“It looks to me like all the help is going one direction.”

“Maybe I do baby them a little, but they’ve been through a lot.”

“So have you, and you’re the same age as Seth. Besides, what’s your dad’s excuse?”

A long pause ensued. “He never got any money for the house in the divorce.”

He narrowed his eyes. “He guilted you into that loan? He didn’t deserve that money, Sophie. He deserted you guys.”

“Well, the house belonged to him and Mom, nonetheless.”

“Parents aren’t supposed to borrow money from their children, for crying out loud. I can’t even imagine my dad asking me for a loan.”

“Your dad’s in a different financial situation than mine is.”

Aiden bit his tongue. Craig had always been a poor excuse for a father. Sophie had been taking care of her siblings, doing the laundry, and grocery shopping long before her mom became bedridden. Their dad was always working or out with his friends. But her siblings were adults now. There was no excuse for the way they imposed on Sophie.

“I already said I was sorry for ruining our evening,” she said. “I don’t know what else to say.”

Maybe she could promise to stop indulging her family.

Aiden turned the windshield wipers up a speed. Tonight’s favor might’ve appeased Jenna—for now—but the good deed had come at his expense.

“Why does your dad always get a pass, Sophie?”

She looked at him. “What? He hasn’t gotten a pass.”

“He abandoned your family. He’s the reason you had to give up so much, and yet you forgave him. You let him borrow money you needed even though you’re only finally able to start your life. But it took you seven years to forgive me.”

A long thread of silence hung between them. The air quivered with tension.

She crossed her arms. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

Fear tightened his chest. Sophie’s incessant need to please her family had triggered his own issues—that he hadn’t been enough for his mom. The pain still cut to the core. It was probably making him overreact. But he couldn’t seem to push back the sense of doom.

And he couldn’t seem to stop the familiar feelings of unworthiness rising like a tidal wave. He didn’t want to be disregarded again and again. Would he ever be enough for Sophie? Once the doubts started creeping in, he couldn’t seem to stop them.