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“Why don’t you stay for a little while?” I found myself saying. My fa
ther turned around at the door.
“We were going to order pizza.
Just stay and eat with us.”

             
He shook his head. “Nah,
I need to get going,” he replied, but it didn’t sound like he meant it.

             
“Dad
, just stay,” I sighed. “Jayden i
s going to leave if you don’t stay, and then I’ll be really pissed.”

             
He smiled at that and looked at Jayden, who gave him a look that said it was true.

             
“I don’t want to interrupt
your time together…
” he began.

             
“You already did,” I informed him.

             
Jayden made a noise and
playfully
shoved my face
away
with her hand. “He doesn’t know what h
e’s talking about,” she laughed, as
I took her hand and kissed it. “You mentioned the pizza and now I’m hungry again. I’m going to go order.” She kissed me before she got up.

             
When she entered the kitchen I looked at my dad. He had a smile on his face when he sat down in the chair
again
.

             
“I’m really glad you two are
still together,” he said. “She’s
pretty
amazing
.”

             
“She is. And she’s the only reason you’re even in my house
right now
,” I admitted.

             
He nodded. “I understand that.”

             
“I’m not sure if you do. My life is great right now. I’m happier than I’ve ever been and I don’t want anything to ruin that. You aren’t tied to anything good in my life. Just having you here makes me anxious.”

             
He nodded again. “I do understand, son. That’s why I don’t expect anything from you. I just came to say what I needed to say. Whatever you choose from here on out, I will completely respect.” He lowered his voice to barely audible. “What about
Olevsky
? Your life is great even if…
?
”

             
“I’m done with him.”

             
He looked stunned for a second, like he didn’t hear me right. “What- what are you saying? You can’t just—”

             
“He cut me loose.”

             
My
dad was shaking his head. “No, t
hat can’t be. He doesn’t… He doe
sn’t just let people go. What- w
hat did you do? What happened?”

             
“I asked
that I not
be associated with them anymore.
”

             
“No,
Ty
,” he panicked,
and then
he lowered his voice again. “That doesn’t happen. Ever.” He took a deep breath. “Why would he let you go?”

             
“I told him I wanted to get married. I said I couldn’t marry Jayden if I was living two lives.”

             
My father stared at me with disbelief
, and then he seemed to be thinking things over
. Finally he said, “How long ago was this?”

             
“Uh…a few weeks ago.”

             
He continued to stare at me,
not knowing what to say,
but he smiled
at
Jayden
when she
re-entered the room.

             
“I ordered two so there will be plenty of extra,” she said, returning to her spot next to me. “Take some to work and take a piece fo
r Matt. Tell him happy birthday
from me
,
”
she smirked.

             
“It’s his birthday tomorrow?”

             
“Yep. But Stacie still hasn’t let me know what we’re doing, so I’ll have to get back to you on that. But I’ll warn you right now… It might not be legal.”

             
I grunted
. “Coming from the daughter of a judge
.”

             
She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

             
“Oh,
your father’s a judge
?” my dad asked her. I didn’t miss his subtle glance my direction.

             
“Yes
,” she replied.

             
“Does he like his job? I’m sure it takes its toll sometimes.”

             
“Yeah, it does, but yes, he likes it.”

             
“How does this city rate on crime? Any big
criminals lurking in the area?”

             
“I don’t even know,” she replied. “My dad doesn’t talk to me about work.”

             
“Hey,
Dad
,” I interrupted, trying to change the subject. “Uh, we’re engaged,” I said, grabbing Jayden’s hand and showing him the ring.

             
He raised his eyebrows
as he looked at her hand, and then a big smile filled his face. “That’s great!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t… I didn’t even realize… Congratulations!” He truly wa
s excited. “Do you have a date s
et?”

             
“Beginning of November,” Jayden answered. “We’re still working on which day.”

             
“Wow! I can’t believe it.
My son is getting married. Well, I mean you mentioned it a cou
ple of months ago, but now it’s-
it’s official. That’
s great.” He cleared his throat and then carefully asked,
“Uh, will I
be invited?”

             
I met his worried eyes and said, “You know the terms.”

             
He nodded. “And you have nothing to worry about.”

             
I wanted so badly to believe him, but there were too many promises that had been broken in the past. History always seemed to repeat itself. I decided to take it one day at a time with my father. I was tired of being disappointed.

             
My dad did leave shortly after we ate. He said he didn’t want to intrude on anymore of our time together. I was glad because we picked up right where we left off.

