Love Me Knots

by Dee Tenorio

  “Let’s fix one mess at a time, shall we?”

  “Coward.”

  “Maybe,” Jake agreed with an uncharacteristic gentleness. “But Cobb’s not ready for a relationship. Cobb’s barely ready for complex carbohydrates.” He got up and rounded the bar again, heading unerringly for the fridge. “That’s part of his charm. Cobb likes things simple and easy and stress-free. I could try to tie him down, but that would just ruin something special about him. So, I stay close, I do my best to keep an eye out for him and it’s not like I’m hurting for company. You, on the other hand, you’re more than ready for your happy ending.”

  She looked beyond the deck to the unblocked view of the door to her own bungalow. “What if it’s not happy?”

  “Then at least you’ll know.”

  She smiled at him and scooted off the stool. “You make a very unusual girlfriend, Jake, but I appreciate the advice.” She moved into the kitchen to press a kiss to his cheek.

  “Hey, Jake, why do I know that old guy?” Cobb asked suddenly, startling them. She looked over, surprised to see an older man in a suit knocking on her bungalow door.

  The hair was silver, not grey, and the suit was exquisitely cut. It wasn’t anyone from the hotel. That kind of suit came from the casual spending of thousands of dollars on a single item. Unless that was the owner… The man turned his head and his chiseled profile came into view.

  “Oh my God,” she breathed.

  “I know that old man,” Cobb muttered, loud enough to carry across the distance to her door. She rushed forward, Jake right behind her. “We don’t hang out with old guys.”

  “Cobb, stop calling him old!” she snapped, already reaching for the gate to the walkway.

  “Why? He’s practically ancient.”

  She finally got the damn thing unlatched. “Because that’s my father!”

  Chapter Nine

  “Oh my God, I said be obnoxious, not an asshole!”

  David sighed heavily into his cell phone. “Maybe I wasn’t aware there was a difference.”

  “Well forgive me for not knowing the right word to use in Alien Cyborg.” Taylor’s grumbling was starting to grow on him, David decided as he watched the fax he’d found in a bedroom wardrobe begin to print. Closed, it looked just like any other closet. Open, it was a complete office setup. He’d waited all the way until eleven to call Taylor to remind her about the file he needed sent his way. “It’s like you’re determined to make sure she can’t stand you.”

  “You know that’s not true.” If this thing with the contract didn’t get her to understand, he didn’t know what would. “I’ll admit to making a strategic error—”

  “Error?” She didn’t sound pleased with his word choice.

  David ignored her. Semantics, in this situation, was not his concern. “But I’m sure I can get her to understand.”

  “Understand what?” Taylor asked pointedly.

  And just like that, his throat closed up.

  “Are you sure you can do this?” she asked softly.

  “No choice.” Facing the rest of his life without Krista just wasn’t an option.

  “You could always let her go. Let her be happy, like she asked.”

  “I can make her happy.” Or die trying.

  “Mr. Ellison—”

  “I can, Taylor. I know you don’t think so, but no one knows Krista the way I do. No one cares more about her happiness than I do.”

  “Okay, now you sound like a stalker.”

  David forced himself to gather his patience. “I understand the struggles she’s been through, why she’s made the choices she has. I respect the person she is. She’s kind and giving and she doesn’t judge anyone. She has her own opinions and they’re intelligent opinions, even the ones I don’t agree with. And I know she doesn’t need me, all right. I understand that. But I need her.” He stopped talking abruptly, unable to believe he’d spouted all that at his secretary, of all people.

  A secretary who was quiet, just like the fax that had finished printing.

  “Taylor?” Did she pass out from shock? “Taylor!”

  “S-sorry, I—well…”

  Great. If he’d stunned Taylor into incomprehensibility, Krista would probably fall in a dead faint.

  The voice in his ear coughed. “Maybe you should write all that down and hand it to her.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I’m pretty sure that’s what she wants to hear. I just don’t think you have it in you to say it twice.”

  Even taken aback, David allowed himself a small smile. He probably didn’t. “You think that’s what she wants?”

  “I’d take you back. And between you and me, I don’t take anyone back. Ever.”

  Given the prickly personality he’d uncovered the last two days, he’d have to guess she was telling the truth.

  “I’ll let you know how it goes.” He hung up the phone just as he heard a knock coming from the front doors. Krista wouldn’t knock, he reasoned, walking through the hall toward the doors. And she didn’t have a shadow that tall, either.

  David pulled open the doors with a frown. “Can I help you?”

  An older man blinked at him with familiar eyes. “I was told this bungalow belonged to Krista James.”

  “And you are?” David looked the man over. He didn’t know him, but he knew his face. Something about the square jaw, the line of the nose…those dark green eyes.

  “Elmore James, her father.” The other man’s gaze hardened into a glare. “You must be the fiancé.”

  David stepped out onto the deck, pulling the doors nearly closed behind him. Without a key, he’d have to make sure he could still get back in, but he most definitely wouldn’t allow the other man in without Krista’s permission.

  Elmore James registered the lack of welcome with a step back and a twist to his lips. “I was under the impression she was finally through with you.”

