If only that were true. “Thanks. Give Duke a big hug for me, okay?”
“Will do. And, G?”
“Yeah?”
“Hurry home to us. We miss you.”
ChapterEleven
Joel
It was our wedding day. I still couldn’t believe it, as I leaned in, staring at my reflection in the old pine tilt mirror that had been a fixture in my parents’ bedroom for as long as I could remember.
I’d left their room exactly as it was when my dad died, and he hadn’t changed it since my mom passed. Not even the quilt on the bed, which she’d made by hand the year I was born.
I came in here to feel their presence. To say in my mind all the things I would say if they were with me today. “I finally found my girl.” I sat on the pine hope chest at the foot of the sleigh bed. “Yeah, you’d be thrilled, knowing how much you both loved Gia.”
I cleared my throat as my eyes drifted to a framed photo of them on their wedding day. They looked so happy, so in love, and I wished I could tell my bride how much I loved her today. Because I did. But Gia wasn’t ready to hear that. Yet. She’d given me her body, but her heart was still off-limits. Fortunately, I had time on my side. Day by day, I’d break down her walls and prove to her that I was the man she’d given up hope of ever finding.
I tipped my head back when a knock on the door interrupted my ‘chat’ with my parents. “Come in.”
Mike opened the door, looking as surly as ever in a black suit and tie with white shirt. “Hey, can we talk for a minute?”
Shit. I was not up for this. Thinking about my parents and what they might say if they were with me today made me feel a little too exposed to defend myself if my future father-in-law came to tell me, once again, that I wasn’t fit for his little girl.
“Yeah, sure.” I didn’t bother getting up or offer to shake his hand. I needed to know why he was here first, whether he planned to throw a wrench into our plans. If he did, he’d be in for the fight of his life, because it may be unconventional, but I wasn’t giving up my chance to marry his daughter. “What’s up, Mike?”
He looked around the room, his gaze landing on the framed wedding photo of my parents on the dresser. “They were good people, your folks.”
I nodded, waiting for him to continue. It sounded like the kind of sentiment he would follow with a but…
“And I know they raised you right.” He finally looked me in the eye. “You do right by your daddy, be the man he raised you to be, and you’ll do right by my daughter… and me.”
There it was, the veiled threat. I was sick of being intimidated by this guy. I wasn’t a kid anymore and he needed to realize that. “Is that your not-so-subtle way of warning me not to cheat on her or I’ll have to deal with you?”
He narrowed his eyes, glaring at me. I knew he wasn’t used to being challenged, and I didn’t care. No one, including him, was ever going to question how much Gia meant to me. She didn’t know it yet, but that girl had become my everything.
“Cheat on her?” He raised a bushy eyebrow. “Now I know you wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that.”
“No, I wouldn’t, but not because of you. Because Gia means too much to me. I would never do anything to hurt her.”
“Don’t cheat on her, lie to her, deceive her—”
I raised my hand. “That goes without saying. You have my word.”
I didn’t appreciate being called to task, but I understood where he was coming from. He’d always been the man to protect Gia, and now he believed he was turning that job over to me. Little did he know Gia had always been strong enough to take care of and protect herself.
He sized me up before he said, “And I trust your word, Joel.”
I took those words in, processed what they meant before I said, “I appreciate that.”
“I see the way you look at her.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t even think she sees it, but I do.”
I’d never seen his eyes get misty before, but if I was ever lucky enough to have a daughter, I was pretty sure I’d be getting teary-eyed on her wedding day too. “She has no idea how much I love her.” It was as honest as I could be without exposing our scheme. “There are no words. I can just show her, every day, in the way I treat her.” The way I’d seen my dad treat my mom all those years, especially after she got sick and he gave her the strength and will, through his love, to fight for her life.
“I always hoped she’d find someone who would love her like I love her mama.” He swiped a big hand over his mouth. “Glad she finally did.” He cleared his throat. “And I’m glad it’s you.”
Wow. Now I was the one getting choked up. This wedding wasn’t supposed to be the ‘til-death-do-us-part kind, but everything about it felt real to me. including my heart-to-heart with my bride’s father.
