But standing here in front of him, looking him in the eyes, saying no was so much harder.
Because I’d done this once before. I’d told him no to his face.
And it hadn’t ended well.
But what was my alternative? Leave with him? There was no way in hell I was going back.
I took a deep breath, wishing Evan were here. I’d have felt so much braver if I knew a six-foot-four wall of muscle was here to back me up.
“No.” The word left my lips and the fear only intensified. “No, I’m not coming back.”
He took a slow step closer and his voice was dangerously low. “Fiona, I want you to think very carefully about what you’re saying to me right now. I’m your father. I raised you on my own because your mother was too selfish to stick around. I sacrificed for you and provided for you, even when I didn’t have to anymore. And this is the thanks I get? You run off to live in some fucking cabin in the woods with a goddamn lumberjack?”
I was not taking the bait with that crack about Evan. This wasn’t about him. “I had many reasons for leaving, and believe it or not, they weren’t all about you. I’m an adult and I can make my own choices. And I chose to quit my job and find a new one. I found a new place to live. And I’m happy here. I’m sorry if that makes things hard on you, but you’re not going to guilt me into coming back.”
“That’s not an acceptable answer.”
My heart hammered in my chest and I clenched my fists, digging my fingernails into my palms. “It’s the only answer you’re going to get.”
Just as Dad took another step closer, Sasquatch burst out of the trees. Barking loudly, he ran at us at full speed. Dad’s eyes widened and he jerked away from me, stumbling back a few feet.
“Sasquatch, wait,” I said, not entirely sure what he’d been trained to do.
The dog stopped. Growling, he positioned himself between me and my dad.
“What the hell?” Dad asked and backed closer to his SUV.
Evan appeared, coming toward us at a run. Sasquatch stayed in front of me, a ridge of fur standing straight up along his spine.
“You’re going to regret this, Fiona,” Dad said. “You should have come with me while you had the chance.”
A sick feeling spread through my stomach as he got in his SUV, turned on the engine, and backed up to turn around.
Evan caught up, breathing hard. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
“Trying to get me to go home with him.”
He put his arm around me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. No.”
“Come on. Let’s go inside.”
Dad’s SUV disappeared down the gravel road as Evan led me into the house with Sasquatch behind us.
“Did you send Sasquatch?”
“No. We were walking back and he just took off running. I figured something must be wrong.”
“Just my dad being himself.” I slumped onto the couch. Evan took off his flannel shirt and laid it over me like a blanket. “Thank you.”
“He was trying to get you to leave?”
“Yeah, he wants me to come home and go back to work. He claims he’s not working with Felix Orman anymore. And I don’t know, maybe he isn’t. Maybe he’ll stay legit this time. It doesn’t matter, I still can’t go back. I don’t want to go back.”
“No, fuck that.”
“Exactly.” I tucked his shirt under my chin. It was soft and smelled like him. “Simone was with him. He sent her to the door first to coax me into talking to him.”
“That’s your friend who was…”
“Sleeping with my dad? Yeah. Apparently she still is. And she still has no clue why that bothers me.”
He pulled me closer and I rested my cheek against his chest. The last thing Dad said kept echoing through my mind. You’re going to regret this, Fiona. You should have come with me when you had the chance.
You’re going to regret this.
Regret.
He’d said that to me once before. The last time I’d told him no.
The last time I’d tried to leave.
“Evan?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I tried to leave once before. Two years ago, I walked out on my job. Told Dad I quit. I didn’t move anywhere, I still lived with Simone. But I didn’t want to work for my dad anymore. I got a job at a nursery. It was really small, just a few employees. I worked there for a few months and it was so great. I loved it. Then one night Dad came to my apartment. He said I needed to quit my job at the nursery and come back to work for him.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I said no. And he said…” I paused and took a shaky breath. “He said I’d regret it and I should have come back while I had the chance. I thought he meant he was giving me one more chance to get my job back and after that he wouldn’t hire me again.”
“But he meant something else?”
“Maybe that was all he meant. I can’t prove anything, but a couple of weeks later, there was a fire at the nursery. A big one. They weren’t sure what caused it, but I always wondered if…”
“If your dad did it.”
“I feel horrible for thinking that he could do something so awful. And yet, I still wonder if he had something to do with it.” I swallowed hard. “He said the same thing just now. He said I’d regret it.”
The motion of his chest as he took a deep breath was so soothing. He ran his fingers through my hair and kissed my head.
“You have nothing to worry about. I’ll never let anything happen to you.”
I nestled into the warmth of his chest and he squeezed me closer. But even the comfort of Evan’s embrace wasn’t enough to completely erase my fear. Because what if the fire at the nursery had been my father? And what if he did something to Evan to get back at me?
How could I live with myself?
“Trust me,” Evan said, his voice soft and low.
Closing my eyes, I nodded against his chest. I did trust him. I’d never trusted anyone so completely and without question.
A warm sensation swept through me, sending pings of electricity across my skin and flutters in my tummy. In that moment, I realized that I was in love with Evan Bailey. Crazy, madly in love with him.
