by Jillian Neal
“Yes, sir,” Dan wiped his mouth with his napkin quickly. “I’ve been Chief of Iodex and head of Elite forces for about nine years now.” He tried to soften his tone and reminded himself that this wasn’t a job interview. It’s so much more important pulsed through his mind, doing nothing to calm his nerves. “These are delicious. I certainly see where Fionna learned to cook so well.” He reached and took Fionna’s hand. Her father’s eyes narrowed again, and Dan started to pull away. Fionna strengthened her grasp and raised her left eyebrow to her father in challenge.
Gretta patted her husband’s leg consolingly and offered Dan a sorrowful expression. “Maylea, you look beautiful this evening. It seems love suits you well.”
Fionna beamed at Dan, who squeezed her hand and fought the urge to kiss her overly-pink cheek.
“Of course she looks beautiful, Gretta,” her father argued. “She is a beautiful girl. You tell her this, I hope,” Fionna’s father turned his glare back to Dan.
“Of course,” Dan huffed. He was already weary of his opposition. “She’s stunning, inside and out.”
Fionna’s mother smiled at him again as she nodded her agreement. Fionna’s father was still staring at Dan expectantly. Dan racked his brain for something to say. He felt the beer and appetizers begin to swirl uncomfortably in his stomach. Smiling stupidly, Dan said the first thing that popped into his head. “I actually think she’s probably most adorable when she first wakes….” He halted abruptly as Fionna’s eyes goggled, and she shook her head violently. “…uh, smiles.”
Fionna moved her hand to her face in defeat. Deafening silence flooded the room as Fionna’s father’s glare turned livid.
“Maylea, tell us all about Sydney,” Gretta pled as she kept a firm hand on her husband’s arm. Fionna was still staring at Dan like he might’ve lost his mind, which Dan was beginning to think he most certainly had.
“Oh,” Fionna nodded and appeared to try to recall their vacation just a week before. “It was amazing, actually. I gave Dan a surfing lesson, and we went to the Caliph’s mansion, which was kind of crazy.” She laughed, and Gretta immediately joined in.
“Had you ever surfed before, Dan?” Gretta asked as Mr. Styler kept his scowl leveled on Dan.
“No, ma’am, but Fi’s amazing. It was really something to see.”
“Yes, well, my little girl has been surfing most of her life. I think she’s happier with the fish than with the boys.”
Dan tried to hide his chuckle as Gretta and Fionna turned on Mr. Styler.
“Daddy, stop it!”
“Ella es veintinueve no cinco, Samuel. Se amable!” Gretta ordered fiercely. Dan didn’t let on that he spoke a fair amount of Spanish and was well aware that Fionna’s father had just been informed that his little girl was twenty-nine, not five, and then was commanded to be nice.
“How’s Gran, Mama?” Fionna asked. Dan squeezed her hand again, after seeing the worry color her eyes.
Mrs. Styler gazed at Dan and Fionna lovingly. “Well, Maylea, she has good days and bad days.”
Dan tensed as he felt Fionna draw from him. In his relative ineptitude about relationships with Gifted women, Dan hadn’t quite mastered the ability to supply Fionna with his energy, without his face displaying the heavenly feeling that came when their energies combined. It seemed a distinctly intimate thing to do in front of her father. Dan felt like he had just walked in on him stripping her down and taking her to bed.
He tried to draw measured breaths as he supplied Fionna with the peace and strength that she needed, without letting his face go slack-jawed as his eyes rolled back in his head.
“She’s looking forward to our visit. She wishes you could come.”
“I know. I wish I could go, too. I have to be at the exhibition. It’s the most important day of the season, and that’s really important now.” She glanced nervously at Dan. Realization added to Dan’s stress. He shook his head and started to vow that just because he was now an owner did not mean that she had to perform, but her father interrupted his thoughts.
“That seems to be all the Angels do, Maylea. They party. You should settle down. Come work at the bakery. Find someone who wants to marry you. Have children.”
Dan noted the test immediately. He fought not to roll his eyes. Did he look like a coward? He wasn’t running away from a commitment, not anymore.
