“Is she free to walk us to our car?” This from Megan’s mother.
He didn’t miss the sarcasm and nodded.
“Pup, why don’t you wait inside?” Megan finally intervened, sounding a lot more collected than she looked. “I’ll see your grandparents off and we’ll make plans for another day.”
“Got it,” she said. “Bye, Grandpa and Grandma. Don’t forget the tour. I’m game whenever.”
“We’re counting on it, young lady,” Megan’s father said, before thanking their hostess for the invitation and accompanying Megan to their car.
Violet watched them go, and one look assured Nic that his daughter was not happy with this turn of events. He wasn’t sure why—that her plans had been derailed or that the situation she’d inadvertently stepped into hadn’t simply vanished.
Either way, she shot him a withering glance as she turned on her heel and stalked inside.
His mother met his gaze. “I’ll go with her.”
Then she disappeared inside the house. Nic waited, watching Megan attempt to reassure her parents before they finally got into their Cadillac and backed out of the driveway.
She returned, looking somber, and he held the door for her. She paused before going through.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“Someone screwed up and someone started talking.”
She nodded, but didn’t say another word, obviously convinced he was doing everything he could to protect their daughter.
Nic was the one having a problem with that. He didn’t like working at a snail’s pace when people started making threats.
“I’m going to get a start on the kitchen,” Megan said before vanishing down the hall.
She was upset. He wished he had something reassuring to offer. He didn’t. If it had been easy to get a judge off the bench, someone would have removed this one long ago. Everything began and ended with Nic’s department providing admissible evidence. That was on him.
Making his way into the living room, he found family and friends still clustered around, chatting, eating and enjoying the day together. He wished he felt like celebrating.
Violet caught up with him in the dining room. “Dude, FYI,” she said under her breath. “Mom’s on overload already. Keep backing her into corners like that and you stress her out more.”
Nic opened his mouth to reply, but Damon, the only one sitting at the table, laughed.
“Good luck with that, niece girl.”
Violet ignored him and looked at Nic, annoyance firing up those bright blue eyes. “I know you haven’t seen her in a long time. That’s why I’m telling you.”
He still hadn’t wrapped his brain around her point, but he did know this had nothing to do with him. This was all about protecting her mother. From him.
“Violet, explain to me how I backed her into a corner. I don’t understand.”
“The grandparents came here. Didn’t you see how stressed everyone was? Come on, they were dripping polite.” She rolled her eyes and pulled a face. “Instead of helping, you start ordering Mom around.”
Another laugh from Damon.
This time Nic glared at him, silently warning him to disappear before there was trouble.
Nic was not in the mood.
“You can’t go all police chief over her. Didn’t you see how you were freaking her out?”
He had seen. No denying that. “Please define what going all police chief means.”
She gave a huff and shook her head as if she couldn’t believe he was even asking the question.
“The same thing you did yesterday. You start giving orders and expecting everyone to hop to it and say, ‘Yes, sir, Chief.’” She snapped a sharp salute to make her point.
Okay. He still didn’t understand much more than she was growing more frustrated with him. God, this day was just getting better and better. Bad enough he was dealing with fake bombs. Now he felt stupid to boot. “What did I order you to do?”
“Go to private school. Then you started up on the house we like. You didn’t listen to a thing Mom or I said.”
“I was listening. I didn’t agree. I prefer a location farther Uptown.”
“But you won’t be living there.”
He didn’t have a defense because she was right. He was only a peripheral part of the family.
“Mom said that we all had to compromise and get to know each other to make this work. And she’s right. So you can’t walk around bullying everyone. We don’t work like that.” Tipping her chin proudly, she met his gaze straight on. “I thought you should know.”
Nic stared into that face so like his and didn’t have a clue what to say. “I really wish you luck with this, niece girl.” Damon stood and tossed napkins on his empty plate. “Maybe you’ll get through to the chief here. He sure doesn’t hear anyone around here when we tell him what an overbearing asshole he is.”
Damon didn’t wait for a reply. He winked at Violet and strolled from the room. She swallowed a gasp that was a strangled mixture of half shock, half laughter, clearly deciding it wasn’t in her best interests to react.
Not to his face, at least.
“I’m glad you shared what you were feeling.” Nic sounded so calm even he was impressed. Not too many choices here. Act like an adult in front of his daughter or act like the overbearing asshole his brother had accused him of being.
Violet looked relieved. “I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings. I really thought you should know.”
He nodded.
Then she bolted into the kitchen, probably posting herself as Megan’s bodyguard in case he went all police chief again. Nic headed in the opposite direction. Now was not the time to attempt polite conversation, not when the top of his head felt as if it might blow and take the roof off.
Luck wasn’t with him. He ran into Damon, who was heading out the front door, making a break for it before Nic got a hold of him.
He didn’t think. He reacted, and suddenly his fist was wrapped in Damon’s ponytail, and he was shoving his little brother through the open door.
“What in hell is wrong with you?” he demanded, kicking the door shut behind them, not caring who heard them.
