Amanda walked up and held her hand out for me. “It’s a pleasure to meet you ma’am.”
She grinned sweetly and said, “Please, call me Amanda and ignore Taylor’s father. He seems to forget she is twenty-four and a grown woman.”
“I have not. I just hate seeing her making bad decisions.”
Taylor’s mouth dropped practically to the ground. “What? Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“Um, Brad why don’t you come on in and we’ll have a beer. Taylor, here is the key to the cabin. Everything is clean and ready to go,” Scott said.
“I’ll help you get settled in,” Amanda said as she glared at Brad.
Walking up to Scott, Taylor took the key. “Thank you so much, Scott. Thank you for taking a chance and giving me this amazing opportunity. Even if my father thinks I’m making a bad decision.”
With a frustrated sigh, Brad threw his hands up. “Not with the job. With him!”
All eyes were back on me again, and I was beginning to wish I had just talked Taylor into doing this tomorrow. We would be back in her apartment right now wrapped up in each other instead of being here with Brad ready to beat the shit out of me.
“Ugh! I’m not listening to this. Mom, you’re more than welcome to come and help Jase and I, but Dad is not welcome.”
Taylor stormed off to her car, got in and started it. I stood there bouncing my eyes from the car back to Brad. What would my father tell me to do?
“Mr. Atwood, I know you don’t think very highly of me, but I love your daughter and I plan on spending the rest of my life making her happy and making up for the heartbreak I caused her. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish I had done things differently. But I can’t change the past, so I’m going to focus on the future and she is the only thing I see in my future.”
Scott cleared his throat and smiled as Brad took a deep breath in and slowly pushed it out. “You say you love her? How do you know you love her?”
With a smile, I simply said what I felt. “I can’t imagine my life without her in it.”
Brad narrowed his eyes and turned his head slightly away from me. He looked at Scott and then Amanda. “That girl is my life. My baby. I swear if you ever hurt her again, I’ll break both your legs and arms and trust me, when I’m done with you, you will never be able to spawn children.”
The instant pain I felt in my dick would insure I wouldn’t have a hard-on anytime soon. With a nod of my head, I stumbled on my words. “Y-yes, sir. I promise you.”
Taylor laid down on her horn as Brad rolled his eyes. “For fuck’s sake. She is so much like you, Amanda.”
With a chuckle, Amanda walked up and got into the passenger seat of Taylor’s car. Scott winked and mouthed, good job before turning and following Brad back into the house.
My legs trembled as I forced them to move and take me back to my truck. At least I got the whole meet Taylor’s parents out of the way.
I set the box down on the small kitchen table and smiled. “This is the last box.”
“Oh, Taylor, most of this stuff is from when you were in college. Honey, didn’t you go and buy anything new when you moved into your apartment?”
Amanda was trying to break down a box while Taylor wiped her forehead. “Let me do that,” I said reaching for the box.
“My pleasure. I hate moving. I hate anything to do with moving.”
Taylor giggled. “That must be where I get it from. That’s probably why I didn’t have that much stuff and I never really unpacked.”
“Well, I think as soon as you get settled in we need to go shopping and make this place a little more . . .”
Both women looked around while scrunching up their noses. “Feminine,” they both said at once.
“I think it looks nice in here.”
Taylor gave me a really look while her mother chuckled.
“Where do you live Jase?”
“I’ve been staying with my parents. Their house is about the size of Scott’s, so I practically have the whole upstairs to myself. We have a cabin on our ranch as well that I was going to start staying in. I think my mother would rather not hear me coming and going.”
Amanda smiled. “I don’t blame her. Is your place just as . . . drab?”
“Mom! This is a cute little cabin. I love it and think it’s perfect!”
“Mine is a bit smaller, but I’m actually getting ready to have a house designed to be built.”
Amanda and Taylor stopped what they were doing and looked at me. “What? Where?” Taylor asked surprised.
Taking another box they emptied, I started to break it down. “Um . . . my parents went in with their best friends and business partners and bought the ranch next to us. They split up the land between the four kids.”
Amanda smiled. “Oh, how nice of them!”
I nodded. “Yes, it was.”