17

17
ALICIA
After dinner, Dad cleans up the dishes. It’s one of the few jobs left to him, since his failing memory can’t really do him any harm over the sink, so Kayla and I have decided to let him keep doing it as long as he can.
He’s gazing out the window as he scrubs the pots and pans, when he says, “Someone’s coming.”
Immediately my mind goes to Lonnie. If my brother shows up to ruin our peaceful family dinner, I’m going to be mad.
Kayla joins my father at the window and looks out. “It’s Brandon,” she says. “He must be here to see you, Alicia.”
“Why is Brandon coming to see Alicia?” Dad asks.
I get his mystification. From his perspective, Brandon is the guy I rejected and ran out on twenty years ago, and he and I haven’t seen each other since then. It probably doesn’t make any sense to him that he would want to see me… or that I would want to see him.
And to be honest, right now I don’t really want to see him.
Today has been a lot. I’ve been talking about abdication with my dad, and Kayla knows who Emmy’s real father is, and it’s the worst possible time for another evening out with Brandon, even though it would be fun for me. I don’t like the feeling of being around him all the time and lying to him about his daughter. I don’t like taking the risk that he’ll find out the truth. Because if he does, it might get back to Lonnie. If he or Deidre found out that I had a baby with Brandon…Well, I’m not sure what they would do. But I don’t think either of them is above resorting to violence.
It’s not like I don’t want to see Brandon anymore while I’m home. I just need some time to get my head straight and cope with everything that’s been going on lately before we’re around each other again.
I get up and back away from the table. “Tell him I’m not available,” I say. “Tell him I’m sleeping or something.”
Kayla frowns. “What’s going on, Alicia? You don’t want to see him now?” “Is she supposed to want to see him?” Dad asks.
Shit. He thinks he’s forgotten something. He thinks he should know what’s happening here and that the only reason he doesn’t is because his memory is failing him. “No, Dad,” I say quickly. “There’s no reason I’d want to see Brandon.”
“You’re freaking out about something,” Kayla says. “What is it?” “Kayla, you know-”
We’re interrupted by a knock on the door.
Fuck. It’s too late. I’m sure Brandon heard my voice. I just hope he didn’t hear anything I was saying.
I let out a sigh. “Go watch the baby,” I tell Kayla.
Thankfully, she doesn’t argue. She just gives me a meaningful look and walks away.
“Alicia,” Dad says. “You know you don’t have to see him if you don’t want to. I can tell him to leave you alone.”
“No, Dad, it’s fine.” I don’t want him to leave me alone. I just want him to leave me alone right now. And there’s no way I can explain that to my father. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll get him to go away.”
“Do you want me to stay here?”
“No, go help Kayla,” I say. “Is that okay with you?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Dad says. “You’re sure you’re all right?” “I’m fine.”
He nods and leaves the room. It feels good to have him wanting to protect me after all these years, especially since he never did it when Deidre was around. When it came to me, he never argued with her. He was our alpha, and he could have put her in her place, but he always seemed to agree with the things she was saying.
And he let her choose my mate. I can’t forget that. It was a job that should have been his-something he should have been honored to do-and he just sat back and let her do it. That’s ehy I had to reject Brandon.
Brandon hasn’t knocked again, so that tells me he can definitely hear our voices. I wonder if he’s still out there. Maybe I’m in luck and he decided to go home when I didn’t answer the door right away.
I take a deep breath and pull it open.
He’s standing there with a disturbed expression on his face, and I can’t help feeling irritated by that. I guess he did hear us. I should probably be embarrassed, but I’m just annoyed.
“What?” I ask him.
He raises his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
“You don’t need to look at me like that. If you hang around outside
people’s doors, you run the risk of hearing things you don’t like.”
“What are you talking about?” Brandon asks. “I didn’t hear anything.”
I could swallow my tongue. Fucking hell. Now I’ve gone and made things worse.
“What was it I didn’t hear?” he asks. “What wouldn’t I like?”
“Don’t worry about it.” I know there’s very little chance of that. What would I do in his shoes, after all? I definitely would worry about what someone had been saying that they thought would upset me.
But, incredibly, Brandon just shrugs. “Okay,” he says. “Whatever, Alicia.” “What are you doing here?”
“You’re in a mood.”
“I’m in my own home. It’s none of your business what mood I’m in. Why did you come over?”
“I wanted to talk to you about something,” he says. “Can I?”
“You don’t need my permission. Talk.” I know I’m being rude, but I can’t seem to knock it off. I just want him to go away so that I can deal with my feelings about my father’s abdication and how I’m going to protect Emmy.
“I don’t think this is a conversation we should have here,” Brandon says. “Do you think we could take a walk? Just a short one.”
I sigh. I don’t want to leave the house with him right now, but if he doesn’t think we shouldn’t talk here-meaning, where my family might hear us-I guess I’d better go with him.