Honor Unraveled by Elaine Levine Read Free Book Online

it while he was in Afghanistan. It was the first one he’d written to Ivy that he knew she’d received.  
    Casey sat on the coffee table again and handed it to him. “Mom keeps it in her jewelry box.”
    “You read this?” he asked his daughter.
    She nodded. “Why didn’t she tell you about me?” An intense stillness followed her question, as if any but the right answer would shatter her.
    “I don’t know.” Kit leaned forward and rested his hands on his daughter’s little knees. “But I do know that everything she did, she did for your welfare. I’m grateful to her for that.” He cupped her cheek. “And I’m proud of how strong you both are.” He kissed her forehead. “Now go put this letter back and quit snooping in her things.”
    “Okay. I think I’m going to go back to bed now.”
    Kit smiled. “Good call.”
    She hugged him, then kissed his cheek. “I love you, Dad.”
    Before he could respond, she’d slipped around the coffee table and disappeared into Ivy’s room. A moment later, she left Ivy’s room and moved toward her door, waving at him as she went. “Night.”
    “Night, baby. Sleep well.” He watched her step into her room. “Casey?” He stopped her before her door was closed.
    “Yeah?”
    “I love you, too.”
    She grinned at him, then shut the door.

    * * *

    Kit sat on the sofa outside Casey’s room for a long while after she left. He wasn’t fit for company. His mood worsened as the minutes passed, and he thought of the life Ivy and Casey had lived prior to his reconnecting with them.
    He’d been in Afghanistan most of the last eight years, coming back to the States for brief visits only. He’d never made an effort to visit with Ivy on those trips. She never seemed to want him to. His cowardliness had affected his daughter.
    Jesus, he was a bastard.
    He was still on the couch in the sitting room an hour later when Ivy quit for the night. She paused outside Casey’s room. “Everything okay?” she asked him.
    “What do you think?” he bit out, then ground his teeth, locking other words away.
    She didn’t answer him, just lowered her gaze, then stepped into Casey’s room. He wanted to go in there with her, yearned to be a part of their circle. Why it mattered so much to him, he couldn’t say—maybe it was that no one he’d loved had let him in.
    He crossed the room as Ivy stepped out of Casey’s darkened room a minute later. Waiting for an invite was a problem, because it sure as hell wasn’t coming. Ivy didn’t relinquish her hold on the doorknob.  
    “Let me say goodnight to her,” Kit whispered.
    “She’s already asleep.”
    “I won’t wake her.”
    “Kit, please.”
    The muscles bunched in the corners of Kit’s jaw as he stared into Ivy’s midnight-blue eyes. Her scent was sweet. Seductive. Unable to stop himself, he bent close to breathe it in. Her hair tickled his nose. He could feel her stiffening, gathering her resistance around her like a steel coat. He was breaking the rules. And he didn’t fucking care. But he did pull back.  
    “It’s a bad idea to stand between me and my daughter, Ivy. A really, really bad idea. One with consequences.”
    “Kit…” she protested with a broken whisper. “Leave her.”
    “She’s my daughter, too. You’ve had her for twelve years. I’ve had her for a couple of afternoons. We are not even.”
    Ivy lifted her gaze to him, dark and shimmering like a mountain lake in the black of night. “You could have had her from the beginning. You could have been there all along.”
    Kit’s jaw pulsed. “Stand aside, Ivy.” She didn’t. He covered her hand on the knob and turned it. They moved together into the darkness of their daughter’s room. Kit stepped away from Ivy as soon as he could. Dim light from the sunroom lit a path to Casey. Her hair spread across the pillow in ropes of blond. Her face was buried in the fur of a big old teddy bear.  
    Kit smoothed the bangs over her forehead. She didn’t