“Daddy, you know I love playing for the Angels. I plan on playing even after I get married, if I ever get married,” Fionna informed her father. Dan felt truly sorry for her. He knew the pressure of having your parents think that their plan for your life was so much better than your own.
“Why don’t we eat? I’ll go get everything ready,” Gretta stood and herded everyone toward the kitchen. Fionna’s father caught her hand and halted her progress.
“I’ll be right there.” Everything about her broadcasted a distress signal. Her eyes begged Dan to rescue her, but he had no idea how to save her from her father. He offered her a sorrowful look and moved slowly, in hopes of catching some of the conversation and not leaving her alone.
“What Daddy?”
“Maylea, this boy is no good for you. He takes what he wants, and then he leaves.”
“Daddy, stop it. That isn’t true.”
Dan’s heart sank rapidly towards his feet.
“Maylea, I know what boys think, especially boys like Vindico. I used to be a boy like that. You’re not smart enough to see. You never think, Maylea.”
Fury flashed in Dan’s eyes. How dare he? Her father was an asshole, just like he’d suspected. Who the hell would take a little girl away from her home and her grandmother, after her mother had just drowned, anyway? And who the hell did he think he was, telling his daughter that she wasn’t intelligent?
“You settled down twice.” Fionna spat angrily.
“You settled me down, Maylea. You’re my little girl. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Daddy,” Fionna sighed, “he won’t hurt me. I trust him, and he loves me.”
“He says he loves you until he gets what he wants. You believe his lies because you don’t think.”
Dan grimaced, but then he began to understand how Fionna had gotten her nickname of wildflower. In a fit of rebellion, she narrowed her eyes in on her father and sneered, “If that were true, Daddy, he would’ve already left, trust me.”
Dan felt every muscle in his body cinch tightly. By this point, he’d made his way into the kitchen. Fionna’s mother had also heard her declaration. She was pulling something that smelled delectable from the oven. She shook her head.
“Give him a little time, Dan. She’s his precious little girl. He’s had to protect her from so many things, even if the way he went about it wasn’t really what she needed. She hasn’t had an easy life. He can’t stand to think that something else might hurt her.”
“I know, and I’m not.”
“I know, dear,” Gretta agreed. “I saw how you looked at her, and your energies, they seem to mesh. Not everyone’s does that. You both seem better together than apart. That’s how I know. Samuel will come around.”
Fionna was blinking back tears as she stomped into the kitchen.
“You know, Maylea,” her mother wiped away Fionna’s tears with a worn dishrag and hugged her tightly. Dan noted that Fionna relaxed instantly in Gretta’s loving embrace. “Love doesn’t often come without cost, and sometimes the pain is for the ones who might be feeling just a little bit replaced.” She rubbed Fionna’s back. Fionna was still wiping away silent tears. “But there’s room in your heart for everyone, Maylea. You just have to remind everyone in there that there’s always room for more.”
“I know, Mama.”
Her mother released her, and Dan stood ready to wrap her up in his arms as she fell against his chest. He kissed the top of her head soothingly. “I’m sorry, baby. This is my fault.” Her father’s obvious prejudice towards women, and their intellect, was not his fault, but the lecture certainly had been.
&
nbsp; “No, it’s not.”
“You know, Maylea, I think we’ll have the Pani Popo with dinner. I’ll just heat it up. Why don’t you take Dan to see your old room? I’ll call you when it’s ready.”
Dan and Fionna both understood that they were to find somewhere else to be, so that Gretta could give Fionna’s father a few thoughts on what he was doing to his daughter.
Fionna didn’t look terribly excited about showing Dan the room that had raised her, but she took his hand and led him out of the kitchen and down a narrow hallway.
“Oh wait, wait, wait,” Dan teased as he halted her progress down the hallway, painted a cheery yellow with old parquet floors. “Very nice,” he chuckled as he took in a large framed picture of Fionna, no more than two years old, with her hair fixed in tiny pigtails, lying on her stomach, buck naked on a surf board. She was propped up on her elbows, preening for the camera on the beach. “Aww, you had a cute tush even then.”