Sensei Damon disentangled himself in one slick move. He might hold black belts in four disciplines and be well on his way to a fifth, but Nic didn’t care. He’d had it. He would kick his brother’s ass if he were freaking Bruce Lee. Nic was the oldest and that meant size and strength made no difference whatsoever. Seniority and anger gave him superpowers.
“What the hell is your problem, man?” Damon took a gratifying step backward.
“If you ever open your mouth and undermine any conversation I have with my daughter again, your mother will be down a son for good. Do you hear me?”
“Oh, I hear you. Now you listen to me, Chief.” Damon ground out the words. “You are out of control, and this whole family is sick of it, and sick of you. The only thing saving your ass right now is that kid in there. Everyone knows you’ve been blindsided and is cutting you slack. But I’m damned tired of being your punching bag. Find someone else.”
Punching bag? Nic would give this idiot punching bag. “Grow the hell up, Damon. Stop torturing everyone with your ridiculous affairs and your never-ending money grief and the rest of your pathetic bullshit. All everyone ever does is worry about you. It’s time you started pulling your weight with this family.”
“Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”
“I am the one trying to keep this family on track.” It always came back to him. Always had.
“No one asked you to play God, Nic. No one wants you—”
Exactly the wrong thing to say. Damon’s defiance pitched Nic right over the edge. Before he knew what he was doing, he’d advanced on his brother and was shoving him backward. They were going to have this out here and now.
“Don’t push me or I will take you down.” Damon extricated himself with another move, a defensive one this time, but he didn
’t engage. That only made Nic angrier.
“Chief, everything okay?”
Damn it. He’d forgotten the cops in the yard.
Chest heaving, he fought for control as he turned to Officer Derouchey. “Everything’s okay. Thanks.”
The officer nodded and slanted a glance at his partner and the two of them crossed the lawn back to their cruiser.
Great. Just what his men needed to see.
Damon didn’t get a chance to open his mouth again because suddenly the front door opened and his mother was storming out.
“Knock it off, you two. You will not behave this way in my house. Do you hear me?”
The fierceness… Another rite of passage. Didn’t matter that Nic was a foot taller and outweighed his mother by a hundred pounds. She would take him down. Damon, too. That’s the way it worked.
“Damon, you get about your business. Nic and I need to talk.”
Scowling, Damon took off.
She didn’t say another word. She didn’t accuse him of chasing his brother off from her celebration. She only went to the swing Marc had installed as a surprise while rebuilding the front porch after Katrina. She’d always wanted one.
Patting the seat beside her, she motioned him to sit. Then she started rocking the swing back and forth, an easy motion, as if she had nothing better to do with her day than sit here and wait for him to start talking.
Nic stonewalled. Anger had started the adrenaline pumping. He didn’t know who, if anyone, had sent her outside. Anthony, maybe, who’d had a front-row seat in the living room. If, as Damon said, everyone was cutting him slack because of Violet’s sudden appearance, then Anthony wouldn’t have stepped out that door unless he’d wanted to get sucked into the fight.
He’d have called in the big guns.
This was all Damon’s fault for opening his damned mouth, but their mother wouldn’t want to hear that. She was only interested in him right now, which brought him right back to… “Am I really an overbearing asshole?”
She arched a quizzical eyebrow. “Do you really have to ask?”
“I’m serious.”
“You don’t think I am?”
God, what did he even say to that? His knee-jerk reaction was denial, but this wasn’t the first time today he was hearing commentary about his domineering personality.
“Violet accused me of going police chief all over Megan.”
“That would be one way to put it.”
“You know what she’s talking about then?”
“She’s your daughter, Nic. Doesn’t really matter what I think I know. What do you think?”
Nic considered that. He thought about the young girl who’d crossed continents to meet him. About her eagerness to spend time together, her efforts to convince her mother to take a project in town, and her worry about hurting his feelings.
She’d confronted him anyway.
“I think I don’t like the reaction I’m getting lately. Probably means something needs attention.”
“Usually does,” his mother agreed.
“I’m tired. Every time I think I’m finally off duty around here something or someone else comes up. It never felt like a burden before. It does now.”
“Why do you think that is?”
He shrugged, didn’t have an answer.
“You’ve got such a good heart, Nic. That’s one of the things I love best about you. Your brothers and sister… well, depends on who you’re bossing around. This month it’s Damon.”
“Damon’s an idiot.”
Her turn to shrug. “Sometimes he is. I could argue that the more you clean up his messes the longer it’s going to take him to figure things out for himself, which is what you should be doing. If you were, you wouldn’t be noticing what he’s doing.”
“I told you every time I try to back off around here something comes up and gets in my way.”
“Something’s always going to come up, Nic. That’s life. You know that better than anyone. You can’t control that. You can control letting it get in your way.”
“How do you do that? I’ve been helping out around here for almost as long as I remember. How do I stop caring?”
She frowned. “You don’t. Just because you’re not running interference for everyone, or contributing financially or bossing people around doesn’t mean you don’t care anymore.”
