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And one she loved.
A hard knock sounded on the door before it pushed open and he strode into the office dressed in his motorcycle leathers and tugging off black gloves.
He was really too damned good-looking for his own good. Impossibly charming.
“What’s so important you had to e-mail that little order?” He frowned at her as he threw himself in the chair in front of her desk.
Janey leaned back in her own chair.
“I love you, Natches,” she said softly.
He stared at her for long moments. She could see the emotions in his eyes now, where in the past she had never been able to.
“Yeah. ” He nodded. “I love you, too, Janey. ” He rubbed his hand over his cheek. “Where’s Alex?”
Like her, emotion still had the ability to make him slightly nervous. They’d been raised to hide everything; sometimes that wasn’t so easy.
“You and I have ground rules to settle. We don’t need Alex for that. ” She leaned forward, picked up the legal agreement she’d had made, and pushed it toward him. “Sign it. ”
He looked at the papers, then back to her.
“Was the ‘love you’ stuff to butter me up?” His lips quirked.
“No. ” She shook her head. “It was a promise, Natches. We’re family. You’re all the family I have, and I don’t want to lose you. But I’m not butting heads with you over this restaurant any longer. And I’m not coming to you for permission for everything I need. Alex is my soul, and I love him more than I thought I’d ever love anyone besides you. But this restaurant has always been my dream. Not yours. Mine. I don’t want your part of it, but I will have control of it. ”
He looked around the office somberly before meeting her eyes again. “I hate this fucking place,” he finally said. “I prayed you’d hate it. ”
She sighed at that. “It’s not Dayle’s place any longer, Natches. It’s mine. As far as I’m concerned, Ray has always been the father we should have had. He’s a Mackay, and he wears his name with pride. I won’t do anything less. ”
He slapped his gloves against his hands and stared at the papers. “Burn the place,” he whispered. “Start fresh. ”
“Why?”
He looked back up at her, his gaze heavy, filled with sadness. “Neither of us would ever have to remember him again if it were gone. ”
She shook her head. “He made us who we are. And, Natches, we’re damned fine people. ” She smiled through her tears. “We’re good people. Chaya and Alex wouldn’t love us if we weren’t. And we wouldn’t have survived otherwise. ”
He sighed heavily. “Stubborn,” he muttered.
“A trait we share. ” She pushed the papers to him. “Give me control, Natches. Let’s show Dayle what he missed out on. Mackay’s will be the finest restaurant in the state, and one day, no one will even remember who he was. ”
He pulled the papers to him and signed them, then pushed them back and stood up. “I promised Alex I’d help him upstairs,” he stated. “Dawg and Rowdy will be here in a minute to help, too. ”
Janey stared at the papers, then back at Natches. “You didn’t read them. You should. ”
He shrugged. “They just say you have control, right?”
She nodded slowly.
“I trust you, Janey. ” He stared back at her, and that trust was in his expression, in his eyes. “I always trusted you. ”
“Always?” she whispered. Even when Dayle was beating the hell out of him because she had done something wrong?
He moved around the desk, bending until he was hunkered beside her chair. “Always. Even
when you
were a black-haired, squalling, red-faced brat pissed off with the world. When you were a toddler just realizing what kind of monster sired us, and a young girl trying to be so good so Dayle wouldn’t erupt.
