“Well, Harmdrove me, so…”
“I can drive youhome,” I offered.
Mrs. Carvershook her head. “I’m sorry, honey, but you have not been vetted.”
“Mom,”Daisy hissed, frowning at her.
“Baby girl, ifHuck’s gonna be part of this, then he’s gonna be part of it. And there’s no wayin hell your Dad’s going to let you out of his sight unless he knows where youare.”
“One day, I’mgoing to move to Scotland,” she threatened.
“We’ve alreadygot a chapter in London, honey, which isn’t that far from Scotland. And don’tthink Hatch won’t open one there if he needs to. He’ll open one wherever any ofyou girls go. You can run but you can’t hide, and you know it.”
“It’s all good,”I said, wanting to deescalate the situation. “Run the background checks. I’vegot nothing to hide. I’ll drive you home another time.”
“No, wait,”Daisy said. “Give me a few. This is ridiculous.”
* * *
Daisy
Dad wasn’t in thegreat room, so I made my way down the hall and found him in his office. Iknocked on the door, pushing it open before he bid me entry.
He was sittingat his desk, his laptop open and he smiled at me as I walked in. “Hey, Ducky.”
“Huck hasoffered to drive me home and Mom seems to think you’re going to stop him fromdoing that because he hasn’t been ‘vetted.’” I crossed my arms and leaned in.“But that’s ridiculous,right?”
“No, baby girl,she’s absolutely right… under—”
“Are you high?”I scowled. “Every single brother in the room knows who Huck is. I didn’t evenknow he played hockey when I invited him. Lord almighty, Buzz was practicallyoffering to carry his baby twenty minutes into talking to him. Why do they evencall him Huck the Puck, anyway?”
“Because yougive him three inches and he’ll find a place for that puck. He’s a goalie’sworst nightmare. His accuracy is dead-on. His scoring ratio is off the charts.”
“It’s weird thatyou know that.”
“It’s not weird,Ducky. We’ve been watching this kid since he played in college for Minnesota.He was a star back then, and we knew he’d be a star in the pros. We alsopredicted the Hurricanes would make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He’s thebest fuckin’ rookie that’s to hit the ice in twenty years, so the fact he hadthat knee injury was a goddamn tragedy.”
“Well, it’sexactly why it proves my point!”
Dad leaned backin his chair and smiled.
“What?”
He raised aneyebrow. “Are you done?”
“Are you goingto let me be an adult and go home with whomever I please?”
“If it’s Huck?Yes,” he said.
I wrinkled mynose. “You already did a background check, didn’t you?”
“Sure did.” Helinked his fingers and slid them behind his head. “Huckleberry Granville Wiltonis cleared to date my daughter.”
I dropped myhead back and growled at the ceiling, “Sometimes I want to murder people.” Imet my dad’s eyes. “And it’s because of you.”
“Thank you.” Hegrinned. “That means I’m doing my job.”
“I can’t believeI have to ask my daddy permission to have a man drive me home,” I murmured.“It’s stupid.”