  For a moment, David second-guessed himself. She had used the trust money, something she said she’d never do. Had she called her father, too? A flurry of possibilities ran through his mind, each one tested and rejected in short order. No, however this man had been keeping tabs on his daughter, it hadn’t been because Krista had been feeding him information. That much hadn’t changed.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. James, I’m not at liberty to discuss the particulars of your daughter’s relationships with you.”

  James’s eyes narrowed.

  “Daddy?” Krista came running down the planks, stopping at the gate with wide eyes that darted back and forth between himself and her father. Judging by her breathlessness, she was of the opinion that one of them was going to attack the other. Which, David decided, was anyone’s guess.

  The older man’s face softened and when he spoke it was with considerably more warmth. “Hello, pumpkin.”

  Now she really looked nervous. And waxen. Abandoning the doors, David crossed to the gate and pulled it open, taking her by the hand and leading her to the chaise they’d sat on yesterday. He settled next to her, twining her frozen fingers with his.

  “What are you doing here?” Krista’s voice was barely a whisper.

  “I thought it was time to end this estrangement.”

  David frowned. “I thought you disowned her.” The hand in his jerked, but he held tight. It had been an honest question, but probably not tactful. She’d warned him about that before.

  James angry glare returned. “This is between my daughter and me. We don’t need you and your meddling, boy.”

  David let her hand go, standing to meet her father on an even level. “If she wants that, fine. But until she says otherwise, I’m staying.”

  “You’d go if I told you to?”

  David turned at the softly asked question. “Of course. You can handle your father just fine.”

  “Now wait just one minute—”

  Krista stared up at David, ignoring her father completely, a look lighting her features he wasn’t sure he could figure out
. A cross between awed and incredulous. But why? This was nothing she didn’t know. Or maybe she didn’t, because she said, “You really mean that.”

  What would be gained by lying?

  “Do you want me to go?” It would gut him to be turned away when she clearly needed support, but it was more important that she know he respected her decisions.

  She shook her head slowly and that warm, chest-tightening sensation returned, filling his whole being until the smile he gave her was completely effortless. Why had he ever tried to escape this feeling?

  “I’d rather you left, Mr. Ellison.”

  Krista’s sharp gaze shifted back to her father in question. “How do you know who David is? Mom wouldn’t tell you, she says she’s not getting involved.” And to date she never had, refusing to give updates on her father to Krista until “you two stubborn fools snap out of this”. Krista was absolutely sure the attitude went the other way as well.

  “Naturally I’ve kept an eye on you. Made sure nothing serious happened to you while you insisted on this separation.”

  “I didn’t insist on this, you did!” Color flooded to her cheeks in a rush, lighting an alarm in David’s mind he couldn’t ignore.

  “Perhaps we should all go inside where this discussion can be private.” And where David could make sure she didn’t get overwrought. Wasn’t that a bad idea for pregnant women?

  But Krista seemed to be handling the blood pressure elevation just fine. Her slim brows threaded together with growing suspicion. “How did you even know I was here, Dad?”

  Elmore James’s slightly jowled jawline tightened, along with his faintly lined lips, but he said nothing. Even David could tell that wasn’t a good sign. Especially when Krista’s bristle shook her all the way to her fingertips.

  “I knew it. I knew when you sent me that money there were strings. You have access to my trust account, don’t you? And as soon as I touched it, you knew exactly where the money went. I can’t believe you!” Her gaze flickered to David, as if she were suddenly reminded of how he’d claimed to find her as well. Something in the back of his mind told him comparisons to her father in this way wouldn’t bode well for him. But throwing Betty under the proverbial bus wasn’t an option either. Damn, another corner he’d painted himself into.

  “Of course I monitored it. I’ve been waiting for you to come back to your senses. It’s been three years of this nonsense. You made your point, Krista. You can get by without my money just fine. You’ve done well for yourself, even started that planning business of yours. You’re completely self-sufficient. There’s no reason to drag out this farce any further. Look what it’s doing to your mother.”

  “Mother’s fine. We talk on the phone every week.” She smiled, small and not as pleasantly as all the other smiles David had memorized. “What farce are you talking about?”

  “You and this…engagement.”

  David raised a brow, wondering what other word had been on James’s mind first. He glanced at Krista, watching her rise from the chaise slowly, her mouth a hard line and her eyes fixed pointedly on her father. Too late he realized how she’d taken her father’s words.

  Or was that how the older man meant them?

  “Can we go inside and discuss this like adults now?” James demanded, a flush of red rising up his throat.

  “No,” Krista replied in a low tone that brooked no argument. “You thought my relationship with David was farce?”

  “Of course it was. Look at him. There’s no way any daughter of mine would lower herself—”

  Both David’s brows rose and he took a step toward James to settle them before they started saying things they wouldn’t be able to take back. But her father seemed to think it was some kind of threat because he backed up.

  “Don’t even think about it, boy,” the older man growled, raising a hand in David’s direction. “I know all about you and your father. All it would take is one phone call from me and he’d be out on his ass from that college of his, tenure or no tenure.” All of his face was red now. “Not to mention I could cut your business to nothing with a word. Just one, so you stay out of this. Whatever deal you have going with my daughter is over. She doesn’t need you anymore.”

