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She dropped her dress and pulled back, but I moved with her.
“Kadey almost didn’t make it either. And my recovery was long. I couldn’t even hold or feed her on my own for a week or more,” she explained, scuffing her feet on the concrete. “Thank goodness for the nurses in the PICU. They mothered her when I couldn’t.”
“Your mom and dad didn’t help?”
“Nope.”
“Her dad?”
She scoffed, and I prepared myself for just how stupid Jared’s excuse was, already knowing this fuckhead’s track record. “He doesn’t like the smell of hospitals, so he refused to come in for the birth… you know, where I died. And then, he still wouldn’t come in to help with his little girl for the three weeks we spent there. He didn’t see her until we got home.”
“I need to stop asking,” I commented, clenching my jaw.
She waved her hand in the air. “Expecting less than nothing from him has become the norm now. So, when he delivers exactly that, I can just laugh it off because I never expected anything more, and I’m not disappointed.”
“I expect a man to act like a father for his daughter.”
“Then your expectations are too high.”
“The scar, how have I never seen that before?” I questioned as she stepped outside the garage and into the sunlight. The way it fucking lit her up was like a goddamn angel. Something I’d spent years telling myself didn’t exist, yet there was one standing in front of me.
“I discovered the joy of concealer and high-waisted clothing.” She grinned, the wind whipping through her hair as she spun around to face me. “When I went on stage, I always opted for something that came up a little higher. Eventually, that kinda became my thing.” The smile on her face was so bright, so full of fucking life that I couldn’t imagine how anyone had walked away from her—her parents, her ex, just any fucking guy walking down the street. A better man would’ve walked away, realizing this woman deserved so much more.
There was a strength in her that I couldn’t describe.
That, up until that point, I hadn’t even known existed.
She’d been fighting for so long with no one there to have her back. Until now.
Because thankfully, I wasn’t a better man.
And I wasn’t walking away.
“Is it safe?” Scoop called from the doorway, hiding his eyes.
“Yes, asshole,” I yelled back, flipping him off as I followed Missy out into the fucking hot sun. “You coming in? Or was your plan all along just to come by and use me for my body, then leave?”
She held her hands up, still backing away from me toward the road. “When I make a decision, I like to act quickly before I overthink it too much and talk myself out of it.”
“Yeah?” I smirked, wondering how long she would play before I caught and dragged her back inside. “And what decision needs your urgent attention?”
“I’m meant to be picking Kadey up from Mrs. Dawson in an hour,” she answered, coming to a stop at the tall wire fencing surrounding the compound. “I figured that gave me and Gem enough time to swing by and see Mitchell and tell him in more ways than one where he can shove his job.”
She turned to run, but I caught her around the waist, pulling her back against me as she giggled.
“You girls are gonna take the barmaid jobs?”
“You always gonna act like a damn caveman?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll work on it,” she teased as a car pulled up at the curb, Gem grinning and waving from the driver’s seat. “I gotta go.”
I finally let her slip from my grasp, realizing that was the reason she’d come out here, to tell me she wanted the job and probably grab the contracts. But we’d quickly got distracted, and after having my hands and mouth on that damn fine body, I knew it was going to become a fucking regular thing.
She glanced back at me as she pulled the car door open. “See you soon, Swayze,” she called, climbing into the passenger seat and shutting the door behind her before I could answer.
But I couldn’t help but smile to myself as they drove away.
