the secondary motive, the fact remains that I almost lost my son because of that boy.”
“That’s not true.”
His fist slams down on the table. “It is, and we’re done discussing it.”
I roll my eyes as I stand. “You started it.”
“And I’m ending it.” He levels his eyes at me. “I don’t want you seeing him, Ivy.”
I laugh coldly. “I’m twenty-six years old, Dad.”
“So act like it. Make good choices, not familiar ones.”
I say nothing, knowing it’ll just incriminate me.
But I’m also wondering if he’s right.
Make good choices, not familiar ones.
Familiar choices. That’s exactly what Silas is. He’s a comfort - something I know. And even if I know the hurt that could come of it, it’s better than an unknown.
Dad reaches across the table and pats my hand.
“I’m sorry, honey, I just-” He smiles. “I just care about you. We all do.”
I nod, looking down at the table.
“So how long do we get you before you head back to New York?”
I sigh heavily, slumping a little in my chair. “I don’t know, the whole thing with Blaine…”
Dad just smiles as I trail off. “Well you know we’d love to have you as long as we can keep you.”
I do smile this time when I look up and nod. “I know, Dad.”
“I love you, Ivy-girl.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
“Everything okay down here?”
My mom appears in the kitchen doorway, holding her robe and peering at us.
“We’re fine, Mom,” I smile at her before turning back to my dad.
“Everything’s fine.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Silas
I stand on the front lawn of the house, hands in my pockets and a scowl on my face as I stare up at it. This isn’t the house I grew up in - that one got sold to cover debts after my parents died. It’s also not the one I lived in with my uncle when he became my legal guardian, and God only knows what happened to that wreck of a place since I left.
This new one is huge, a turn of the century style brick thing probably built by some shipping tycoon in the era of Vanderbilts and Carnegies, up in the East Promenade of town overlooking the harbor.
Declan’s apparently done well as a small-town crook since I’ve been gone.
Fuck it.
I blow air through my lips as I step up to the front porch.
“Oh hi, Silas!”
I blink at the familiar face of the girl who answers the door. Okay, I’ve known that Declan married Stephanie at some point in the last eight years, but that doesn’t make it any less weird seeing her here.
Stephanie, the consummate party-girl who Ivy and I went to high school with. Stephanie, who I’m pretty sure Rowan got his first blowjob from. Stephanie who was never really the brightest bulb in the pack, who as far as I’d heard had picked up an exciting career in pole dancing after graduating high school.