Yours: A Forever After Novella by Natasha Thomas

yes to all of the above?”
     
    “Sure, baby,” Dad grins. Becoming serious, he states, “you can do whatever the fuck you want as long as you don’t ever shut me out like that again. Took ten years off my life today, Harleigh. Hearing that you’d been hurt by that motherfucker, that he was walking around breathing while my little girl was suffering broke my goddamn heart. If I had known what happened, what he did and why you thought you had to leave, I would have taken care of his ass then.”
     
    “Please don’t,” I whisper, taking hold of his forearm. “That’s in the past, and nothing you can say now will change it. I had my reasons for not telling you, for not telling anyone, but they died with Spike.”
     
    “Does it bother you?” At my confused expression, dad expounds, “That I killed him. In front of you no less.”
     
    Shaking my head, I answer him honestly.
    “Not even a little bit. I’m not stupid, dad. I know the majority of the MC’s dealings are legitimate these days, but they weren’t always. Neither were the things you had to do to protect your brothers, the club, and you families. It doesn’t bother me, though. I know who you are and what you stand for, dad, and I love you more because of the things you’ve had to do to make us safe, not in spite of it.”
     
    Dad wraps his arms around me, pulling me into his massive frame. My dad’s hugs have always been like a balm to soothe my soul, and this one is no different. Tall, broad, and fit for an old guy, dad holds me tightly, telling me how much he loves me and how proud he is of me until we both hear someone clear their throat.
     
    “Everything good here?” Lyric asks, raking his eyes over my face trying to determine if I need him to come to my rescue.
     
    “Boy,” Dad growls. “You know better than to ask that shit. She’s safe with me, and it pisses me off that you’d think otherwise.”
     
    Shrugging, Lyric crosses the room and has me in his arms then seated on his lap faster than dad or I can register he’d moved.
    “I don’t really give a fuck if you’re pissed or not. Harleigh’s happiness and safety is all I care about. Walking in and seeing tears in her eyes, you get why I have to ask because if your wife were upset, you’d do exactly the same thing. And don’t pretend you wouldn’t,” he says, challenging dad to deny it.
     
    He doesn’t, though. Dad gives Lyric a curt nod and settles back into the couch.
    “Since my girl’s been through enough today, how about you explain the two of you getting married and hiding that shit from us?”
     
    Pressing a soft kiss to the top of my head, Lyric doesn’t hesitate to answer him.
    “I love your daughter; I always have. I knew from the second I set eyes on Harleigh that she’d be mine one day, and I didn’t see any sense in waiting to make that a reality. It was Harleigh’s decision to keep our relationship between us, and I respected that. Didn’t necessarily agree with it, seeing as I was more than happy to shout it from the rooftops that she’d agreed to marry me, but it was what Harleigh wanted. And as you know, she can be pretty convincing when she wants to be.”
     
    At that, my dad chuckles.
    “You don’t say. Welcome to my world, son. Out of the three women in my life, this one’s always been the negotiator. And when that fails, she pouts until she gets her way.”
     
    Feigning outrage, because he’s not wrong, I gasp,
    “I most certainly do not pout. I bat my eyelashes, make my lip quiver, then and you’re putty in my hands. It’s not my fault you’re soft, old man.”
     
    “Well, there’s that too,” dad smirks. “So why the secrecy?” He asks after the humor has worn off.
     
    “In a word; expectations. Where Harleigh and I are concerned, everyone’s had plenty of them. From the time we were kids until Harleigh left town, our families, the brothers, our friends all expected us to end up together one day. We couldn’t go out to