The pinch turned into a stab. He swore to himself that he would do whatever he could to see that Natalie saw her sister sooner rather than later. And it wasn’t just because he was feeling guilty about showing up in her room earlier for sex without promises—which he was—or jumping to the wrong conclusion right now. After what had happened, Scott could no longer pretend that he didn’t still care about her, even if he wasn’t quite ready to put a label on it. Scott wanted to make her happy, and he was going to do everything in his power to get her out of this. She had put her trust in him, and he wasn’t going to let her down. Which meant he had to start trusting her.
But it wasn’t easy. He was used to relying on his perception and judgment, but he was keenly aware that it had a blind spot when it came to Natalie. He felt like he was going on blind faith—which didn’t sit well for someone like him.
“Let me talk to Dad,” she said. A few minutes later, Scott felt that agony all over again. He hated hearing her so upset. “I don’t know, Dad. I hope not long. I know it’s hard having them there, but it’s necessary.”
It was clear her dad had had time to process that she was alive and had moved on to the “I want answers” part.
“I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can,” she said.
Her eyes widened a little at what her father said next. “Uh, he’s sleeping.”
She eyed Scott apologetically, and he guessed her dad wasn’t taking that for an excuse.
“It’s fine,” Scott said, holding out his hand. “I don’t mind talking to him.”
Natalie dragged her teeth on her lip a long time before handing the phone to him.
“This is Scott,” he said.
From what Natalie had told him about her father, Scott expected the voice on the other end to sound weak and sickly. But the deep baritone laden with steel sounded more like a two-hundred-pound linebacker who was coming at him headfirst and didn’t care about a targeting penalty.
“I don’t know who you are and what’s going on, but if anything happens to my daughter, I’m holding you responsible.”
Make that two-hundred-and-fifty-pound linebacker. Natalie’s dad didn’t need to explain how he’d do that—the gist was implicit in his tone.
“Yes, sir,” Scott said. “I understand.” He looked at Natalie—who was clearly embarrassed—and held her gaze solely. “I’ll protect her with my life.”
“See that you do,” her father said. “Or you will wish that you had.”
That was explicit enough. “Understood.”
Scott handed the phone back to Natalie and waited for her to finish her conversation. It didn’t take long.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said with an apologetic wince, as she disconnected and handed Scott back the phone. “My father is a little overprotective, and he is like a mama bear when Lana and I are in trouble or threatened. Which I guess we are.”
“You don’t need to apologize for anything. I’d feel the same in his shoes.” He paused for a minute. “Your dad didn’t happen to play football, did he?”
It was kind of a joke.
Her brows shot up. “How did you guess? He was an offensive lineman in high school and was recruited bythe University of Minnesota, but his father wouldn’t let him go. He needed help on the farm.”
Scott tried not to groan. Offensive lineman? “He must be a big guy.”
She nodded. “He’s heavier now after the heart attack, but he’s six-six and about two-eighty.” She smiled, wistfully. “My friends were always scared of him because he looks so mean, but he’s a teddy bear once you get to know him.”
Right. A six-six, two-eighty, mean-looking teddy bear. Those totally went together.
“I hope I didn’t wake you when I got out of bed,” she said. “But I wanted to try to get ahold of Lana before they sat down to eat dinner.” She frowned and tilted her head to look at him. “Was something wrong? You looked upset when you came in here.”
“No,” he said, not wanting to confess to his moment of doubt. “I was just wondering who you were talking to.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I used your phone, but I thought it better than using your...” She stopped and he guessed she was about to say the F-word. In this case, “father.” “The senator’s landline.”
“It’s fine,” Scott said. “Is everything okay with your sister?”
She sighed. “I think so. But it’s always hard to tell with Lana. With her cognitive issues, she seems to take good news and bad news in stride.” Her mouth quirked. “She didn’t understand why I missed her birthday party if I wasn’t at the cemetery, but she mostly wanted to talk about the computer games and YouTube videos she’s been watching. It was good to hear her voice and nice to talk to someone who didn’t want explanations.”
“How old is she?”