And I’d do anything to protect him from my father.
29
Evan
I wondered if this was how Sasquatch felt when he sensed an intruder. Hyper-alert, senses alive. Twenty-four hours ago, Shane Gallagher had dared to show his face here, and I still hadn’t calmed down.
That piece of shit. I hadn’t liked him before, but after seeing how much he’d scared Fiona, now I fucking hated the bastard. It was one thing to screw me over. It was quite another to hurt my girl.
No one hurt my girl.
It made me want to stick to her like Velcro. Stand in between her and anyone who threatened her.
Not unlike my dog had done yesterday.
Could I still call him my dog? He’d bonded to Fiona almost from the beginning. He was already a lot more our dog than he was just mine.
But I was okay with it. I felt the same way. I liked her too.
Hell, I more than liked her. I was in love with her.
Admitting that to myself was getting easier, although I hadn’t said it out loud yet.
I hadn’t wanted to fall in love—with anyone, ever. But I also knew from experience that life didn’t always turn out the way you wanted it to. Sometimes that was for the worse. Other times a guy got lucky.
Speaking of, my lucky ran into the shop, an ecstatic smile lighting up her face.
I smiled back. I couldn’t help it.
“Ask me how awesome I am,” she said.
“I know how awesome you are.”
“No, just play along. Ask me.”
“Sorry. How awesome are you?”
“I’m so freaking awesome,” she said, her voice laced with excitement. “You know how we couldn’t find a bumper for the Caddy?”
“Yeah.”
<
br /> “I found one. It’s perfect. A guy named Craig Shelton has one, and he isn’t even that far away. And he’ll totally take a trade instead of cash. You’ve got those old Chevy doors just lying around, but they’re worth good money to the right person. So I found the right person, and I found the bumper you need.”
I slipped my hand around her waist and hauled her roughly against me. “You’re not just awesome. You’re fucking amazing.”
“Thank you.”
Leaning down, I captured her mouth with mine. Slid my tongue along the seam of her lips, earning a little shiver. Not because I was glad she’d found a bumper for Chief Stanley’s Cadillac. Because she was mine and I loved kissing her every chance I got.
But I appreciated the work she did, too. She was a badass.
“I should head over there and close out the deal before he changes his mind or claims he forgot what we agreed to or something.”
“We should head over,” I said.
“Are you sure you have time?”
I kissed her again. “I’ll make time.”
We pulled up outside Craig Shelton’s place. It was typical. A big field with rows of old cars in varying states of decay. Craig came out of the trailer he used as an office. He was a burly guy with dark hair everywhere—head, face, arms, peeking out above his shirt collar.
“Hi, Craig. I’m Fiona.”
He tipped his chin to both of us. “Fiona. Evan. I’ve got the bumper out here if you want to take a look first.”
“You show us yours, and we’ll—” She stopped abruptly. “You know what, that was going to come out weird. How about we just follow you.”
He led us around the side of the trailer. Sure enough, he had what we needed. Normally, I would have negotiated this myself, but since Fiona had done the work, I stayed back a few feet and let her take the lead.
“Looks good to me.” She glanced at me. “What do you think?”
“Yeah, it’s in good condition. We can use it.”
“Great. So we talked about a trade. I’ll show you what we brought.”
Fiona kept chatting him up while we walked back to my truck. I let her do her thing. She knew her stuff, she didn’t need me to butt in. She showed Craig the doors and gave him some details.
“This all looks good to me,” Fiona said. “What about you?”
Craig rubbed his bearded chin. “I don’t know. I’m thinking I’ll take your trade plus a hundred.”
“That’s not what we agreed to,” Fiona said.
I took two steps closer.
He shrugged. “Things got a little more expensive since we talked.”
“We talked a few hours ago,” she said. “Come on, Craig. We had a deal.”
“And I’m saying maybe we need a new deal.”
I took another step closer so I was right behind Fiona and leveled him with a glare. A low growl rumbled in my throat. Craig’s eyes lifted to meet mine. I shook my head.
No one messed with my girl.
He cleared his throat. “Fine. We’ll go with what we agreed to. A straight-across trade.”
She glanced up at me, then back at him. “Thank you.”
I unloaded the doors and put the bumper in the back of my truck. Fiona said goodbye to Craig—she was nicer to him than I would have been—and we left.
“Is that why Gram calls you Wolf?”
“What?”
“The way you growl at things. And people.”
“I don’t know. She’s called me Wolf since I was a kid.” I took a right onto the highway heading toward Tilikum. “Sorry for butting in. I didn’t like the way he was talking to you.”
She smiled. “That’s okay. I liked knowing you had my back.”
“Always, beautiful.”
“You know, next time we should just go with it. Play good cop, bad cop. Obviously I’m the good cop and you’re the growly loose cannon. I’ll pretend I’m trying to hold you back and make you be reasonable, but if I let you at him, he’s screwed.”
Smiling, I shook my head. “It’s probably a good plan.”
“We make a great team.”
She was right about that. I reached over and took her hand, bringing it to my mouth for a kiss.
“Oh, I just remembered, it’s Stitch and Sip night, so that’s good news.”
