“Your wife?” Ma beamed. “Michael Benjamin Parker, why have you kept her from us?”
“I wasn’t. I came as soon as my name was cleared.”
My eyes slid to Blake’s, and there wasn’t an ounce of regret there. She was just as much in this as I was. I had only known her a few months, but it was enough. She was mine, and I was never letting her get away.
“I wanted you to meet the woman I’m going to marry.”
Blake tore her hand from mine, her face turning a putrid shade of green. “Baby, are you?—”
She bolted from the waiting area, shoving her way into the bathroom. Not knowing what to do, I went after her, but Ma caught my hand.
“I’ll go. You’ll only scare everyone if you rush in there to hold back her hair.”
As she disappeared, I quickly ran through all we’d done in the past day. We’d eaten practically the same things, but then again, she had rushed into the fire. Maybe she had smoke inhalation issues or something.
“Son—”
“Not now, Pop.”
He grabbed my arm and spun me around, his face marred with a cross between concern and anger.
“What’s really going on? Are you home for good or just long enough to say goodbye again?”
“That depends on how you treat Blake. I didn’t bring her home for you to be an asshole to her.”
“Watch it,” he snapped.
“No, you watch it,” I growled, getting in his face. “I may be your kid, but I’m long past the point of giving a shit what you think. I just went through hell with that woman, and after everything, I finally cleared my name. I had hoped to bring her home and share my life with her, but if you’re going totreat her like shit, I have no problem turning around and finding somewhere else to call home.”
“Just like that,” he scoffed. “She means that much to you.”
“You should know a thing or two about love. Would you ever leave Ma?”
“She threw you through a window!”
“Yeah, and it was the best fucking thing that ever happened to me!”
The tension reached a tipping point as we stood there, staring at each other, our chests heaving in anger. Though I doubted he would swing, I was ready in case he decided to take things further. It wouldn’t be the first time our relationship came to blows.
But it would definitely be the last time.
His cheek twitched, and just when I thought he was about to swing, a chuckle left his lips. “Not sure what to say when my son falls in love with the woman who kicked his ass.”
“Say you’re fucking proud I found a woman strong enough to deal with me.”
Clapping me on the shoulder, it took everything in me not to react and throw him down on the ground. But when he squeezed my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug, the tension finally leeched from my body.
“If that’s the woman you chose, I suppose you could do worse. She’s not gonna try and kill us all, is she?”
“God, I hope not,” I huffed out. “I have no doubt she could pull it off.”
“Then we’d better hide the guns just in case.”
3
BLAKE
“Are you sure you’re okay?”Parker asked me for the fifth time since we’d left the hospital this morning.
