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“Tell me you at least talked to him at some point,” I said. “Maybe there was a misunderstanding.”
“Itried.” He widened his eyes. “He did a complete 180 on me. I went down to visit—and to ask him what the fuck was going on—and he avoided me like the plague. The fuck was I supposed to do, beg him to explain why he’d chosen my sister over me? Christ, like I wasn’t already humiliated enough.”
Hmm. Yeah, no, that had to hurt. I wouldn’t be able to stick around for that sunshine story.
Something wasn’t adding up, though.
“What was with the 180?” I wondered. “Did he have a reason to avoid you?”
He shrugged and flattened the dough some more on one of the trays. “I don’t know. I guess he felt bad about changing his mind and didn’t have the balls to say it to my face.”
I reckoned that made sense—though, it didn’t fit my profile of Joel Hayward. On the other hand, I didn’t know the man. It was just… These past few weeks, he’d struck me as a man of integrity, someone who was honest and didn’t mind taking the back seat—until he felt the need to step in. He’d definitely eased Shay’s nerves tonight before we’d gone up into the helicopter.
When someone needed him to do something, no matter how dangerous, he said, “Sure.”
He and Crew had single-handedly taken down Luca, Marco, and Enzo Blanco tonight. One grunt and one sniper.
And with Joel’s everyday job…? For chrissakes, HITRON was one of our most elite military units. Could he be anything but fearless? But as I thought of it, I knew it didn’t compare. Riv and I had thrown ourselves into all kinds of shit, knowing full well we might not make it out alive. Hadn’t stopped us from being insanely nervous when we were introduced to Shay’s family for the first time.
“He made shit clear once when he was drunk anyway,” Elliott muttered. “He came up to me—at their fucking wedding reception, mind you—and rambled drunkenly about how Piper was his whole world.”
I winced.
“You make me wanna drink, Elliott.”
He laughed.
CHAPTER 3
Joel Hayward
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Uncle Ellie says I have his eyes, but I have my own, see!” She blinked hard at me.
My mouth twitched. She was too fucking cute.
“Get in the car and I’ll explain,” I chuckled. “How was school?”
“Meh. Trey called my dress ugly, so I called him a turd. He was wrong, and I was right.”
That’s my girl. “Your dress is beautiful.” I got in behind the wheel and buckled in. “You wanna get tacos?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
I smiled and pulled away from the curb. Maybe I could distract her from bringing up Elliott again.
“So, about Uncle Ellie,” she started.
Fuck.
* * *
Fourteen messages from Piper.
I turned off my phone again and pocketed it, then leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees.
