Her eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
His unhappiness deepened. “She threw me out of my own house—can you believe that?”
“Why would she do that? Did you two get into a fight?”
“All we’ve been doing for the last three months is fighting,” he said darkly.
Claire’s heart stopped. “Because of me?”
His silence answered the question, and she experienced a rush of guilt that made her chest hurt. God, her parents were splitting up. Because of her. Because of the choice she’d made, the choice that had apparently torn them apart.
“I had nowhere else to go,” her father mumbled. “You know I can’t sleep in hotels, and your mother and I don’t have many friends, especially any that would take me in. So I got in my car, and…somehow I wound up here.” He looked defensive now. “You emailed me the address after you moved in. I figured that meant it was okay for me…for me to come.”
“Of course it’s okay.”
With a sigh, she moved to sit beside him. After a second of hesitation, she gave him a hug.
To her surprise, he hugged her back.
“I’m so sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to come between you and Mom. I’m surprised she even did this. I mean, she’s ignored all of my calls and texts and emails. I thought she was on your side when it came to…well, this whole thing.”
“She was, at first.” Her father’s face grew sad. “But she missed you. And she became resentful, angry at me for pushing you away, and then this morning she’d just had enough. She told me that unless I fix things with you, she was going to divorce me.”
Claire gawked at him. That didn’t sound at all like her mother. Nora McKinley always took her husband’s side in every argument. Always put her husband first. Always let him take the lead.
That she would give Claire’s dad an ultimatum like that came as a complete and total shock.
“She’s not going to divorce you,” Claire said firmly. “She’s just upset and not thinking clearly at the moment.”
Hope filled his eyes. “Do you really believe that, Claire-Bear?”
Her heart squeezed at the familiar endearment. “I really believe it. And if you want my advice, I’d give her a few days to calm down. I’m sure you two will be able to work it out. You love each other and you’ve been together for more than thirty years, for Pete’s sake. Your marriage is strong, Daddy. So strong it can withstand anything, even your daughter’s unconventional love life.”
“Claire…” Her father hesitated. “Can I stay with you until I…until your mother and I… Can I stay here?”
She met his gaze head on. “I don’t live alone, Dad. This is Dylan and Aidan’s home too.”
He shifted in discomfort. “I know.”
“I won’t ask either of them to leave while you’re here.”
“I know,” he said again.
She raised her eyebrows. “And you’re okay with that?”
Her father let out a tired breath. “I guess I’m going to have to be.”
Day One
Aidan strode into the kitchen on Saturday morning, then halted in his tracks when he spotted Claire’s father at the counter, drinking coffee and reading the morning paper.
Damn it. He’d been hoping yesterday’s surprise visit had been a bad dream, that really, Ron McKinley was back in San Francisco, passing judgment on his daughter’s relationships from afar.
But it wasn’t a dream.
Claire’s father was here.
Claire’s father was their houseguest.
Fucking hell.
“Good morning,” Aidan said politely, grabbing a mug from the cupboard.
“Good morning,” Ron answered in a tone that more than conveyed his disapproval.
“Did you sleep well?”
He damn well better have, considering his presence had completely disrupted their sleeping arrangements. Although Claire refused to apologize for loving two men, she was still that same girl who’d hidden her wild streak growing up, and she claimed she didn’t feel right sleeping in the same bed as them when her father was in the condo. So as long as Ron was here, Claire had decreed that Aidan stay in the master bedroom, her father would get Dylan’s room, she’d sleep on the pullout couch in the office, and Dylan was relegated to the living room.
It f**king sucked. Even more so because Claire had also decided that having sex while under the same roof as her father was, as she put it, icky.
And having a threesome was apparently even ickier.
Aidan was praying Claire’s mom took some pity on Ron McKinley and let him come home soon, because he wasn’t sure how long he could last living under these restrictive conditions. But for Claire’s sake, he was willing to suck it up. At least long enough for her to repair her relationship with her dad.
“I slept very well, thank you,” Ron said stiffly.
“Glad to hear it,” Aidan replied.
An awkward silence fell between them.
Ron cleared his throat. “Where’s the other one?”
Aidan didn’t need to ask for clarification. “He works out on the beach every morning.”
“Huh.”
“He’s a SEAL,” Aidan felt obligated to add. “He needs to stay in shape for his line of work. You know, saving the world and all.”
He could have sworn he glimpsed a flicker of approval in Ron’s eyes, but then the man buried his nose in his newspaper and proceeded to pretend Aidan wasn’t in the room.