“You have nothing to apologize for. At first, we figured something had happened, but we didn’t have proof. You didn’t delete any of your social media posts, so we thought maybe you were taking a break. But then the holidays came around that year, and Reed didn’t show up. He didn’t come home or knock on the front door to see you. That’s when we realized you most likely broke up.” Dean sat back down.
I let out a long breath before I told Dean everything that had happened. And I mean everything. From the meeting on the dock until the morning I woke up without Reed. I left nothing out. I told him about the first time Reed and I were together, the first I love yous, everything I had been holding back. And when I was done, I had tears streaming down my face again.
“You really would have given up everything?”
“Yeah, at the time, I thought it was a brilliant idea.”
Dean reached across the table to grab my hand. “Love makes us blind sometimes.”
“Stupid, too.” I forced a laugh.
Dean squeezed my fingers. “You know I dated Killian’s sister, right?”
I nodded.
“That was all in secret, of course, because Kill would have castrated me. Helena and I were kids, you know? I was sixteen when I noticed her for the first time. And we were together for years. Until she got pregnant.” Dean sat back in his chair. “She miscarried, and that was the end of us. She pulled away from me, and I thought it was my fault. Turned out Helena was scared I would leave her first. I would have married her if she’d asked. I wouldn’t have looked back. Would have given up my career, everything, if that was what she had wanted.”
My jaw dropped. “But then you wouldn’t be here with me. Trish wouldn’t be my sister, and Dad wouldn’t be the best version of himself.”
“I know that now. Helena and I were never endgame, but at the time I thought my world was ending,” Dean told me.
I watched as he put more cereal on the tray for Trish. “Are you trying to tell me that Reed isn’t my soulmate? Is that what this is? There is someone else out there that I haven’t met yet. Someone that is going to make me the best version of myself?”
“I don’t know what the universe has in store for you, kiddo, but you have a lifetime to figure that out. Maybe Reed is your person. Or maybe it’s someone you haven’t met yet. All I’m saying is that things happen for a reason. Helena and I weren’t going to end up married with two point five children. I was meant to find Beau and change my entire life for him. Because he’s worth it.”
I wanted that, too. The love that my two dads had for one another. Or what Jax and Maverick had. Killian and Matthias. Tom and Blake. Hell, everyone in the WAGs had the most amazing significant other.
“Maybe,” I muttered. “How did you move on from Helena?”
“I was a huge rock star.” Dean wiggled his brows. “There were a lot of nameless and faceless women in my bed. I’m not proud of that. But at the time, it’s what I thought would cure me. Nothing worked until I met your father.”
“I love that.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “So, you’re saying I should have a lot of meaningless sex before I find my true love?”
Dean threw back his head as he laughed. “That’s not what I’m saying. You dated Fiona, didn’t you?”
“That wasn’t what everyone thought it was. She wanted someone to play the famous boyfriend while she filmed videos and TikTok’s about herself.”
I had liked Fiona at first, but after a couple of months of that nonsense, I’d had enough. She was one of the fakest people I had ever met.
Dean tapped his knuckles on the table. “She tried to get us to do them, too.”
“What? She did?” I gasped.
He nodded. “Yep. That’s when Beau and I knew she wasn’t the one. But there are plenty of other fish in the sea.”
“Maybe.” But my stomach twisted at the thought. I smiled as Trish held out her hand to hand me a sticky piece of cereal. I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life. Or Dean. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad things didn’t work out with Helena. She’s great and all, but she wasn’t the one for you.”
Dean’s green eyes crinkled as he smiled. “I know.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Reed
Every second I was in this state, in the house right next door to Cole’s fathers, I hated myself. I owed him an explanation. Of why I couldn’t be a man and tell him I was leaving but sneaking out like a dirty secret in the early morning. After I stared at the ceiling in his bedroom, tears in my eyes and a rock in my belly, wondering if Cole would forgive me when he realized it was for the best. I had burned his face into my mind, watching as he slept peacefully next to me before I finally had the balls to get up and go home. But not before I kissed him goodbye. Whispered that I loved him and hoped he would find happiness someday. I had really fucked everything up.
“Hey.” Dad smiled at me when I opened the garage door. He had smudges of oil and grease on his face as he stood over an antique car. “Where’s your friend?” he asked.
I stepped inside the building. “Zach is trying to figure out what he should wear later.” We were going out against my better judgment. “Do you have a minute?”