Kylie nodded. "Everything just got out of hand."
He nodded. "But it wasn't all in vain. It forced me to face the truth. I needed that."
Did his voice just shake, or was she imagining it? "What truth?"
"I'm giving your mom her divorce. She wants it; she's got it."
Defeat filled her stepdad's eyes. Defeat, like she could never recall seeing before. One word came to her mind. Broken. He was a broken man. Seeing it hurt so damn much!
"Dad, I think Mom's just-"
"No." He held up his hands. "I didn't mean ... I'm not blaming your mom. I accept I messed up. I don't even understand how I could do it, when I loved her so damn much from the first time I saw her in high school." Tears filled his eyes as he pressed his palm to Kylie's cheek. "Don't ever fall in love, princess. It hurts too damn much."
His words echoed in her head as she recalled the pain she'd felt when she turned for Lucas and he wasn't there. She wondered if her stepdad wasn't too late in offering that piece of advice. But she pushed her own emotions aside to deal with his. He needed her.
He took another deep breath. "Losing her kills me, but I deserve it, and I'll learn to live with it, but what I can't live with is ... losing you. From the day the doctor dropped you into my arms, I loved you."
Tears filled Kylie's eyes. "You aren't going to lose me."
"Good, because I'm your father and I don't want you to ever forget that."
But he wasn't her father. The words "I won't forget" rested on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't say them. She looked away. She hadn't meant that cut of her eyes to mean anything.
Yet it had. She heard his sharp intake of air. She glanced back and saw it in his eyes. He knew. He knew that she knew.
"Your mom told you," he said.
Hurt filled his eyes and the same feeling swelled in Kylie's chest. "No." My real father came to see me from the grave. She had to come up with a lie and quick. "I found your original marriage certificate and learned she was already pregnant, and everything else fell into place."
"I couldn't have loved you more if you were mine. I never wanted you to think I didn't love you because of it."
"I know," she said. "And the fact that you loved me when I wasn't yours meant something." She spoke the words to soothe him, because his pain filled the room, but then she realized how true they were. He'd loved her when he didn't have to.
He'd done all the daddy/daughter things with her: sold Girl Scout cookies, helped her build a matchbox car to enter the school race, and gone on all the father/daughter trips. Then there were the hugs, when her mom wasn't good at giving them. She leaned into him, needing a hug now, and thinking he could use one, too.
She savored his embrace. He'd always been good at this. She heard his breath shake, and she cried into his shoulder like she had so many times as a child. That's when she realized she'd forgiven him. He wasn't a bad man; he'd just made some bad mistakes.
He was, after all, just human.
* * *
After her dad left, Kylie pulled herself together, and walked into the conference room to face her mom and John. Like it or not, she had some apologizing to do, so the sooner she got it over with, the better.
Kylie's mom shot up from her chair. John followed. "I'm sorry," Kylie said. "I-"
"We're sorry, too. Aren't we, John?" her mom blurted out.
"Yes, I spoke too freely." The apology came from John's lips but didn't appear in his eyes. "It was a mistake that will not repeat itself."
"You're just human," Kylie said, but she didn't say it with all that much confidence. And she studied his face to see if he reacted to the remark. He didn't. She still had to stop herself from checking his brain pattern again.
The scary thought was that if he wasn't human, he was a chameleon. She recalled Red, who'd given his life to save her, telling her that he was the same thing that she was, only not born at midnight. So ... Mario must be a chameleon, too. And if John was a chameleon, could he be in cahoots with Mario?
She was overreacting, she told herself. Her feelings probably stemmed from the fact that he was the reason her stepdad didn't stand a chance of getting back with her mom. However, she decided to ask Burnett to do a background check on dear ol' John.
Kylie's mom moved closer. "John, can you give Kylie and me some time alone?"
Here comes the scolding. Kylie bit her tongue and told herself she should be happy her mom decided to spare her the embarrassment of scolding her in front of her man toy.
However, the man toy looked unhappy when he turned for the door. Kylie bit her tongue harder. But damn, this guy brought out the worst in her.
The moment John walked out, Kylie blurted out, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things." And she was sorry, not because she'd said them to John, but because she'd probably hurt her mom. That had never been her intention.
"No, Holiday was right. Showing up here with him wasn't the best idea. I just..." She blushed. "He makes me happy, Kylie. I can't even explain it, but it's almost the feeling I got with your real dad."
Kylie recalled something her grandfather said, that the humans who were blessed found themselves attracted to supernaturals. Her suspicions rose about John.
"I wanted you to get to know him, because ... because he's important to me. And-"
Dear Lord, this was hard to hear. Before she knew what she planned to say, she'd started talking. "Dad's sorry about all this, too, Mom. If you brought John here to make Dad jealous, it worked. I know Dad hurt you, but if you still love him ... he loves you."
Her mom closed her eyes as if searching for the right words. When she looked up, raw emotion shined in her eyes. "I did want your dad to see me and John, but I can't ... Your dad and I won't be getting back together." She took Kylie's hand. "I'm sorry, baby. I can't..."
Kylie squeezed her mom's palm. "I understand."
Her mom sighed. "Do you?"
Kylie nodded. It still hurt like the devil, but she understood.
Her mom sighed as if she was about to say something difficult. "Please try to see the good in John. He's not the reason your dad and I broke up."
"I know." That was all Kylie managed to say. She wasn't sure she could ever see any good in John.
Her mom bit her lip and made a funny face. "Now, about the question you asked. If John and I were ... If we..."
"Are having sex?" Kylie finished for her, because God knew her mom would be here all day trying to say it.