He stared at me so long I felt the sweat beading along my hairline. Sonofabitch. He was on to me.
“Cut the bullshit, Knox. I saw the way you were looking at Cece earlier, when you thought no one was lookin’.” He pointed his fingers from my eyes to his. “You have ten seconds to spill.”
There was no way to play this off. This man wasn’t stupid and he wouldn’t settle for some half-assed version of the truth. “You want honesty, Chee?” I looked him in the eye, letting him know that as hard as he tried he wasn’t going to intimidate me. I’d earned his respect a long time ago, and didn’t intend to compromise it now. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on between us. She’s been one of my best friends for years, you know that, but lately…”
He cut the tip off his own cigar and clenched it between his teeth before lighting both. “Yeah?”
“I don’t know.” Cece would lose her shit if I gave her parents reason to start sniffing around us, but I didn’t see a choice. When Chee started asking questions you’d have to be an idiot to pretend you didn’t have the answers. “Lately, things have been getting real.” I took a long drag off the cigar and tipped my head back, blowing the smoke out. “She’s started seeing this guy, Auden—”
“That guy who’s opening for you?” Chee scowled. “He’s not her type. Looks like a pretty boy to me.”
I couldn’t agree more. “Yeah, well, she says she likes him.” I took another pull from the cigar. It had been a while since I’d had a smoke and it was just what I needed to relieve the stress of the past few days.
“And that pisses you off?” Chee popped the top on two more longnecks and handed me one.
We’d already had a few, but I wasn’t driving so I didn’t mind if he kept them coming. “What do you think?”
He set the cigar down on a nearby workbench before tipping his beer back. “I think you’d like to kick the shit out of him.”
“You wouldn’t be wrong.” I drained half the beer before adding, “But I can’t do that.”
“Why the hell not?”
I was pretty sure in Chee’s former life fists started flying before consequences were considered. “Because he’s my opening act. If the press got wind of trouble in my camp they’d be all over it. I don’t need that. The tour’s going well and—”
“So, how you gonna solve the problem then?” He sat back on a stool, reclaiming his cigar. “I know I don’t have to tell you it doesn’t take long for a woman to fall, and hard, for a smooth-talking SOB like that.”
“How do you know Auden’s—”
“Saw him doing an interview once. Said to Aidy that’s the kind of guy our baby girl would go for.” He grimaced. “When I found out he was goin’ on tour with y’all I thought, that’s it, game over. I was gonna have to get used to having a little puke like that for a son-in-law.”
Son-in-law? WTF? “No way would it get that far.” I wouldn’t let it. “They’ve just been… getting to know each other better, that’s all.”
He closed his eyes, like I was trying his patience. “To know Cece is to love her, right?”
“Well yeah, but—”
“So, how do you know this guy isn’t already planning on taking this thing with Cec all the way?”
“She has to want it too, man. Can’t be a one-way thing.”
“Oh, so she’s not interested in him then?” He raised his chin, staring me down. “That’s what you’re sayin’?”
No way would I tell Chee they’d already gone at it. He’d hunt that bastard down. “I didn’t say that. I just—”
“Quit talkin’ in circles,” he barked. “You’re startin’ to piss me off. Do you, or do you not, want my daughter? It’s as simple as that.”
There was nothing simple about my feelings for Cece. “We’ve been friends forever.” I drained the rest of my beer and tossed it in a bin with a dozen more empties.
“So?”
“So I don’t wanna mess with that.” Chee may challenge me, but I wasn’t afraid to push back just as hard. “She means too damn much to me. Not having her in my life… not an option, man.”
He looked at me a long time before he said, “You’re in love with her.”
“Of course I love her—”
“That’s not what I said.” He glared at me. “You’reinlove with her.”