I scowled. I wasn’t crazy about her going anywhere by herself right now. Although the craft store with Grace and whoever else showed up for their girly craft night was probably safe enough.
“I’ll drive you.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I want to.”
She glanced at me with a little smile. “Okay, Wolf. You can drive me.”
By the time we got back and I unloaded the bumper into the shop, it was almost time for her to go. She changed into a clean shirt and jeans—they made me want to take them off her, but she squirmed out of my embrace with a giggle.
That was fine. I’d strip her out of them later.
We got on my bike and rode into town. She got off the bike and got out her little crochet bag. She was so fucking cute. I kissed her, then grabbed her and hauled her against me so I could kiss her again before letting her go.
I watched her go inside the Knotty Knitter, debating whether to just wait out here or find something to do. Sitting in the parking lot was probably overkill. She wasn’t alone in there. Cara’s car was out front, and that woman was enough to scare off just about anybody.
Still, I didn’t want to go too far. I could head over to the Caboose for a beer, but that sounded boring. I wondered if my brothers were home tonight. They lived close, I could swing by their place and pick up Fiona when she was done.
I drove over to the house three of my brothers shared. Asher and Grace lived right next door, in a house Grace had bought and started remodeling while Asher was in prison. It was pretty cool what she’d done. They’d talked about buying it before their lives had gone sideways, and Grace had done it on her own while he was away. They’d had an electrical fire last year that had set them back a bit, but we’d all pitched in to help fix it.
The symbolism wasn’t lost on me. They’d brought the house back from the ashes, just like their life together.
Logan, Levi, and Gavin had moved in next door. I wondered how Asher was handling living so close to our three younger brothers. Levi was a lot like me, he tended to keep to himself. But Logan and Gavin were obnoxious, especially when they were together.
The location of my house—outside town—was not an accident.
Still, I found myself inexplicably in the mood for their company tonight.
And why not? They were my brothers. Just because I hadn’t dropped by their house unannounced in a long time—or maybe ever—didn’t mean it had to be a big deal.
All three worked for the fire department, so chances were at least one of them was on duty tonight. But there were three vehicles out front, so it looked like a full house.
I parked on the street and went up to the front door. Since they never knocked when they showed up at my house, I didn’t bother either. Just walked right in.
And immediately wished I hadn’t.
In the middle of the living room was a life-sized cardboard cutout of Asher. Angry Asher. It looked like one of them had caught him on camera getting out of the shower and he hadn’t been happy about it. His face was twisted in a snarl, like he’d been yelling at whoever was taking the picture. He wasn’t wearing any clothes, his hair was wet, and one hand held a towel over his crotch. The other made a fist at his side.
My other three brothers all stood around the cutout, dressed in nothing but white underwear.
White underwear with a picture of Asher’s face—the same as on the cutout—right on the crotch.
They had one of their phones set up on a tripod, facing them.
“What the fuck?” I asked.
“Dude, awesome,” Gavin said. “Do we have an extra pair?”
“Shit yeah, we got like ten,” Logan sai
d. “Hang on, I’ll find the box.”
“No,” I said.
“Come on, your timing is perfect,” Gavin said.
“I’m not putting those on.”
“Never mind,” Gavin said. “He’s allergic to fun. Just take another one.”
“Okay,” Logan said. “On three. One, two, three.”
They all posed around the cutout while Logan took a picture with a remote.
“Are we done?” Levi asked. “I have to get to work.”
“Chillax, broseph. I gotta see if we got a good one.” He took the phone off the tripod and started swiping through his photos.
Levi headed for the hallway. “I’m getting dressed. I can’t wear Asher’s face on my junk anymore.”
Gavin looked down at himself, grinning. “These are so awesome.”
“I probably don’t want to know, but why are you guys wearing underwear with Asher’s face on them?”
“For Grace,” Gavin said, as if that explained it. “Where’s Fiona?”
“Not here.”
“That sucks.”
I shot him a glare.
“Gavin got this picture of Asher coming out of the shower,” Logan said. “So obviously we had to use it. Beer?”
“Sure. I’ll get it. Want one?”
“Yeah, me and Gav are off until tomorrow.”
I picked my way through their cluttered living room and went into the kitchen. It wasn’t a total shithole—when they’d been younger, their place had been a health hazard—but it was still obvious a bunch of guys lived here. There were random dirty dishes sitting out, plus a few soda cans and beer bottles. I grabbed three beers out of the fridge and added to the pile of bottle caps on the counter.
Gavin hadn’t bothered to get dressed. He lounged on the couch in his Asher-face underwear. Logan hadn’t either—just wore his underwear and a pair of tube socks with a red stripe pulled up to his shins. I didn’t bother commenting on it. For them, it wasn’t really weird.
Levi came out in his Tilikum Fire Department shirt. “I’m heading out. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“See ya, bromingo.” Logan held his phone up so Gavin could see. “Check this out.”
“That’s the money shot,” Gavin said.
Unraveling Him: A Small Town Family Romance (The Bailey Brothers Book 3) Page 22