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“I’m not calling James,” Juniper snapped, her tone brooking no argument and making me as hard as a rock.
“And I’m not going anywhere without Juniper,” I snarled. My temper had risen to a boiling point, and it wouldn’t take much to tip me over. The only thing holding me back at that point was knowing it would likely upset my girl.
The room filled with silence, a wordless standoff with no one willing to back down. They were sadly mistaken if they thought they had the upper hand. In their convoluted reality, they actually thought I gave a shit what they thought about me.
“I’m going to go pack a bag,” Juniper announced, breaking the tension.
“You will stay right here and do as you're told, Juniper Finch!” her mother screeched, her tone shrill again. “You’re being a selfish, spoiled—”
“Enough!” I roared, pissed the fuck off that they would talk to her like that. Electricity sparked from my hands, despite the thick leather gloves I was wearing. Juniper immediately turned to me and placed her hands on my biceps.
“It’s okay,” she soothed softly. “They aren’t worth getting upset over. Or showing them things they will never understand and don’t have a right to know.”
She was right, so I took a deep, calming breath and focused solely on my girl. “Go get your things.” I grabbed her chin so I could fall into the depths of her rich, whiskey-brown pools. “Getallof your stuff.”
12
Juniper
Iignored my parents’ squawking and focused on Silas’s demand. “What do you mean, get all my stuff?”
Silas glared at my mom when she echoed my question, and I wanted to giggle at how she snapped her lips shut. But I held back my laugh since it would probably come out sounding hysterical because I was stressed out from the confrontation with my parents. Plus, it would only make them angrier since they wouldn’t find anything about this situation even the tiniest bit funny.
“Grab all of your things and come back to my cabin,” Silas explained, releasing his grip on my chin.
“My daughter has spent more than enough time with you already,” my mom huffed. “She’s wasted practically our entire trip by disappearing with you, leaving us to wonder where she was.”
Thinking about how they’d gone to bed the night I met Silas even though I’d never returned from my walk, I rolled my eyes. “But did you really?”
Her brows drew together. “Did we really what?”
“Wonder where I was. When you thought I was spending the night with James, you didn’t even ask any questions.”
My voice cracked at the end, and Silas slid his arm around my back to pull me against his side. “Juniper is right. It didn’t seem like you were worried about her when we got here. She showed up with a guy you’ve never seen before, and you didn’t even ask her if she was okay.”
“Of course, we did,” my mom denied.
I sighed and shook my head. “No, you didn’t. You were too busy yelling because I wasn’t with the guy you were pushing me at. You made it clear that’s what bothered you about me being gone. That I blew things with James after you went to the trouble to set up this trip to clinch things with his dad and going so far as to use me to do it.”
“Now, Juniper. Don’t be melodramatic,” my dad chided, his lips pursing together.
“Just because you don’t like what I’m saying doesn’t mean I’m being melodramatic,” I argued. “All I did was tell the truth, as sucky as it is.”
“Prove your daughter wrong,” Silas challenged. “Show her that you care about her feelings more than a business deal.”
My dad looked him up and down, his nostrils flaring. “Who are you to demand anything of me? You’re a nobody. I don’t have to prove anything to you.”
“Don’t talk to him like that!” I yelled.
“It’s okay, my beauty.” Silas stroked his hand up and down my spine. “I don’t give a shit what your dad thinks about me. The only thing that matters to me is how he treats you.”
“I treat my daughter just fine.” My dad puffed out his chest. “I’ve always made sure that Juniper had everything a girl could ask for.”
I looked around the gorgeous villa they’d rented for our trip. The rooms were filled with expensive furnishings, but I was so much more comfortable in Silas’s cabin. Sweeping my arm in the air, I sniffled. “I would rather have had parents who listened to me and showed how much they loved me than all the stuff you like to buy when you’re feeling guilty about being a bad husband or dad.”
“How dare you say that to your father?” my mom hissed. “After everything he’s done for you.”
“Maybe if you’d ever have cared enough to call him on the stuff he pulls, I wouldn’t have to be the one to say it,” I retorted.
