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“I took those jobs because I’m not the kind of man to let my pride get in the way of taking care of my family,” my dad announced. “Didn’t mean I was happy about it. He hired me off and on as a way of trying to remind me he was better off, tried to make me feel like I was less than him because I didn’t have his money. But I knew the truth. Money without happiness doesn’t equal a good life. He wanted to try and keep me down by rubbing that in my face.”
“But you got to go home every day to a wife and daughter you loved,” Beau finished for him. Understanding dawning in his eyes. “And that probably only added fuel to his bitterness.”
My father tapped the tip of his nose in a silentbingo. “I guess that’s when he decided it wasn’t worth trying to mess with me anymore. I didn’t give him what he wanted, because I had a damn good life and knew it. So he moved on to you kids.”
Beau took my hand under the table as my mom sniffled, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with her napkin. “I’m so sorry he set his sights on you.”
“Mom, it’s not your fault.” Emotion made my throat tight, the words coming out painfully as I reached across the table with my free hand and grabbed hold of hers, giving it a squeeze. “It’s not yours or Dad’s or Beau’s. It’s his. There’s something deeply wrong with that man, and that problem doesn’t fall on a single one of us to fix.”
I sat up straight and turned back to Beau. “I’m not letting you take this on,” I declared. “He doesn’t get to win this time. I know the truth now, and I’ll be damned if I let that man take your happiness again.”
“That’s right,” my father agreed. “Family looks out for each other, son, and now that Presley’s claimed you, you’re part of ours. We have your back.”
Beau
I stoodout on the balcony that faced the ocean, listening to the waves crash in the darkness as I thought over everything that had come to light earlier. The bad, sure, because when Hank Wade was your father, bad was a fucking guarantee, but also the good.
I thought about how it felt to have Alan call me son. The only other person in my life who had given me that was Sam, and hearing that from Presley’s father felt just as important as it did when my oldest and dearest friend said it.
The words had landed in my chest, nearly rendering me speechless. But when he referred to me as family, hell, that one almost took me to my knees. They’d accepted me so readily, so wholly, all because their daughter loved me. Simple as that.
I’d never experienced anything like that before. They had my back. And my own father was going out of his way to make things miserable for them. I didn’t know what to do.
“I can hear those wheels spinning in your head from all the way inside.”
I squeezed my eyes closed at the sound of her voice and breathed deeply. She was light and sunshine, and the only person in the world who’d ever dimmed that magnificent glow of hers was me.
“Hey.” She came up, placing her palm on my back and trailing it across my shoulder as she circled me, squeezing her way between me and the railing. Those eyes, all sweetness and honey, glowed in the faint porch light. “Talk to me. You’re always asking me what I’m thinking, now it’s your turn to fess up. Tell me what’s on your mind, Beau.”
If walking away from her in the past was hard, it was going to fucking gut me this time. Now that I knew what it was like to have her in my life, to wake up to her in the mornings, to be loved by her... losing all of that was going to destroy me.
I grabbed her hips, pulling her to me and lowering my forehead to hers. “You already know what I’m thinking.”
Her chest rose on a deep inhale as she slid her palms up my chest, circling her arms around my neck and playing with the hair at the nape of my neck. “You’re right, I do. That’s why I came out here. To tell you it’s not going to happen.”
“Bubbles—” I tried to pull away, but she wouldn’t let me. “You aren’t pushing me away this time, and I’m certainly not going to leave you. This is it, Beau.We’reit. You and me. That asshole doesn’t get his way this time. Not anymore.”
“Baby.” God, just holding her made everything better. But if walking away meant I’d spare her a lifetime of Hank Wade, I’d do it. I’d do anything for her, including breaking my own heart.
She shook her head before I could finish. “This isn’t the end of our story, Beau,” she demanded, that fire sparking to life behind her eyes, turning those brown eyes cinnamon. “This is the beginning. I spent so long convinced I couldn’t stand you, that you would always be my enemy. But now I know you were the one thing I was missing all along. I’m not going to lose you now that I finally have you. And I’m not going to let you lose me. This isnothow we end. You understand?”
If she was willing to fight, then I’d fight. I’d bend over backward and bleed myself dry. Presley Fields was my happiness, and if she said we were endgame, goddamn it, we were endgame.
“Okay,” I finally relented, unable to deny this amazing woman anything she wanted. “I understand.”
Her face lit up with a smile that never failed to repair the tiny tears in my heart. “Okay, good. Now that your head’s screwed on straight again, I have a plan for how we’re going to beat your father at his own game.” She arched a brow and bit down on her bottom lip. “You in?”
For a chance to take that bastard down? To protect my family? To keep the girl once and for all? It was a no-brainer.
“Hell yeah, I’m in.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
BEAU
Presley satin the passenger seat next to me as I stared up at the imposing, ostentatious house through the windshield. It had taken a few weeks to get everything in her plan squared away, but now that it was, we were here, sitting in front of my parents’ house, so I could go in there and pull the rug out from under him.
Sensing the tension knotting my shoulders and making my neck stiff, Presley reached across the center console and placed her hand on my thigh, giving it an affectionate squeeze. “You know, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
