Danger

Sixty One

“Dad—” I began but was soon cut off when he raised a hand to hush me from continuing.

“No, Kelsey.” He shook his head. “I have to let this out.”

I nodded, letting him know I was listening.

“I was way out of hand. I should have never put my hands on you. You are my daughter and I love you. Nothing will ever change that. We make naïve decisions but at the end of the day, I helped conceive you, you are a part of me and I shouldn’t have let what happened… happen.” Sadness leaked in his brown irises, tears blurring his vision. “I’m sorry.” He whispered, looking down at his hands.

My mom cupped her mouth as she stared over at us with tears in her eyes too.

I frowned. “I’m sorry.” I overlapped his hand with mine. “If it wasn’t for me screaming, you would’ve never hit me. I was way out of line last night. I was just so overwhelmed and I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“Honey,” He took his other hand and covered mine so that my own was gently pressed together in the middle. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. You were standing up for what you believed in. If I was in your place and someone was telling me I couldn’t see your mother, I would have gone crazy too.” A soft chuckle escaped his lips.

I smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear before sighing. “I know what happened at the diner was a lot to take in. Trust me, if I was in your place, I would have had a heart attack too seeing my daughter caught in the middle of a gun but you have to understand that Justin was protecting me whether or not it looked that way.”

My dad didn’t say anything. Instead, he let me talk, listening to everything I was saying and I couldn’t help but grin, knowing that I had finally gotten through to him.

“Was it dangerous? Yes, without a doubt. Could I have died? Possibly but the fact of the matter was that I didn’t.” I sighed, remembering the events that occurred back at the diner. “All you could see was the gun in Justin’s hand. Admit it; you didn’t even see Luke with his.”

“I was put to shock to say the least, Kelsey. I was told by Carly that he was a criminal and at first we believed him but then your mother and I thought about it and we came to the conclusion that we hadn’t met him ourselves so we couldn’t judge. Do you know how embarrassed I was when I realized that all that Carly had said was true?”

“But, it’s not!” I cried, pulling my hand away from his. “Justin does stupid things, yes but he isn’t a criminal. He had a gun for protection because yes, he has enemies. He took it out not to be a ‘thug’ as you see him as but to make sure Luke didn’t try anything on me.” I shook my head. “You don’t understand him like I do.”

“Then explain it to us, Kelsey because your mother and I would like to know.” My dad folded his hands together, his eyebrows pulled to meet in the middle in a determined manner.

“Mom knows it’s just you who can’t see past the mistakes.” I mumbled bitterly. Biting the inside of my cheek, I took a deep breath. “Justin went through a lot, things that isn’t my business to tell you guys about but he does what he does because that’s what he grew up knowing. He’s been lied and deceived to so many times by those he trusted and loved, he couldn’t bring himself to trust anyone and believe it or not, I changed that. He was ruthless and bitter because he didn’t want to let anyone in but I broke down that wall and saw the loving and caring guy that later became my boyfriend.”