My heart cracked a little hearing that. I sighed. “Look, I don’t have to be her best friend or even like her. In the end, it’s your relationship. If you love her, then it is what it is. But I didn’t come here to planherwedding. I came here to plan yours. I’m not doing this if you aren’t going to be involved.”
He sucked in a breath and for a moment I thought he would try to argue. That stubborn look he got when he was being confrontational flickered in his gaze for a moment, but after expelling a breath, he nodded. “That’s fair. I wish you didn’t feel that way about her, but I can’t expect you to feel any different after the last couple days. You don’t have to plan the wedding, Quinn.”
I balked. He almost never used my name. It was one of those unspoken rules between us. As much as Queenie grated on my nerves, it was what I associated with my dad. Him calling me Quinn would be like me calling him Carl. “No, I said I would do it, so I’m going to do it.”
“But you don’t like her.”
“So, you’re my dad, and I want to help you.”
The look he gave me let me know he wasn’t convinced.
I offered what I hoped was a soft, reassuring smile and not a grimace. “I want you to have the day you deserve.”
His gaze turned glassy, and I was so taken back by the honest emotion shining on his face that tears of my own welled in my eyes.
I took a deep breath. “I also wanted to sit down and talk to you about your business proposal.”
Surprise replaced any softer emotions. “You want to work with me?”
With me.Not for me. That was a bit of a shock.
“I want to see what you can offer me and how it compares to my job back home,” I replied, keeping my tone even, professional almost. Any tiredness that lingered in his limbs vanished in that instant, excitement and exuberance taking its place, making him instantly look ten years younger. I continued on before he could say anything though. “I’m not committing to anything long-term yet, but I’d like to treat the rest of my timehere before the wedding as a trial run to see if we can work together and come up with some ideas for the ranch.”
He nodded, and I knew I was losing him to his enthusiasm. He was like a kid in a candy shop. A dog with a bone. He only could focus on so many things at once. “That’s a fantastic idea! It’ll be great! We can…” he rattled on idea after idea but I wasn’t entirely listening. Not to mention, he spoke so quickly even I couldn’t keep track of what he was saying.
“Dad…Dad! Slow down.” I let out a huff of laughter. “I was thinking, though, if I’m going to stay here, I don’t want to be in the house with you and Georgette.” The thought of spending one more night under the same roof as the woman, let alone an entire month did not sit well with me.
Dad gave a quick nod. “How about you stay in one of the guest houses on the property? They’re both vacant. I’ve got the keys up at the house. Hop in and we can grab them.”
I looked down the road, toward the general direction of the bunkhouse. I mean, I guess I could go get the keysthensee Hux right? As much as I wanted—no, needed to talk to Hux, I got the feeling my dad needed this moment with the two of us more.
With a huff, I met my dad’s gaze and nodded.
The wind blew my hair from the speed of the Gator as we made our way back toward the main house.
“So, this decision…” My dad said, glancing at me from the driver’s seat. “Does it have anything to do with Hux?”
I scoffed, my heart squeezing tight at the mention of him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His lips tugged up into a knowing smirk. “That’s where you were headed, weren’t you?”
I shrugged. I was so not talking about guys with Dad. I’d hardly even been comfortable talking about them with Mom before she passed.
My dad’s grin turned wolfish. “I wasn’t lying last night when I said I liked him.”
“He’s the first guy I’ve dated that you’ve liked. How come?”
“He’s honest,” Dad replied after a moment. “And I like that he doesn’t let his circumstance keep him from living.”
“So no more of this‘he’s got a bad attitude’bullshit?” My stare was hard and unyielding as I remembered dad’s words from yesterday.
“No more.”
Turns out, getting thekeys became a whole damn night affair. First, Dad couldn’t find them, so him and I searched his office for, like, an hour before finally, begrudgingly, I’d given in and let him involve Georgette, who was all but useless. But after another half hour of searching, we found them in Dad’s garage with a whole key ring of spares for all the buildings on the property.
After that, Georgette apologized so profusely that I thought I might claw my eyes out if I had to watch her fake cry for a minute longer. Then she’d practically demanded that I stay for dinner, which as much as I hated it, went decent and served as an opportunity to get some wedding input from my dad.
By the time I managed to get away from them though, it was nearly midnight, and the thought of taking my things and settling into one of the guesthouses was just too exhausting. A part of me was still tempted to go find Hux and talk to him, at the very least, but would he or any of the other hands appreciate me knocking on the bunkhouse door in the middle of the night when they all basically rose with the dawn?
