Hix called his name and he turned back.
“Just wanna say at this juncture that I’ll be gettin’ on writing those commendations for yours and Bets’s files, and not because you’re helpin’ me move. Because you both went beyond the call, her lookin’ for Nat, you ridin’ that hunch that guy would toss the weapon and finding that gun. It was good work, Hal. Not just solid. It was smart and showed serious initiative. We ever find him, you tied that bow. And I’ll make sure that’s in your file.”
Hal’s voice sounded clogged when he said, “Thanks, Hix.”
“Not sure why you’re thankin’ me, but you’re welcome.”
Hal nodded, moved out looking even more uncomfortable and that didn’t change when Donna passed him walking in and she did it smiling at him.
She came right to his desk and her smile went strange as she said, “It sucks I gotta dim the glow of whatever you said to Hal leading him to tackle the herculean effort of proving he’s a decent human being, but Jep’s here.”
Hix looked out the window to see Hope’s father standing at reception.
“Jesus, shit,” Hix muttered.
“You want me to tell him you’re busy?” she offered.
He did.
But that wouldn’t nip this in the bud like he had to do.
So he shook his head, coming up from his chair.
“I’ll talk to him.”
He followed her out but stopped at the back of the aisle between desks and called, “Jep, you wanna come on back?”
“Yeah, son,” Jep returned, and then moved through the swinging half door.
Hix watched him and did it noting Jep, who was always sure of himself, looked even more awkward than Hal had.
They shook hands when Jep arrived at him but they said nothing until Hix walked him into his office and closed the door behind him.
He moved to the back of one of the chairs at his desk, stopped, turned to the man and crossed his arms on his chest.
“What can I do for you?” he asked.
“You got time to have lunch, Hixon?” Jep asked back.
“Not really,” Hix lied.
“Son—”
“Jep, I got a phone. You got a phone. We need to talk about somethin’, you can call me. You wanna have lunch, you can call me about that too. You showin’ here, it tells me this is either official business or it’s somethin’ else. If it’s official, you can talk to me here. If it’s somethin’ else, we gotta have another conversation.”
Jep’s hand started to move up to his collar, dropped, and he blew out a breath between pursed lips before he said, “I’m sorry, Hixon, but I’m here because I gotta urge you . . . strongly . . . to have a sit down with my daughter.”
Hix didn’t move a muscle. “Right. Since that’s the case, I hate to do it but I’m gonna have to do it. This is my place of business, Jep. You don’t pin me here because you know I’m gonna be here and Hope’s activated you to deal with her shit. That isn’t right, it isn’t appropriate, and I’ll end with it not bein’ your style.”
“It’s important.”
“I don’t care.”
“She’s the mother of your children, Hix.”
“We got a problem?” he asked.
His ex-father-in-law stared at him a beat before he shook his head once. “No. Nope.” He lifted a hand palm out and again dropped it almost before he got it up. “I know you’ve moved on. Hear she’s a great gal. None of my business. But Hope’s got some things she wants to explain to you and she knows she’s messed it up so she can’t approach you. She’s sent me as proxy. I’m her father.” This time, he lifted both hands low to his sides. “What’m I supposed to do?”
Hix gave him the obvious answer, “Tell her no.”
Jep looked to the wall beyond Hix’s head.
Hix gave it a few moments before, quietly, he stated, “This can’t happen again, Jep. It’s not right how you went about this and it’s not right how Hope asked you to intervene. She wants a chat, she can grow up, suck it up and ask me for one.”
Jep’s eyes came to him and his face was set to stubborn.
“You got two girls, you’ll learn. They grow up but they never quit bein’ your babies.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he allowed. “Maybe one day I’ll have cause to remember this and feel like an ass. But if I do, what I’m gonna say is gonna sound harsh, Jep, but it’ll be in the middle of me already feelin’ like an ass because I know I’m in the middle of a situation where I’m in the wrong for bein’ where I am and doin’ what I’m doin’.”
Jep looked ticked for a second before that wore away and he muttered, “Damned if you ain’t right. Knew it before I walked in here but . . .” He shook his head and finished at the same time Hix’s cell rang. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Obliged,” Hix muttered, walking to his phone that was sitting on his desk, saying, “I hope you get part of what she’s done is possibly put important things we share, that I’m thinkin’ mean something to the both of us, in a bad place.”
“Nope, son, I did that not havin’ the fortitude to tell my girl to do right.”
But Hix didn’t hear Jep’s reply.
Because he saw his screen told him Greta was calling.
At that time she should be off to Sunnydown to take her brother out for lunch.
Why would she be calling?
“Gotta take this,” he muttered, turned his side to Jep and took the call, acutely and irritatingly aware of the company he was in. “Hey.”
“Hix, she’s here.”
Hix felt his spine snap straight at her tone.
“Who?” he asked.
But shit.
He knew.
“Mom!” she cried, giving him the answer he knew. “She’s making a huge scene. She knows. She knows it’s my day off and I come here to see Andy and she’s here. Shouting and carrying on and demanding to see him, saying I’m keeping her away from her baby and—”
He snatched the keys to his Ram from the desk and cut her off. “You with Andy?”
“I can’t get to him. She keeps shouting at me and getting in my space, shoving me off. I can’t get in a catfight with my mother in Andy’s home, Hix!” Her voice had been rising but it dropped with her next in her increasing panic. “I know he’s hearing it. Everyone is but his room isn’t far from the front. And it’s probably freaking him out.”
That was not good.
But no.
Hell no.
That bitch did not put her hands on Greta.
“Go sit in your car,” he ordered, moving by Jep, dipping his chin, saying, “Gotta take this,” and that was it.
He was out the door.
“Go sit in my car?” she asked, her voice pitching higher with her also increasing anxiety.
“Go sit in your car,” he demanded and stopped between Donna and Bets’s desks. “Both of you,” he looked between them, “in a Ram. Follow me.”
“Hix,” Greta called in his ear as he started moving again, feeling Donna and Bets move behind him.
“I’m coming. I’m bringing some deputies. She can either calm down and remove herself from the premises or she can be arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace. But I’ll be giving her that choice. You’ll be sitting in your car while I’m doing it.”
“It’ll take you twenty minutes to get here and—”
“Not with my lights on.”
“Oh,” she mumbled.
“Get in your car, baby.”