Hold On

But Garrett wasn’t even close to done.

“She quit her job to move to Bloomington to start her life with another man. She took her house off the market and ended her engagement; I didn’t ask her to. It might be way too late for her to learn lessons you never taught her, but I found out just this morning, when it’s important, it’s better late than never. You gotta let her sort out her own mistakes. If you don’t, she’ll never learn.”

It seemed like his words had been sinking in, but his advice hit a brick wall. McClintock might not be stupid, but he was when it came to his daughter. Garrett knew this when he saw the stubborn set in McClintock’s jaw.

Not his problem.

But it was time to sum up.

“The only thing I know right now is, no matter what you say or do, your daughter and I are done. I’ve moved on in a way there is no going back. So, however this gets sorted, Justin, don’t drag me into it because, like Mia, the problems she’s created for herself have fuck all to do with me.”

“So much for ‘to have and to hold, for better or for worse, until death do you part,’” McClintock sniped.

Garrett sighed, not about to get into explaining the concept of divorce to a stubborn man.

He was done.

“If that’s all you got, Justin, I got a killer to catch.”

“When you come to your senses, Garrett, and try to get my daughter back, do not expect me to be your champion,” he warned.

Garrett very nearly rolled his eyes, and he didn’t think he’d rolled his eyes since he was about twelve years old.

“Consider me informed,” Garrett muttered.

They stared at each other and Garrett did it with his face set studiously blank.

He did this to hide the fact that he didn’t like this because he’d always liked Mia’s father.

He spoiled the girls in his life, but he was a good guy. Funny. He told a great joke, was usually in a mood that could only be described as jovial, and he’d liked and accepted Garrett easily. His continuing to spoil his daughter when she was Garrett’s wife was marginally uncool, but it wasn’t heinous. And when the marriage finally disintegrated, he’d only sought Garrett out once to have a chat with him, hoping his intervention might get Garrett’s head out of his ass.

That chat had gone entirely differently than this one.

Garrett hadn’t relented then when McClintock had shown him patience and respect.

He didn’t relent now either, and it wasn’t because McClintock had not shown patience or respect.

It sucked that the vague but benign ending to Justin McClintock being in his life had turned malignant.

But it was what it was, and frankly, the way father and daughter were behaving, he didn’t give a fuck.

His phone beeped with a message and Garrett decided the staring contest was over.

“Be well, Justin,” he muttered, turning as he reached into his jacket to pull out his phone.

He’d taken one step away from McClintock when the man called his name.

Garrett drew in a calming breath and turned back.

“She loves you,” McClintock said quietly. “Loves you like you wouldn’t believe.”

Out of respect for a decent man, just a shit father, he replied quietly, “If she did it the way we both needed it, Justin, she would have weathered the storm.”

McClintock flinched.

That got in there.

Yeah, he wasn’t stupid. He’d raised a weak daughter. One who had no idea how to fight her own battles. One who had no idea how to hold on.

Not all McClintock’s fault. Mia was an adult.

But he hadn’t helped.

“Like I said, and I meant it, be well,” Garrett repeated, then he turned and jogged up the steps so McClintock couldn’t suck any more of his time.

As he went, he saw the voicemail was from Tanner. At the top of the steps, he slid his thumb across the cracked screen as he glanced toward Mike, lifting his chin to say he was ready to roll.