  “She’s never needed me, Mr. James.” David met the man’s gaze and saw the fear in it. Fear, he understood all too well. In his own life, the ever-present threat that he’d lose the only parent he had left, the only constant thread in his life. Fear that he’d never be able to connect to another person. Issues that in just knowing Krista had been soothed to near silence. Elmore James wasn’t so lucky. “I was fortunate enough to help her when we first met, but she’d have solved that on her own eventually. She’s an intelligent woman, more than capable of taking care of herself and making all the decisions for her future without my input. Or yours, I might add.”

  “Please. You are the reason she’s stayed away. If it weren’t for you, she’d have come home like she was supposed to.”

  “Supposed to?” Krista parroted, getting James’s suddenly unsteady attention. “Don’t tell me that audit was a setup.”

  “Pumpkin—”

  Her laugh was a harsh, bitter sound. “I knew you were manipulative when you didn’t get your way, but even I didn’t think you were capable of siccing the IRS on your daughter.”

  “What was I supposed to do?” James snapped. “You’re so damned stubborn! You weren’t supposed to enjoy being cut off.”

  “Sure, losing all my friends, working night and day while I figured out how to get by on a complete lack of training in anything useful. What’s not to enjoy?” The sarcasm could have sliced open stone, but only seemed to stoke Elmore James’s already fuming temper.

  “Nothing would have happened to you. You just would have come back home where you belonged.”

  Krista crossed her arms. “Except I didn’t belong there anymore. And I still don’t. Which I have you to thank for.”

  The older man’s posture stiffened in affront. “I was trying to teach you a lesson. You were wasting yourself and your future with those useless friends of yours. I never intended to be shut completely out of your life as if I didn’t exist.”

  “So you have me threatened by the government? Haven’t you ever heard of a phone? Maybe a doorbell? Maybe an apology?” Krista shook her head, the arms she held herself with tightening, as if she were drawing herself into a tight ball. “All I wanted was some sign that you cared. That you saw me, not the little doll who did your bidding all the time, with no mind of her own.”

  “Of course I cared. You’re my daughter. I love you!” James shuddered, his gruff voice sounding as if the words were strangled from his throat. As if realizing his lack of control, he straightened and lowered his voice. “You’ve never been some doll to me. You’ve always had a mind of your own, that’s how we got into this mess.”

  “How can you say that?” she asked, this close to shrill. “Say you love me, but me having a mind of my own is why you treated me like some employee you could just get rid of? Like I didn’t matter?”

  “I was wrong, all right? Is that what you want to hear, because I’ll say it. Whatever you want to hear, I just want my daughter back.”

  David watched Krista carefully, his heart physically aching at the tears filling her eyes. He wanted to put his arms around her, especially when it looked like her tears were about to get the better of her, but she swallowed down the emotion well enough to talk again. And fill him with pride he had no right to feel.

  “I love you, too, Daddy. I do, but I will not allow you to control my life or think you have the right to make decisions for me. Those days are gone. They aren’t coming back. Not for you, not for anyone.”

  David waited for her to glance his way again, but the softly said words seemed to be more for her than for him.

  “If you want to be part of my life, you’re welcome. But only if you’re able to accept the choices I make. No more schemes. No judgments.” She reached out her hand and took hold
of David’s, moving to stand next to him. It was only then that he could tell she was shuddering. “You owe my fiancé an apology.”

  Elmore James’s mottle shifted from red to near purple.

  “That’s good enough for me,” David murmured, unsure if too loud a noise might push the man into complete cardiac arrest. Krista glanced up, her mouth curved with that touch of intimate connection that sent sparklers going off along his nerves.

  She squeezed his hand once and moved away, wrapping her arms around her surprised father. James actually looked to David as if he might have a clue what the right thing to do in that situation might be. David could only shrug and poke his hands into his pockets. His only experience with fathers was reminding them to eat from time to time and sorting obscure mathematical equations. Finally, James folded his arms around her and sighed.

  “I’m still mad at you,” Krista added, hugging him tighter for another few seconds. She let go, disengaging with a sniff. “Like, seriously angry, but…well, there’s bigger things in the world to worry about. And let’s face it, I should have known it was you when no one wanted to take my case but David.”

  “Why is that, Ellison?” James squinted at David, his color fading to a less disturbing pink. “Everyone else in their right mind would have known better than to antagonize me.”

  “It’s simple, sir,” David answered, shifting to move ahead of them and open the French door. “I took one look at your daughter and no longer cared about you in the slightest.”

  James’s expression wasn’t amused. “I don’t think I like you, Ellison.”

  “You’re welcome to join the club, sir.”

  Krista rolled her eyes. “I like him, which is all that matters.”

  Like. It was a tame word. Too tame, given the way he felt about her. Which is probably what prompted him to say what he shouldn’t have, as father and daughter moved toward the door. “Yes, you and the baby.”

  “Baby?” Elmore James’s eyes widened and he jerked a glance down at Krista, who stared at David in openmouthed shock.

  The next thing he knew was the bright flash of a fist smashing into his eye and the cold rush of water as he flew over the railing.