A Beautiful Mistake by Price Ashlee

Author:Price, Ashlee [Price, Ashlee]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Published: 2019-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Dustin

Dr. Hal Stevens is Marian's stepfather?

As I eat my steak, I watch him and Marian talk. They look nothing alike, and yet they are acting like a real father and daughter. Marian looks like she really respects him, but at the same time she has her guard down. Hal looks like he's hanging on her every word.

He's a good man. I thought so even when I first met him. He was obviously surprised by Marian's introduction, but there was no disappointment or indignation on his face. When he got over the surprise, he smiled and shook my hand before giving Marian a hug. He didn't even ask how it happened.

It's not that he doesn't care. He does, so much that all he wants is for Marian to be happy. I've never had my father - or anyone else - feel that way for me.

"So, Marian tells me you build things?" Hal asks me.

"Yeah. Robotics. I invented a pair of machines, one on the ground and the other something like a drone in the air, that detect landmines and work together to disarm them."

Hal's eyes grow wide. "Wow."

I can see the surprise and awe in Marian's eyes as well. Right. I haven't told her about that.

She tries to hide it, though. Instead, she smiles as she turns to Hal.

"That's right. He's quite amazing. Who knows? Someday he might just invent a robot to perform heart transplants."

Hal frowns. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that." He glances at me. "No offense, but hearts are fragile things. I don't think they should be held by anything other than human hands if they should be held at all."

"I understand," I tell him. "I'll keep that in mind."

Marian grins. "He's just saying that because he doesn't want anything else doing his job."

"Well, that, too," Hal admits.

She chuckles. "And Dustin is also into a lot of things. He bikes. He hikes. He surfs."

"I've tried surfing," Hal says. "That was a long time ago, though."

"It's never too late to get back on the board," I say.

"Maybe," he agrees. "But I'm not as young as I used to be. I used to go rock climbing, too, but that was before I decided to become a surgeon and realized I couldn't risk injuring my hands."

"His billion-dollar hands," Marian adds.

"What about hang gliding?" I ask him. "Or skydiving? I convinced Marian to try that once."

Hal looks at his stepdaughter. "You went skydiving?"

She shrugs. "What can I say? I guess I've got a reckless bone in my body."

He grins. "And you didn't get scared?"

"I did, but only in the beginning, just before the jump and those first few seconds of free falling," Marian answers. "But then you fly and you just feel amazing. Besides, Dustin was with me every inch of the way."

She glances at me and I smile.

"Well, it's not like skydiving is the first reckless thing you've ever done," Hal says. "Remember when you climbed that tree in the yard and I had to borrow the neighbor's trampoline so you could jump down?"

"Hal," Marian admonishes him.

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