He slowly turned to face me, glaring. “You didn’t tell her?”
By then, I could feel Lena looking between the two of us.
Sighing, I shook my head. “Joel doesn’t like to be called Mr. Townsend.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she quickly said.
“No, don’t apologize to his crazy ass. Just call him Joel.” My father had all types of odd hang-ups. That, by far, was one of the most ridiculous, if you asked me.
“Micah and Jodi will be here in ten minutes,” Joel said as we entered the living room of his ranch-style home.
For a while, all three of us—Micah, myself, and Ace, when he was free—would have dinner at Joel’s together at least one night a week. Since I’d been traveling so much for work and spending my nights with Lena, especially now that she’d moved in, I rarely made it over to Joel’s. A fact he’d called and cursed me out about the day before.
“Bring my future daughter-in-law over here so I can meet her before you run off and get married,”he demanded over the phone at six o’clock in the morning.
“Got steaks and some corn on the cob on the grill.” Joel paused and looked at Lena. “I told my other daughter-in-law when she first came over here, so now I need to tell you. I hope you’re not one of those broads who doesn’t like to eat.”
“Dammit.” I stepped in between Joel and Lena. “Will you leave her the hell alone?”
Joel’s eyebrows quirked and that irksome grin of his appeared on his face. “Protective, huh?” He laughed and nodded.
Joel headed through the dining room to the kitchen’s back door out to where his grill was to finish cooking the food.
“Your dad’s quite a character.” Lena laughed as she watched him walk away.
“You haven’t seen half of it.” I took her hand in mine. “Let me give you a tour of the place.”
I showed her around the downstairs portion of the home I grew up in.
Lena’s phone buzzed as we made it back down to the first floor of the house. She pulled it out and groaned as she rolled her eyes.
“What’s up?”
She let out a deep sigh before holding up her phone. “I’m getting a bunch of notifications. That’s never a good sign.”
“Check it out,” I encouraged.
She unlocked her phone and opened one of her social media platforms. “Looks like my ex did a podcast interview. People are tagging me in it.”
She frowned but tucked her phone back into her bag.
“You’re not going to listen to it?” I asked.
“What for?” She shrugged. “I don’t care what he has to say about anything.” She lifted on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”
I followed, but the urge to find out what her douchebag ex said that had people tagging her in his interview emerged in my mind. I hadn’t heard any of it, but I still wanted to throttle him for even mentioning her name.
Micah and Jodi had arrived, followed by Ace a few minutes later. Though Ace showed up, he was more quiet than usual throughout dinner. When Joel pointed it out, Ace said he just had a lot on his mind, having to do a special round of training the following week.
However, I saw the way his gaze went to Jodi’s belly now and then when he didn’t realize anyone was looking. I watched as he grew more uneasy throughout dinner. Though we had plans to ride the horses after dinner, he abruptly stood and announced that he needed to leave.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Lena. “You head out with them to the stables.” I directed her to follow my father out the back door.
I went to chase after Ace, who was halfway to his motorcycle by the time I reached him.
“Hey,” I called, grabbing him by the elbow.
He snatched his arm away from me. “Go back inside.”