She blushed violently and began giggling. “My room is down here.” She tugged on his hands.
“Uh huh, in a minute.” Dan began going over all of the framed photographs of Fionna that hung in the hallway.
“You do not want to see all of these.”
“Oh, I definitely do,” Dan laughed as he pointed out one of a pre-teen Fionna Styler, with her hair teased wildly into a side ponytail, wearing hot pink tights, sitting in an inflatable chair, and talking on the phone.
Her broad grin showed off the braces on her teeth. There was a collage photo frame of Fionna as a toddler, in numerous poses, all showing her hoisting her skirt over her head.
Dan guffawed. “Can I get a picture the next time you do this for me?”
Fionna glared, though she couldn’t quite contain her laughter. “It was obviously a phase.”
“Mmm, I really think you should consider going through that phase again, although I would prefer you skip the Snow White panties.”
She smacked his chest as he laughed. Further down the hall were shots of Fionna in high school.
“Who’s the punk?” Dan pointed to a picture of a relatively young Fionna, being escorted to what appeared to be a high school dance. She was wearing a blush-colored gown that looked like it had consumed her. Her hair was piled high on her head. The top of the dress was fitted, and Dan noted that she hadn’t developed near the cleavage she currently sported.
“I’m not telling you.” Her face was glowing crimson. The heat of her embarrassment was palpable in her rhythms.
“Come on,” Dan urged, “and please tell me you were older than this when you…” He felt sick momentarily.
Fionna shook her head. “I don’t know who’s worse, you or Daddy. We didn’t move up here until I started at the Academy. Daddy wanted me to go to Venton, so that was taken in Texas. And… that’s my cousin.”
Dan cracked up as they moved closer to the room at the end of the hall. There were several extremely impressive shots of Fionna surfing that had her beaming as Dan studied them. There was one of her crouched low on a custom board with a massive wave curved over her head. The fierce determination in her eyes spoke volumes.
Beside the ones of her with her beloved board was a large canvas of Fionna as a young girl, hugging a woman who was most certainly her mother.
Tears pricked her eyes again, and Dan hugged her tightly to him. You couldn’t lose someone who meant the world to you and be expected to just get over it.
“You look just like her, baby. You’re both beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Fionna shuddered and let Dan wipe away her tears as he kissed her forehead. The walls outside her bedroom door held pictures of her from Venton; her graduation shot along with her challenging for the Vixens. There were pictures of her and Chloe and Garrett from all six years. They were laughing and hugging. Dan hated himself for wishing Garrett out of her life. She’d already lost enough.
“Would you just come on so I can complete my mortification?”
Dan grinned. “You were adorable, and you still are.”
She rolled her eyes as she opened the door to her childhood bedroom. It was like taking a step back in time. Her parents hadn’t changed a single thing since she moved out when she graduated. A large, purple Auxiliary Order banner hung over the canopied bed. It was situated in the middle of the room, with a white eyelet comforter. Numerous Arlington Angel posters hung on the walls, all taken before Fionna made the team. There was a full-length poster of a drummer from the early nineties. Dan couldn’t recall his name or the band he’d been in, but there were lipstick smears all over the face of the poster.
“Do I have him to thank for your incredible kissing abilities?”
Fionna laughed. Her face was now glowing purple. “That’s how I blotted my lipstick.”
“Uh huh,” Dan goaded, “right.” Small framed photos of Fionna and her friends in Hawaii and at Academy functions were on the desk and bookshelves.
“Is this Malani?” Dan picked up one of the many snapshots of Fionna on a stunning beach. Her head was thrown back in laughter, and her right arm was around a Hawaiian girl of about the same age.
Fionna grinned and nodded excitedly. “I miss her so much. I used to get in trouble for calling her all the time after we moved. It made Daddy so mad.”
Dan tried not to let that information further irritate him, as he still had to make it through a meal with Samuel Styler.
