The Heart's Melody | ✅

Chapter 13: Men talk

Tris didn't want to stay there any longer so Tobias called a cab that drove them to his apartment. She didn't want to go home because she wasn't ready to face her father again. She didn't do anything wrong and he had no right to treat her like she was a child.

When they arrived at his apartment Tris went straight to his bedroom. She knew where it was since she visited him a couple of times before without telling anyone. She crawled into his bed and tried to sleep. Tobias let her. As he walked to the door he heard her.

"Will you stay with me?" she asked, her voice a low whisper.

"Of course I will, always," he replied with a smile and she reciprocated it.

He got into bed and gathered her in his arms rubbing her back like he did before until he felt a steady rise and fall of her chest. She fell asleep. But he couldn't sleep. The events from earlier that day were fresh in his mind and if he was honest with himself though expecting a strong reaction from Andrew it still hurt him that the man mistrusted him. He knew Tobias since he was a baby, saw him every day at work, knew the kind of man he was. Sure he was older than Tris, but that didn't change the fact that he loved her. Tobias tried his hardest to convince himself that Andrew overreacted because of the situation itself and not because of him per se.

After a while of just laying there holding the woman he loved he felt his phone vibrate in his pants pocket. He quickly pulled it out as to not disturb her any further and answered it without looking who the caller was. To say he was surprised to hear Andrew Prior's voice on the other end was an understatement.

"Tobias?" Andrew asked.

"Yes," Tobias replied and kept his voice down.

"Is Tris with you?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.

"Yes, she's at my place taking a nap," Tobias answered. He decided to be honest with the older man. It wouldn't help anyone if Tris' parents were worried about her when she was safe, but at the same time he wanted Andrew to know that he would protect Tris even from her own father if she chose to ask.

"Good," Andrew replied relieved that his daughter was alright. Ever since the two young people disappeared he hoped that she didn't run off back to New York but stayed in Chicago for a while longer. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure," Tobias answered immediately.

"Do you want to meet at a café?" Andrew asked a little nervous.

"How about you come over? I would hate leaving Tris alone," Tobias told the older man.

"I'll be right there," Andrew replied and hung up. Tobias wondered if he did the right thing asking Tris' father to come to his apartment, when she clearly wasn't in the mood to see him. But on the other hand he wasn't going to just leave her when she needed him. He would deal with her when she got up, but he secretly hoped that she would sleep through his meeting with Andrew.

About twenty minutes later a knock was heard on his front door. Tobias carefully closed his bedroom door to avoid waking Tris while he spoke with her father. He opened the door and Andrew stood there, his shoulders slightly slumped forward; he looked defeated. The younger man invited the Prior patriarch in and guided him to the dining room table. After Andrew refused a beverage Tobias sat down on the opposite end and waited for the man to speak, but maybe it would have been better for him to make the first move.

"Andrew, I love Tris with all my heart. I would never hurt her and as long as she will have me I will make anything and everything I can to make her happy," he said, his voice sincere and his eyes never leaving the older man's. Andrew listened and watched him carefully. He had a tough time accepting things. He and his wife talked about everything and while they were both hurt that their daughter kept such a big secret from them it was a new testimony of how little they knew about her and how much Tris felt she needed to keep secrets in the first place. Marcus told him that he did a good job with Tris, but somehow he couldn't see that. He felt like he didn't know his youngest daughter at all. Marcus and Natalie were right. Tobias was a wonderful young man and he could see that what the two felt for each other wasn't just a youthful infatuation, but deeper, more mature feelings. He knew they were all right, Marcus and Natalie and even Shauna, who was still in labor; they told him that Tobias was a good guy and if they loved each other he, as a father, should be happy that his daughter found such a fine young man.