“So you don’t think it’s the right thing to help out a friend,” he ground out, making it a statement instead of a question. “You don’t think I should protect someone I care about who could possibly be in danger.”
“I’m only thinking of the danger to you, to the girls. Let the police handle this girl’s problems.”
“The police won’t do shit. We saw that with Shelly.”
“This is different. This guy tried to kill Alexander Ross’s son. I promise you, they are all over this.”
And that was bullshit too. Not that Brian’s life was worth less than anyone else’s, but no one else’s life was worth more than his either. Starla’s was important too, but she didn’t have a powerful name behind her, and if she’d been the one stabbed and bleeding in the Dermamania parking lot, she’d probably get half the manpower on the case. It was unfair, it was wrong, but Max had picked the wrong person to fuck with. He wondered if the idiot even realized.
“Let them do their jobs,” his dad went on. “They can protect her better than you can.”
“No, they can’t. They can’t be with her as much as I can. I know I’m here now, but I’ll be checking on her all day, and fair warning: any time she doesn’t answer her phone, I’m out of here.”
“Your mother is going to lose her mind over this. It was hard enough on her when you and Shelly were dealing with that fool who wouldn’t leave her alone.”
“You could, you know, not tell her. And it’ll all blow over, the police will do their jobs like you say they will, and Starla will go back home. But I like her, and I’m going to keep seeing her.”
He could tell by the way his dad pursed his lips that he had more to say on that, but he maintained his silence. For approximately ten seconds. “I don’t want you with someone who’s going to bring chaos like this into your life, into our family. I don’t want it to touch my granddaughters.” He grabbed a silver-framed picture of Ashley and Mia hugging and set it directly in front of Jared so he could see their sweet, innocent faces smiling in the sunlight in front of the rose bushes outside his parents’ house. “They are the only things you should be thinking about. They are who matter. They are who you keep safe. What in the hell are you thinking?”
Somehow, Jared managed to tear his eyes from his daughters’ beautiful, mischievous grins and speak around the lump suddenly wedged in his throat. He locked eyes with his father, who was glaring mercilessly at him over the picture, his face going red with fury. “All right,” he told him, worried the man was about to pop a blood vessel. “I’ll make it right, Dad.”
He hoped that was the end of it, but he had a feeling it was far from it. His dad snatched the picture up and put it back in its usual spot. “That doesn’t make me feel any better,” he said, almost sadly. “I don’t think your ‘right’ and mine line up very much.”
***
To pour salt in an already open wound, his dad told him to head out to the Rodgers ranch and look at the new workshop Macy’s dad was having built on the property. He tried to refuse, until he was told he was requested specifically, and even though he’d been gone for a couple of days, they were willing to wait for his return. So he made the familiar drive while grinding his teeth, pulled up to the all-too-familiar house, and had to endure Macy’s mom shoving refreshments at him and chatting him up about everything under the sun, and wasn’t it terrible about Brian Ross, and she so hoped they caught whoever did it soon, because Macy and Seth were so torn up about it, and she knew Candace was just devastated, and…
Jared really loved Macy’s parents. He did. He’d known them since he was a kid, and they loved him like the son they’d never had, and they’d done their best to champion his cause when he’d tried to win Macy back. After his bleak and dismal failure, they’d become more guarded about what they told him. He could see it every time he visited, though (which wasn’t too often)—Ghost had become a fixture in their lives. He was in family pictures now, he was brought up a little more often in conversation where Macy was concerned, and today, of all days, Mrs. Rodgers finally revealed what Jared had known was coming for a long time.
“…and, well, Seth finally asked her to marry him a few weeks ago.”
He waited for the kick-in-the-gut feeling, amazed when it never really came. He sipped his sweet tea and nodded, realizing this was something Starla had to have known but hadn’t wanted to tell him. “Congratulations.”
Jennifer Rodgers looked pained. “I know it’s hard for you, and we care so much about you—”
“It’s happy news. Don’t worry about me.” He thought about Starla waiting for him at home. He thought about last night, and he thought about tonight. And he genuinely smiled. “I’m doing great.”
Jennifer’s face brightened considerably, looking so much like her daughter. “I’m glad to hear that. We like him a lot, Jared. She’s so happy. I don’t think a couple ever made less sense on paper, but together…” She gave a “what are you gonna do?” shrug. “They make sense.”