Chapter Thirty

             
My father’s unexpected visit was like a bad omen. The following week was pretty normal, except one very unsettling thing that happened on Friday.

I got off work early an
d decided to surprise Jayden
again. As I walked into City Hall
and headed towards her
office, I passed a guy in the hallway. H
e was familiar to me right away, but
it took me a second to recall where I’d seen him. He had dark hair and eyes, but the way his eyes shifted when he looked at me sent a sick feeling to my gut.
I knew he was the guy that met with Dean that one night after I
had
. I glanced beh
ind me after he passed and he’
d done the same thing, and after h
e continued on around the corner, I entered Jayden’s office.

Her smile distracted me right away. “Hey!” She got up from her desk to greet me with a kiss.

“None of that in here,” the lady at the front desk said with a smile. I had to glance at the nameplate on her desk to remember her.
Betsy
.

“If you’re not done I’ll just wait in the hall,” I told Jayden.

“You can wait in here. I’m just finishing up
,” she assured me. “Have a seat.” She pointed to a sto
ol at a counter so I sat down, and t
he
n
returned to her desk and began typing away at the computer.

“So, Ty,”
Betsy
said with a big smile. “When are you going to send us more flowers?”

I saw Jayden smile at her desk but her eyes never left the computer screen.

“Which kind did you like?” I asked. “The roses or the lilies?”

She thought for a second. “Both are nice. But I think the orchid was my favorite,” she pointed. I looked behind Jayden and saw it sitting in the window.

“Ah,” I nodded. “
If you like
orchids
you must be a very patient and caring woman
.”

She laughed, but I swear I made her blush. “Oh, well I- I don’t know about that,” she fumbled.

I could tell Jayden was trying not to laugh when she
announced that she was done and grabbed her purse from under her desk.
“
Can
you come with me to see my dad?”
she
asked when we came to
the hall
that led to the police department
.

I was unsure if I really wanted to do that
but I replied, “Sure.” I was worried about seeing that guy again. I wondered what he was doing
at city hall, and where he went
.

Jayden
was talking t
o me as we walked down the hall, but I was only partially listening
as I was trying to think of reasons why that guy would be
in the police department. H
e was
probably
wondering the same about me. I guess he could have someone here he was visiting, just like I was.

We
passed
by several courtrooms on our way to
Joe’s
office. Or was it “chambers”
? I wasn’t sure because it didn’t look as official as the judge’s chambers were on TV, but it was a nice office nevertheless. Jayden lightly knocked on the partially opened door and then
pushed it open further
.

He looked up as we entered and said,
“Hey, swe
etie.” Then h
e glanced at me and
added
, “What’s this rare occasion for?”

I only smiled but Jayden said, “He surprises me at work all the time. But today I dragged him in here so he can see you actually have a job.”

He smiled at her humor. “Very funny.”

We talked with him for a few minutes before heading out.
I was grateful that I felt more comfortable around him, and it wasn’t as difficult for me to talk to him as it used to be. I imagined what it would be like to face him in court. Although I heard he was a very fair and well-respected judge, he also held the reputation of being the tell-it-like-it-is type. Honesty definitely wasn’t his weakness.

Jayden
had
tickets
for everyone
to a concert that Matt wanted to see, so for a belated birthday we all headed down to Portland to have dinner and see the show.
We ate a
t a
Mongolian grill, one of Matt’s favorite places
, and even just the start of the night—dinner with all of our friends—was pretty awesome
.

Cali brought a date with her and
he
really didn’t seem that comfortable being around people he didn’t know very well. His name was Rowan, and Jayden went right into her normal mode of being friendly and getting to know him so he didn’t feel so out of place. He wasn’t exactly shy—he reminded me a bit of Shawn and Matt combined—
so
once he started talking he was really quite interesting.
His family owned a salvage yard, and to hear him explain some of the things people dumped off and labeled as trash was insane. Matt and I were already putting together our next project in our minds and Rowan was more than willing to keep his eye out for what we wanted.

The concert was at the
Roseland
, and after spending an hour-and-a-half standing down in general admission, Jayden and I went upstairs to sit in the balcony
while we waited for the headlining band to take the stage
. It was a small theatre
,
so even
sitting down offered a perfect
view of the stage. This was actually the third concert I had been to with Jayden, not including Shawn’s, and I was getting used to her habits and preference
s. She loved smaller venues like what we were at
, where you can be anywhere in the room and be close to the band. She’d been to some pretty major shows, and although she enjoys the music at all of them, it’s the bands that are more personable
with their audience
that she likes the best.