Twisting around, she motioned to the house. “Violet’s a perfect example. You didn’t know that child existed until last week. You haven’t had a thing to do with her upbringing since she was conceived, yet she walks into your life and you care.”
Nic did care. Before the shock had worn off, he’d looked at Violet and seen another responsibility. But that wasn’t how he felt. He did care. About his daughter. And her mother.
“It’s all about balance, Nic. You can’t protect everyone you care about. Not from life. Not from themselves.” No doubt she was referring to Damon. “It’s part of your big heart that you want to, and that’s a good thing. As long as you realize that caring doesn’t mean controlling. You’ve got to let everyone live life. And you’ve got to live yours.”
She smiled thoughtfully. “That’s what I’m going to let you do now. Figure it out for yourself. But I do want you to know something. You’ve been a special blessing to me all these years. Helping me keep your brothers from running wild after your father died. You’ve helped me make things possible for this family that otherwise wouldn’t have happened even if I’d have worked around the clock. I love you for that, and I admire you for it. So does everyone else, even if they’re not inclined to admit it yet.” She was talking about Damon again. “But if I’d have thought for one second that you would lose you along the way, I’d have kicked your butt right out the door.”
He gave a short laugh, almost felt amused.
She smiled. “Just think about what I’ve said. Think about what your daughter said. You’re a smart man and it’s not all that hard. Decide what you want in your life and don’t let anything get in your way. Not us. Not you.”
Reaching up, she ruffled his hair fondly. “You need a haircut. Make time to get into the shop. Soon.” Then she got up and went back inside with a breezy, “I love you.”
Nic didn’t follow her, just sat there staring into the yard, outside while everyone else was inside having fun. Apart.
Was he getting in his own way?
He glanced at the unmarked cruiser and remembered the Cadillac that had pulled out not long ago. He’d meant to ask his mother why she’d invited Megan’s parents without consulting anyone, but realized he already had the answer.
This was his mother’s house and her party. She could invite whomever she liked. And she’d already told Nic she thought he had a second chance for a life with his family. She didn’t go all police chief over everyone. She didn’t force her opinion down anyone’s throat. She welcomed Megan and the Bells into her home, did what she could to help. His mother had his back, much in the way Megan had Violet’s back and Violet had Megan’s.
“Instead of helping, you started ordering Mom around,” Violet had accused him. “We don’t work like that.”
She’d been talking about bullying, about making a situation worse instead of better.
She’s on overload already. Keep backing her into corners like that and you stress her out more.
Which is exactly what he’d done. Violet had pointed it out to him because in her infinite fourteen-year-old wisdom, she’d recognized what Nic had not.
He wasn’t looking at anyone’s perspective but his own.
True, he’d been trying to place his daughter in the best school and his family in a safe neighborhood. But Violet was completely right. He hadn’t heard a word anyone had said. It had been all about what he thought was best, what he thought was safe. He’d dismissed what everyone else wanted.
“You are out of control,” Damon had said.
Nic sat on the swing, listening to the sounds of muffled laughter coming from inside the house
, family and friends enjoying the day. Life happening. When had he assumed so much responsibility for everyone that he’d taken everything onto his shoulders and eliminated them from the equation?
No wonder life had been feeling like a burden.
He’d always assumed responsibility so easily. Like his mother had said, that could be a good thing and had been after his father had died. But like anything else in life, being responsible could have a downside.
Nic was living it.
And considering that, he had to ask, what would the effect be on someone who wasn’t as used to shouldering responsibility?
He remembered what Megan had told him at the airport, about how long it had taken her to learn to stand on her own, about how she hadn’t been prepared to become a parent because her parents had always made the decisions for her.
He hadn’t understood why she’d run away all those years ago. He couldn’t believe she had run the other night when it was so obvious they still had feelings for each other.
But when he thought about the way her parents had tried to force her into giving up Violet for adoption, when he thought about the way he’d assumed the responsibility for his family from the minute he’d realized he’d had one, deciding everything from where they were going to stay while they were in town, to what they would drive, to where they could live, Nic thought he was beginning to understand.
And he absolutely knew what he wanted in his life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“IT LOOKS LIKE A NORMAL school,” Violet said when Mom stopped the Jeep in front of the charter high school.
“Much bigger than I thought. When I heard charter school I thought small. Definitely not the case.” She watched the unmarked police cruiser pull up behind them and a tiny frown creased between her eyebrows.
“We’ll be perfectly fine, Mom. We have our own personal security. What’s going to happen?”
“I know we’ll be fine. But I’m not entirely sure why this trip couldn’t have waited.”
“Are you kidding me?” Violet stared. “Because we needed to get out of the house. We’re, like, in prison. Visiting a school was the only way he was going to let us go anywhere.”
“That’s overstating the case a little, don’t you think? We hung around the house with your grandmother for one day. I hardly think that’s prison. Besides, I thought you enjoyed all the home movies and pictures.”
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