“You didn’t have to put your stuff in that tiny room, you know. We’re all adults. I’m not going to keel over if you come out of Beckett’s room in the morning.”
I flushed, the heat spreading from my cheeks all the way up to my hairline. “Dad—”
He chuckled, and the sound eased the pressure in my heart a little because my dad had a really great laugh. It wasn’t loud or booming, but it was infectious. I found my lips turning up.
“He’s a good man. That’s all a father wants for his girls. Someone who loves and respects them but can also protect and provide for them.” I inhaled sharply, and he waved me off. “Don’t get all up in your craw. I know you can provide for yourself.” He opened the restaurant door and waved me inside. “As it is, you’re providing for your screwed-up dad too, but knowing Beckettcanprovide for you, that he’ll look out for you if the worst happens…that’s a good thing.”
I couldn’t stand lying to him this much. I couldn’t stand him thinking Beckett and I were going to get all the way to a white wedding. So, instead, I simply gave him another half-truth. “Honestly, Dad, I’m not sure if it’s going to work.”
“Did you have an argument? Or are you letting someone scare you off at the first sign of trouble? If you want a marriage to work, you’ve got to struggle like hell to keep it together.”
When I didn’t respond, he kept going. “Fighting is easy to fix when you’re a couple. Actually, most of the time, an argument is just a prelude to the best kind of make-up sex. Sometimes I’d pick a fight with your momjust because I knew we’d end the night tangled together.”
I choked, and he laughed. “TMI, Dad. Way too much information. There are some things a daughter doesn’teverwant to hear about her parents.”
But I thought back to all their quiet arguments growing up, and how they’d made my stomach knot. Had some of those fights been Dad’s way of engaging in a little foreplay? It made me want to gag, and yet, I could see him doing it, pushing Mom just to get a reaction out of her.
“Maisey!”
I turned my head at my name to find Meredith hustling toward me from a table in the corner.
“I’ll go get the pizzas while you talk,” Dad said, patting me on the shoulder and heading for the counter.
“Hey,” I said as my boss stopped next to me.
“Your dad looks better. You’re still planning to be at work on Sunday, right?”
“I’ll be there.”
Relief flooded her face.
“We need all the help we can get these days. And about the L&D position—” My heart leaped, but before she could finish, she caught sight of her granddaughter standing on a table. “Nellie, get down!” she hollered and hustled away.
Hope and I battled it out as I wondered what she’d been about to say. Were they giving me the job or not? I guessed I would find out when I returned to work. For now, I had other things to worry about.
As I turned to join my father, I ran straight into Carter. He steadied me with his hands on my arms, and revulsion at the touch had me jerking from his hold.
The overpowering musk of his cologne made my head spin, and I tried to back away farther, but the booth behind me prevented me from getting far.
“Did you talk to Lewis about selling the house?” he asked. He looked toward my father and back before he rubbed his knuckles along his bright-red nose.
“I talked to the bank instead,” I told him. “Dad isn’t selling.”
It was when Carter’s glassy eyes narrowed in on me that I realized he was high. The redness around his nostrils suggested coke, but other drugs could cause similar symptoms, especially if he were crashing down.
“How’d you swing that?” he demanded. “He was months behind.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I had some savings.”
“Chelsea told me it would be a piece of cake to get your dad to sell. Said the place is falling down around him anyway.”
My stomach bunched up. “You’re in touch with Chelsea?”
His wild-eyed gaze darted around the restaurant and back. “Sure. Saw her in LA not long ago. Told her about the development I had planned for Meadow Lane.”
“What development?” My pulse sped up as an ugly suspicion started to form.
“We’ve got people flocking to Swift Rivers who need houses. I figure I can squeeze about thirty homes on ten acres at the end of the lane and another forty or fifty townhomes on the remaining five. Big money.”