Page 110 of Love’s Silver Bullet

“You might say that.” Voice soft, she quietly closed the door before making her way to one of the chairs in front of his desk, slowly sinking into it with a timid smile.

“Are you all right?” He leaned in with a wealth of worry etched in his brow, clearly ready to tackle any problem she might have.

“Physically yes. But emotionally?” She looked up beneath a sweep of heavy lashes, grateful for the prayers Aunt Libby and Maggie were saying on her behalf right this moment. “I’ve never been worse.”

He shot up from his chair and quickly rounded his desk to take the one beside her instead, clutching her hand in his own. “Sheridan, what’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Inhaling deeply, Sheridan turned to face her uncle head-on with a firm square of her shoulders like Aunt Libby had instructed her to do.

“Trust me, Sheridan,” her aunt had said, “with a controlling man like your uncle, you need to strike while the iron is hot, darling, with immediate control of the situation.”

And that’s exactly what Sheridan intended to do—strike while the iron was hot. Steeling her spine as well as her posture, she met his own formidable chin with a hefty lift of her own. “I’m in love with Jake, Uncle Finn, and I want to marry him.”

“What?” Her uncle dropped her hand like it was that blasted hot iron with which she’d just struck, jerking back to stare at her as if she’d lost her mind. She battled a heavy sigh.

No, only my heart.

“Are you crazy?” he continued, thick dark brows pinched low.

“Yes, Uncle Finn, I am,” she said as calmly as she could, quite sure her aunt’s and sister-in-law’s prayers were in play or she’d be withering from her uncle’s glaring frown. “Over Jake Sullivan, and I need your help to talk him into marrying me.”

“What?” This time he shot straight up from his chair, towering over her like a tree about to timber. “You’re being ridiculous, young lady. I cannot and will not force a man to marry you.”

She jumped to her feet, tempted to stand on the stupid chair to counter him eye to eye. “You can if he’s in love with me.”

“What?!” Her uncle slapped hands to hips as he stared her down. “Just what in the devil makes you think that? Far as I can tell, Jake Sullivan sees you as nothing more than his little sister.”

Plunking hands to her hips like him, she bent in with a spark in her eyes that would have done Aunt Libby proud. “Then I hate to tell you this, Uncle Finn, but if that’s true, then Jake Sullivan has been doing an awful lot of sparkin’ with his little sister.”

Her uncle’s face went as white as his shirt, hazel eyes suddenly as round as the gold buttons on his pinstriped vest. “Sweet mother of mercy,” he rasped, mind obviously going way past “sparkin’.” “That isn’t why you want me to force him—?”

“Oh my goodness, no!” she choked out, her face whooshing as red as his was white. “I just mean Jake has been kissing on me with no little passion, Uncle Finn, and he’s even admitted he’s in love with me.”

“Blue blessed thunder,” he whispered, sinking back into his chair with a glazed look, his sagging jaw clearly as limp as his body. “How long has this been going on?”

Sheridan returned to her seat as well, her prior spunk tamed somewhat by her uncle’s obvious shock. “Since the night before I left for college. Blaze came to my bedroom late to tell me that Jake wanted to see me in the barn. I found out from Jake later that both Blaze and Dash coerced Jake into leading me on because they discovered Clay Morgan planned to pursue me in New York.” She lowered her gaze, careful to avoid any mention of Clay kissing her. “Because you” she said, looking up with the softest bit of accusation in her tone, “wanted them to keep me away from all men.”

A bit of color replenished his cheeks as he shifted awkwardly in the chair. “It’s true that I wanted to”—a lump bobbed in his throat—“forestall any potential romantic relationships until after you acquired your degree, sweetheart, but in no way do I condone what Blaze and Dash did … or Jake for that matter.”

“But you did ask Jake to flirt with me, did you not, Uncle Finn? To divert my attention away from Gray?”

A ruddy rash crawled up his neck. “I … suppose, but for crying out loud, sweetheart, the last thing I wanted was for you to fall for a womanizer like that.”

“I understand, Uncle Finn,” she said with a dip of her head, pinning him with a pointed stare, “but I want you to understand that I’m in love with Jake, and he’s in love with me. And you need to know that you are one of the biggest reasons he refuses to act on it.” Borrowing a page from Aunt Libby’s book about dealing with men, she calmly folded her hands in her lap and arched a brow. “So, I want you to fix it.”

Her uncle’s eyes narrowed, as thin as the gold clip on his tie. “I don’t like your tone, young lady.”

Chin nudging up, she bit back a smile at his curt manner, remembering Aunt Libby’s statement that ruffling his feathers meant she’d leveled the playing field, her cue for softening her stance while staying her ground. “I know, Uncle Finn, any more than I like you and my brothers manipulating my life behind my back, robbing me of my independence, so I apologize. And no disrespect intended, sir, but you were the one who started this whole conspiracy when I turned sixteen, and you did say that happiness and that of this family is your primary concern.”

Expression sober, Sheridan clamped her lips together to thwart a giggle on the rise, the grinding of her uncle’s jaw confirming she was on point according to Aunt Libby. Jaw firm, she patiently waited while he stared her down in that imposing way that had always disarmed her as a child.

A loud bluster of air finally escaped his lips as he all but gouged the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Confound it, Sheridan, I promised your mother you would get a degree before there was even a hint of romance in your life, young lady, and I aim to keep my word.”

“Understood, Uncle Finn, but I’m only five months away from a degree, sir, and you need to know that there’s been far more than a ‘hint’ of romance going on under your nose—”

“Enough!” He rose and stormed around his desk, palms pressed white on its littered surface while he leaned in with a commanding air, his jaw as stiff as his tone. “I refuse to mettle in Jake’s life.”

Jumping up, she followed suit leaning in as she slapped palms to his desk. “I see, just mine, is that it?”