He slides his fingers into his pockets and shifts his weight to one side, those hazel eyes studying me. “It just got started, weatherman says it’s not stopping until tomorrow. Could beawhile.”
Taking a moment to think, I let my gaze drop to his boots, which look really worn, I take a breath and try to calm my racing heart and my nerves that are grating along my temples like motor pistons because I’m having to pry answers from him. “How long is a while?” A mixture of shock and disbelief is evident in my tone, but I don’t have it in me to care right now.
Ignoring my question, he turns to Sloane and his face softens as well as his tone. “Dinner’s ready. Dad’s already at the table.”
She nods and glances at me with a warm smile before she disappears behind him. Everything about him on the surface is calm and focused, but nothing about his energy is calm. Little pin pricks of irritation are poking me all over as his gaze scrutinizes me.
“The next few days will stay below freezing, so my guess is the roads will be frozen for up to a week, maybe.” He takes a step toward me and his hands fall to his sides, his voice a deep rumble. “While you’re here, you’ll be treated as a guest, but if I see even a hint of distress in my daughter’s eyes about why you’re here, I will send you walking back to your car without a care about whether you freeze or not.”
Once he mentioned his daughter, wave after wave of anger flows from him, hitting me with every swell, threatening to drown me. I take a small step back and realize the smile I use as my shield has fallen, and I bump into the bed behind me.
I’m not scared, because I know his anger is coming from a place of love. This man will obviously do anything to protect his daughter. What really bothers me is he would think I’m capable of distressing a child. When I saw that little girl standing in front of me telling me her dad would make everything okay, I knew this man had planted feelings ofunending love and confidence in her.
By taking a step away from him, I’m retreating from the fact he thinks so horribly of me. The level of anger I’m feeling from him is wholly because he thinks I’m such a bad person, a person who would intentionally cause hurt and I want to turn my back on it.
No, I want to run from it.
No one has ever perceived me that way, and it hurts.
But that’s why Harris got me in this position, isn’t it? He knows I’m soft-hearted and he’s betting on that being my downfall to get my dad’s attention.
I’m willing to bet the wall of muscle in the form of a somewhat grumpy man in front of me does not shy away from eye contact or directness, so as I begin to defend myself, I make sure my eyes are looking into his. “Of course, I would never…”
He cuts me off, keeping control of the conversation, his eyes never break the focus he has on mine, “Good, ‘cause we’re not selling our land.” As he turns to leave the room, he says over his shoulder, “You’ll need to find something else to talk about while you’re here.”
Realizing he’s done with the conversation, he only came in here to warn me, I sigh and follow him out the door.
CHAPTER TEN
GRAY
EVERYONE ISalready at the table when I walk into the dining room, Elly is close on my heels. She pauses and looks around the room, her eyes moving over the empty chairs.
Marley let her wear some of her clothes, but they’re too big for her. The sweater almost hits her knees and, if I’m honest, the brown color of it almost looks like she’s wearing a potato sack. The bandage over her eye is white and makes the red and blue-ish colors marring her skin around the edges stand out.
No one has sat in my mom’s chair since she died and there are two other chairs empty aside from my youngest brother, Tucker’s, chair. He’s in the Air Force and went back to his station after the holidays. But his chair is next to me and I don’t think she wants to sit next to me. One of the other empty chairs is next to Lainey Rai and a voice in my head is beggingshe doesn’t sit there.
“Hi! You can sit next to me.” Lainey Rai pipes up, her smile big, and pats the seat next to her. I take a deep, frustrated breath. I don’t want her so close to my daughter.
Wilson, who is lying just outside of the entryway to the dining room, hopefully lifts his head and cocks it to the side when Lainey Rai pats the seat. I’d rather it was him sitting there, too.
Elly steps around me to respond to Lainey Rai and pulls the sweater tight around her body protectively, it enhances her curvy figure and in no way looks like a potato sack anymore.
The bright smile that was on her face earlier is back, if just a little strained, but it gets brighter when she looks at Lainey Rai. “I’d love to sit next to you.” I watch her every move, but she avoids looking at me as she sits in the chair and pulls the napkin off the table to her lap.
I’m not sure if she is doing it unconsciously or not, her focus is moving from dish to dish as she looks around the table, but she is moving the silverware next to her plate with her fingers into a perfectly straight line.
Those big amber eyes look at everyone at the table except me as introductions are made and she smiles at each person, making herself comfortable. Even with the smile, nervousness flashes in her eyes.
I’m glad she’s avoiding looking at me, I don’t want her fake smiles, anyway.
Then why is it pissing me off?
Her eyes looking up at me as she tilted her head back when she sat in my lap earlier unexpectedly moves across my mind ‘you are the prettiest man I’ve ever seen.’ Her face was so close to mine that I could see the golden flecks in the beautiful brown of her eyes.
Pushing those thoughts away, I focus on what’s in front ofme - keeping an eye on the trouble sitting at my dining room table - and I pull my napkin into my lap.
She’s a bit smaller than my youngest sister, Breanna, who was born premature and has always been on the small side. Breanna’s at Oklahoma State for the semester, she’s in her last leg of the vet program and plans to work close to home when she graduates.