There was a photo in a white frame of Fionna in a skimpy bikini, being carried on the beach by a rather well-built Hawaiian guy, who looked quite pleased to have her caught up in his arms.
Dan cocked his jaw to the side as he huffed, “I take it that’s not your cousin.”
“Are you jealous, Officer Vindico?” She tried to flirt but the evening’s emotions had exhausted her.
“Maybe.”
“Well, don’t be.” Pain replaced her earlier self-consciousness. “You don’t have anything to worry about. He was a summer fling, when I spent the summer between my freshman and sophomore years with my grandparents.” Her graceful neck contracted as she swallowed down regret. “He never even called after I came back to D.C.”
Dan had three sisters. He knew perfectly well why this picture had remained on her desk, despite the fact that it was a relationship that had lasted the length of one summer. It wasn’t that she loved the guy or wanted him again. It was the memory of what he’d taken from her that she couldn’t have back.
“Then he was an idiot.” Dan elicited a small smile. He set the picture down quickly, not wanting to linger on that too long. Fionna looked uncomfortable as she ran her hand along the footboard. There was an ancient rack-mount stereo system, the kind which Dan hadn’t seen in well over a decade.
“Daddy never gets rid of anything.”
Dan pulled Fionna into him. “You okay, honey?” He wondered if the walk down memory lane, coupled with her father’s insistence that Dan was going to break her heart, had just been more than she could take, on top of hearing that her grandmother wasn’t doing well.
His eyes continued to scan the room. There was a picture of Fionna, Malani, and another girl Dan didn’t know, at a luau in front of a beach fire. Their arms were up over their heads. The sway of the grass skirts they were wearing made them appear to move in the photo. Fionna was wearing a traditional hula top and had on a floral crown. She was stunning.
She shrugged against him. “I don’t know.” Dan brought his attention back to her in the present.
“Do you want to go home?” He prayed that she wouldn’t. He wanted to prove to her father that he adored her. He wanted to show Sam Styler how Fionna should have been taken care of her entire life. But he and also wanted to be Fionna’s escape. If she needed to go, then he’d take her.
“No, let’s just go eat, and hope Mama got through to Daddy.”
“I will prove myself to him, Fi, and I’ll prove myself to you. If it takes me years, I will do it.”
She looked momentarily shocked by his vow. “You’ve already prove
n yourself to me, Dan. That’s all that matters.
Not Daddy’s Little Girl
Things went relatively well, until Mr. Styler asked Fionna if she’d gotten her gas leak fixed.
“Yes, Daddy. Dan had a friend of his dad’s do it. It works great now.”
“I think I’ll just come by tomorrow and check it myself.”
“Daddy, it’s fine.” Fionna stabbed a piece of her pork chop viciously. Mr. Styler gave an audible humph.
“So, Officer Vindico, where would you say you see yourself in ten years?” He turned his disdain back to Dan. Fionna rolled her eyes and glared at her father.
Dan considered. He’d grown up next door to Amelia’s parents. They’d known him since he was a toddler, and he’d certainly never gotten to the parental-meeting portion of a relationship with any of his hook-ups over the past ten years. Dan assumed this was probably a standard fatherly question. He’d heard his own father pose it to both Kara and Meredith’s husbands before they were married.
“I’m not sure, sir, in terms of my career, so I would say the only thing I know for certain is that I want to be with Fionna,” Dan kept his eyes locked on Mr. Styler, who couldn’t quite hide his shock. Not to be beaten, he upped the ante.
“And what about children?”
“Daddy, stop it. I know what you’re doing,” Fionna demanded. She didn’t have to worry. Dan knew her father was trying to scare him off, and he wasn’t playing along.
“Well, I certainly don’t know what the future holds. Children aren’t something I’m looking for anytime in the next several years, but maybe down the road. I have two godsons. They live in Paris. I don’t get to see them often, but they’re great. I’d like to have a family someday, as long as I’m doing that with Fi.”
Fionna shot her father a smirk as she continued to eat her dinner.
“And do you have any intention of making any kind of permanent commitment to my little girl before you decide that you might want children?”