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“Yeah, she’s pretty easy to love.” He’d started to wonder ifhe could say the same of himself. “But I screwed up. I don’t know she’s goingto forgive me. It feels like she’s willing to forgive everyone else but notme.”
“Well, she’s not real happy with me either, though I’mhoping spending an enormous amount of money on a car will help,” his fatheradmitted. “Not that I think she’s a gold digger. She’s as far from it as I canimagine. Now when you were seeing Alyssa I was worried.”
Josh snorted. “I was never serious about her. She wouldn’taccept Grim.”
His father leaned against the heavy railing. He was inpajama pants and a T-shirt that proved the old man was still built like a bull.His father was still muscular and fit. Likely because he spent so much timeworking on the ranch. “Yeah, I could have told you that one isn’t meant for ourworld. She’s too worried about what other people think.”
“And you think Nicole is?” Josh was interested in hisfather’s opinions.
“I know I was worried in the beginning,” his father allowed.
“You seem pretty worried now.”
“About her safety,” Dad corrected. “Not about whether or notshe’s going to break your heart. That girl is pure sunshine. She reminds me somuch of Sam and your mom. She’s been through some terrible things and her heartis still open. See, Nicole cares about the right things. Alyssa wants people tolook up to her. She’s thinking about her reputation all the time, about beingseen with the right people. Nicole thinks about all the people in her life.”
His father didn’t know Nicole yet. “She’s not a saint, Dad.She can tear a strip off a man when she wants to.”
“Precisely why she’s perfect for you. I don’t know if you’venoticed but you have what I like to call a strong personality. If you don’thave a woman who’ll stand up to you, you’ll walk all over her. You won’t meanto. You’ll let your dominant side take over, and you won’t ever figure out it’sokay to sit back and let her take control.”
Josh raised his brows because there was some hypocrisyflowing from his father. “Says the man who cubed my girlfriend’s car.”
Dad held his hands up. “I didn’t say I was perfect. I’m justsaying that your momma knows how to set boundaries, and that’s been good forour long-term marriage. Your pops only learned how to ask for what he neededwhen we got involved with your mom. She taught him how to trust himself andvalue himself. Your momma taught me she can love me, Sam can love me, even whenI screw up. I don’t have to be in control one hundred percent of the time. Theworld won’t fall apart if I take a day off.”
“Or let your kids take over the business part so you can dothe fun parts?”
His father turned his way, a smile on his face. “Exactly. Iknow I look over your shoulder more than you would like, but I’m gettingbetter. I know I don’t talk a lot about this. I don’t talk a lot period, but Ididn’t have a father, Josh. I still worry I don’t know how to do it. Abby hadalready raised Lexi by the time we met. She took the lead and showed me what todo. Sam is a natural caregiver. It comes so easy to him. It’s why we worked inthe beginning. I took the leader role. I hate that word because I feel like weput all the emphasis on being a leader when all the real work is doneunderneath. I could make all the decisions, but Sam made us a home. I got usthe money for the ranch, but it was Sam who found Benita, who helped us dothings like buy furniture that wasn’t a Barcalounger or a TV. It was Sam whocharmed everyone around us. Hell, it was Sam who found your mother. I wouldn’thave touched her.”
“Why?” His parents seemed so damn solid. It was odd to thinkthere had been a time they hadn’t been together.
“I didn’t think she could handle what I needed from a woman,but the truth of the matter is I didn’t know what I needed from a woman until Imet Abigail Moore. Because I didn’t need a woman. I needed her. I think that’show you feel about Nicole. Am I right?”
Josh nodded. “Yeah. I feel like Grim and I have been lookingfor a long time, and we thought we would find someone we could care about andsettle in.”
“Because in your mind the relationship with Grim was theprimary relationship,” his father pointed out.
“I missed him,” Josh admitted. “I know it sounds dumb, buthe was my first friend and then he was gone for so long. It’s not fair but Iwas happy when we found him out on the range. I was actually happy his shit-assstepfather had kicked him out and I got to have him back in my life.”
“Son, you’re being too hard on yourself. Of course youmissed your friend. I know you don’t remember this but when Grim was attendingthe school for the resort workers’ kids, you actually told us you and he weregoing to grow up and find a wife.”
Josh felt his lips kick up in a grin because he did knowthis story. “I’ve been told I was a precocious child and had an attachmentfixation on the babysitter. Who ended up marrying my uncles. Ben and Chasedon’t let me forget it. I also was told I asked about Chloe before she wasborn.”
“You knew what you wanted—a family. You were an intense kid,but you mellowed a lot. I think finding Nicole is bringing all those instinctsto the surface,” his father said. “So she made you sleep on the couch? Did yougive it to Grim? You can come sleep in our suite. Your momma’s not holding agrudge, it seems.”
“Nic let me in bed but only to sleep. Though she seems to befine with Grim.”
“That’s what happens when you play good cop, bad cop andyou’re the bad cop,” his father pointed out. “I think it would be hard for Grimto be rough on her in any place but a dungeon. It’s not his nature. You andGrim might not be perfect reflections of me and Sam, but the nature of therelationship is close. Until I met your mother, Sam was my priority, and thenAbby became the center of our world and we had to find our places with her,too. It wasn’t always smooth sailing.”
“I’m not sure how to get out of this,” Josh admitted. “Ithought I was doing the right thing at the time.”
“You were.” His father sounded completely committed. “Ishould have come to you and told you I was worried. I should have worked withyou. If I’d known you already talked to Harlow, I might not have brought herdads in, and then we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in. Although I stillwould have cubed her car. It wasn’t a good car. Whatever she paid for it, itwas too much.”
“I think she’ll get over the car. Hell, I even think she’llget over me calling Harlow. It’s the picture. I knew she didn’t want herpicture taken and I did it anyway.” His gut clenched. At the time it seemedreasonable. Now it felt reckless. “I thought she had a stalker. And now thatI’m saying the words, I’m rethinking everything. If she’s got a stalker,pinging her information could bring him here.”
“Harlow’s partner is a smart young woman. She’s not going toput anyone in danger. Ruby Lockwood has been trained by the best. I know shedid an internship with McKay-Taggart, and Adam Miles is her mentor, so relax,”his father said. “If Kimberly Kent thought Nicole was in danger, she would havefound a way to get her out of here, and there would be nothing you or I coulddo about it. So relax about someone tipping off the police.”
“How the hell can I relax?” Josh prayed his father had theanswer because it seemed so far from him.
“You have to have some faith in the people around you,” hisfather advised. “I looked up Mrs. Kent’s team. They’re a bunch of ex-CIA andex-FBI agents who basically help people find missing loved ones. They’reexcellent at what they do and they know how to do it quietly. I think Niccaught a lucky break when the Holloways decided to hire her.”
