“True, but that was your choice. Piper, on the other hand, never had choices, or even much of a say in her life’s path. She’s been stuck here since she was a teenager. Now, I get that you’re ready to settle down, but she isn’t. Hell, she might not even know what she wants.”

That it was all true didn’t help. He’d had a life of freedom and adventure while her life had been dictated from age thirteen. It was no wonder then that she lived by a set of rules no one else was privy to, and an iron-clad sense of control that manifested in bullet journaling and holding on to the reins of her siblings’ lives with both hands.

Now she finally had a shot at being able to live the life she wanted, and he of all people could understand that. Which meant there was only one thing he could do—support her choices. No matter if he wasn’t one of those choices.

“What are you thinking?” his dad asked.

“I don’t want to lose her. But there’s no way I’m going to hold her back either.”

His dad nodded. “Good. But when I look over my life, do you know what my biggest regret is?”

Cam shook his head.

“It’s that I didn’t find a way to make it work with your mom. Yeah, she had her difficulties, but I loved her on the day she died every bit as much as I loved her on the day I married her. It kills me that we spent our years together fighting about why it couldn’t work, when we should’ve been figuring out how to make it work. That, and her unwillingness to stay on her meds, tore us apart, and our family too. I wasted a lot of time, time that I could’ve spent with you. Yeah, I got Rowan, but as you know, life’s short. Too fucking short.”

That was the thing about losing someone you loved. It made you appreciate those who really mattered in life. His dad. His future niece or nephew. Winnie. Gavin. Piper . . . Yeah, it’d been devastating to lose Rowan, and life would never be the same. But the world didn’t stop turning. He could still love. And he’d most definitely found someone special to love in Piper. She was it for him. She made him laugh, she made him feel, and she made him want to be a better man. But he had no idea if she could, or would, feel the same about him. Which made him feel a little bit like he was hanging out there bare-assed naked all on his own.

But she’d said to come home to her, and that gave him hope. As for the rest, she was well worth waiting on the possibility of what could be.