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“Daddy! Put that gun away.”

Her father didn’t budge an inch. She let out an exasperated sigh as she stormed toward the two men.

“Grace—” Riley started.

She held up her hand. “Not now.”

“But—”

Grace whirled around and faced him, making sure her body was the one thing between her father and the man that she knew she had deep feelings for. “What are you doing here?” she seethed. “We talked about this.”

Riley’s whole body remained stiff and prickly. She could easily imagine trying to give him a hug and getting stabbed by the invisible quills he had protruding from his body. He spoke low through gritted teeth. “Youtalked about this. I didn’t agree.”

She threw her hands into the air. “Seriously? What were you thinking? Do you even realize just how bad this invasion of privacy really is? You can’t just show up at my house. I don’t know how you got my address but—”

“Faye gave it to me.”

Grace smacked her forehead with her hand. “Of course she did.”

“Grace?” Her father’s hard voice pulled her from the conversation, forcing her to turn around to meet his gaze. “Please tell me this is a joke.”

She sighed again, then shook her head. “It’s not a joke.”

Zeke’s focus shifted to Riley. “He’s one of them, isn’t he?”

“Them?” Riley attempted to move around her. The venom in that one word was enough to set her teeth on edge.

“No offense, son, but if you’re one of those folks down at Shane’s place, you have no logical reason to be interested in my daughter. I appreciate your service, but I forbid anyone with your background to be romantically involved with her.”

“Dad!” Grace gasped.

Zeke finally lowered his gun and held it at his side. “It’s got nothing to do with him specifically. I’d say the same thing if he was a deputy’s sheriff. I changed the rules about you dating. Don’t make me regret it.”

She felt weak. This was exactly what Brielle had been warning her about. As far as she knew, the age difference hadn’t even come up yet. How could her father be so short-sighted as to generalize people with similar backgrounds to Riley’s?

Grace could sense Riley’s fury building, almost as if heat was coming off him in waves. She needed to diffuse this all before something really bad happened. She could have a discussion with her father later. He would be the easier one to handle.

Right now, she needed Riley to know exactly how he’d overstepped so he didn’t do it again. Great. She was entering auto-pilot mode. The therapist inside her was already trying to fix this problem when there were bigger issues at play.

Her head was spinning and her whole body had betrayed her. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Grace stared at Riley, her gaze holding his firmly. “I need you to leave.”

Shock filtered across his face, then he worked his jaw. It was like she could see his thoughts in real time. He was planting his feet firmly and he didn’t want to go. Didn’t he see the gun? Why wasn’t he willing to listen to her?

“Riley,now.” For a moment she thought he would verbally refuse. She didn’t know what she would do if that happened—especially if Riley said “no” in front of her father. Everything was out of control. “I’ll meet you at your place in a half hour.”

His eyes darted to Zeke then back to her. She knew him well enough to read the argument in his gaze. Riley didn’t want to leave for whatever crazy reason he had in his head. She groaned as she slipped her arm through his and propelled him backward.

“I can’t believe you did this to me,” she said.

“Me? What about you?”

She stopped and stared at him. “What?”

His voice remained low and his demeanor was relaxed, but the intensity in his gaze had flickered to life, and within those depths, she saw a fire she wasn’t sure she was prepared to combat. Anyone not part of their conversation would look at the two of them having this conversation and they’d think it was just a normal exchange of words.

They would be so wrong.

Riley’s eyes flitted to her father, who was likely watching with rapt interest from the porch. “You didn’t want me to meet your father,” he accused.