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The man turned. Toward that blond woman. Dylan just stood there. Staring.
He pulled that woman close. Wrapped his arms around her. There was a look on his face Dylan would never forget. No guy had ever looked atherthat way.
She didn't know that she ever wanted one to, actually.
That was intense. That was the way her dad looked at her mom, sometimes, though. Hermom.Dylan’s mom was probably freaking right now.
Dylan pulled Devaney closer. She didn't know what they were supposed to do next.
There were other people surrounding their dad. She could see him across the room.
The door behind them opened. Then Dahlia and Dorie were there. And a bunch of other people. Dylan fought stepping back. Theirdadwas right there, too. Only, his hair was shorter and silver. And he wore his polo shirt tucked into his jeans.
Her father would never wear his shirts tucked in like that. He’d said it really made a man look like a dweeb once—but there had been a look of pain on his face she hadn’t understood then. She’d just told him no one useddweebany longer and didn’t ask more.
It sank in fast. That wasn't herdadat all. “What...what exactly is going on here?”
She pulled Devaney away from the growing crowd. Toward the wall. Dahlia and Dorie came to them. Dylan kept her arm around Devaney. And they justwatched.
68
Dusty clungto Ben and watched in utter shock as her uncle, the man who had always been her hero, stormed right up to herfather,and rammed his fist into Arthur Talley’s identical nose.
“What kind of father are you? That’s a question I’ve wanted to ask you for twenty-three damned years!” her uncle’s roar practically shook the rafters. “Did you not care about those kids at all?”
Her father pulled up his hands, but he didn’t hit her uncle back. “I did what I had to do. Do you think I really wanted to leave them? I had nochoice.”
“Bullshit, and you know it. You could have come to me! I could have helped you. With anything, you dumbass!”
“And gotten you hurt? Hell, no. I got Geena out of town as fast as I could, but the damned cops in this county hushed everything up. Preston paid them off! I found proof of that years ago!”
“And what about your girls? You just left them.”
“I protected them! Gave them the kind of life theydeserved!I knew you and Dad could protect them far better than I could, Gerry!”
Dusty just stared. They were gearing up for a total beat down right now. Two sixty-five-year-old identical men who should know better.
They were yelling at the top of their lungs. For everyone tohear.
And there was a dead man at their feet.
Dusty really fought the urge to puke as that sank in. There wasblood splatterover the front of the dessert bar. She would never forget that sight. She just stared. And stared.
Someone turned her. Ben. It was Ben. “There’s blood everywhere. Someone will have to clean that up.”
“It won’t be you. It won’t be you.” Then the man she loved was pulling her into his arms. But…
“There is blood on you. You were hurt.”
“Dude just grazed me. I think it went up in that old portrait of that bear on the wall. I couldn’t have written it better actually. You know, the bear painting that looks like it’s from a horror movie or something. It hit him right in the peni—”
“Ben!” But she tried to see for herself. He was bleeding. He was hurt. That monster could have shot him. Shot Daisy, or Meyra, or Nikki or Hunter, or Macy—or Dusty’smother.
So many people could have been killed tonight. For what?
“Destiny Marie Talley, will you move into my castle with me once this crazy night is over? And live with me happily ever after? An HEA is what a romance novel requires, right? That’s all? People falling in love and an HEA?”
Ben turned her. Until she was looking at him face-to-face. Even with all the blood on his arm and everything. Like he didn’t even feel it.
