That’s when my eyes take in the most beautiful woman in my world, standing tall against the man she pretends to love, the father who abandoned her, and every watchful eyein this barn. She’s ethereal. Her strapless minidress is covered in three-dimensional flowers of every color, while bright aqua, red-bottom Louboutin stilettos line her feet, only highlighting the delicacy that is her legs. Her long black hair hangs in waves down her back, and I’m worthless to any cause right now, lost in heavenly admiration of her.
Austin could punch me back, and I likely wouldn’t flinch.
Not whensheis the moment. The view. My everything.
Cove holds her shoulders back, dirty martini raised high in her grasp as she looks my ex-best friend head-on. “Austin was just leaving.”
I never meant to start a big commotion. Actually, that’s a lie. I never meant to start a commotion of something bigger than simply putting Austin in his place. But the gaping and oohs and ahhs filling the barn have my overly protective side raising fences.
I remind myself that no one knows about Cove and me.
Despite how livid I am, I need to remain strategic. Save my words of fury for Nate.
A dry chuckle leaves Nate’s lips at the same time my sister joins my side. Good. She needs to see this. “Cove, my dear daughter. Austin said you are leaving. It’s in your best interest to listen to him.” And in this moment, the rage Cove has shared with me about her experience with Nate comes to the surface. I witness the backhanded side of him that he’s kept hidden.
Fuck him for hurting her. And fuck him for being a misogynistic son of a bitch.
But she needs this moment to defend herself. To put the man who should have been the one to love and protect her in his rightful place. I see confidence wash over Cove atthe magnitude of his vile words. She takes a small step forward, putting herself more in Nate’s space than I’m sure she prefers. “What’s in my best interest is you no longer telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. IsaidAustin was just leaving.” Every single word is enunciated with meaning and bold truth.
I’m a proud man.
Nate steps closer. “You are my daughter,” he seethes, and I’m confident no one is breathing. “You will do as I say and obey your soon-to-be husband. Or else…consequences will be made.”
Andddd that’s my cue to interve?—
“Let me make something abundantly clear, dear Father,” Cove proclaims in her fullest voice, her firmness halting all movement. “I thought I could come here and play the role of dutiful daughter for you, but I was wrong. How silly of me to have forgotten that for someone to even remotely consider himself a father requires time. Time invested in their child, something you’ve never done, and bychoice. So, yes. I may be at rock bottom with options so limited that disappointment will most likely be the result, but I refuse to be another pawn in your selfish game. I don’t deserve that, and it took spending less than a week with you for all my imaginary moments with my dad to be destroyed right in front of me. You’re my greatest disappointment, and I see so clearly now how much better off I am without you. So thank you for leaving Mom and me all those years ago. You did us a big fucking favor.”
“Is this about Stetson and his need to control things?” Nate cocks his head back, spitting hate. “He knows nothing about our family. Give me ten minutes to set the record straight, and you can leave with Austin. We’ll forget this ever happened.”
He’sstillnot hearing her.
Tell him, baby. Tell him.
“Stetson has nothing to do with this!” she shouts, and pride thunders through me as Cove finally gets her moment. “This”—she waves her hand between them—“is about us. I’m your daughter, and you abandoned me. For twenty-one years, I’ve been without a father. I’ve had the pleasure of watching my closest friends with their dads and seeing how cherished they make them feel. I’ve lived with this ache in my chest from missing you. Missing out on what they have. I gave you the benefit of the doubt that maybe, just maybe, there was a legitimate reason for you leaving. But I saw you that day in Key West with your new family. I was on a weekend getaway and watched you intentionally love your new wife and daughter. I promised myself from that moment on that all I could ever do was hate you. But desperate times call for desperate measures. I needed help, and if anything, you owed me. But now…I want nothing from you. So, good luck with your business deal, Nathaniel, because my time here is finished.”
Without giving him a chance to respond, Cove takes off toward the house, heels clacking against the wood flooring while guests chatter uncertainly about what just happened.
“Austin. Go get her?—”
I reach for Austin’s arm and squeeze tight. “You take one step forward, and it’ll be your last.” I turn to Nate. “A word.”
I expect him to follow behind me, because he better fucking follow. The moment we exit the back barn doors, I spin on him, fist gripping his dress shirt and pinning him to the metal wall. “It’s time my best friend and I have a little chat,” I growl at the side of his face.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he hisses. “I knewsomething was off with you. You touch my daughter, Stetson?”
“You don’t get to call her that!” I roar. “She was never your daughter. You lost that right when you abandoned her, you selfish bastard.”
“Ah,” he gloats. “Have a heart-to-heart with her, then? I’m assuming the little whore spilled all my dirty secrets, huh?”
My punch comes quick, a slew of spit flying in the air. “Better watch your fucking words, Nate.”
He lifts his head, fighting to resume full power. “Go ahead, Stetson. Ask me what you want. I’ll answer it all for you. Hit me. What’s the worst that could happen, I bleed a little?”
I step back with my arms above my head, hating him more and more the longer I’m near him. “You never told us about her,” I rush quietly before raising my voice in a near scream. “You never told us about her!”
Pure evil spills from his lips. “There was nothing to tell. I was courted by Camille and never wanted a child. I never wanted her. I wanted my father’s business. Money. I wanted power.”
Motherfucker.
