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“Ford?” Everyone in the entire dining room said at the same time my mouth fell open.

Red bloomed on Azelie’s cheeks. Her eyes widened, and her gaze flickered over my shoulder again.

I slowly spun on my heels to find the very man she spoke of with a fresh pair of shorts and an old T-shirt-turned-cut-off adorned on his body. He held a towel to his damp hair, stiff and unmoving. It took everything in me to not lazily slide my gaze down the tattoos that covered his right leg and peeked out along his ribcage exposed by the cutoff.

“Me?” he asked, his two-colored eyes darting around the kitchen as every face turned and stared at him.

Through my peripherals, I noticed Azelie nod her head. “Cory really likes motorcycles, and you have one…” she sheepishly said under her breath and immediately stared down at her empty breakfast plate still sitting on the table.

I inhaled deeply as Ford’s eyes flickered to mine. And I knew he knew exactly what I had just pieced together too.

“Why do you care what Cory thinks? We’ll have Fleur here drive us to get our car, and then we can take you to the school on our way to the restaurant,” my mom quickly said and shot a glare at Ford.

I wished I had a pause button to give me time to think. At this point, my parents hadn’t picked up on the fact that she clearly had a crush on Cory. So, I couldn’t let on that I knew, or that would cause Azelie to not open up to me.

Shit. That was probably what she was trying to eventually lead to in our conversation that was interrupted last night. I needed to quickly jump in. But how? If I said it was fine, that would drum up questions. Questions that might reveal Ford and me… But on the other hand, this was my daughter.

“I gotta sign for a package at the post office, so I was headed to town anyway. And the high school is more on my route than the restaurants. It’s not a big deal,” Ford began and wandered into the living room. He locked eyes with Azelie and nodded toward the guest room. “Go get your stuff.”

“Uh, you’re not—” my dad started but stopped the moment he caught Ford’s steely glare.

“Thank you!” Azelie squealed, jumped from her chair, and shot down the hallway. I took a mental note to thank Ford for stepping in like that.

“Look, we adults need to talk about the upcoming couple weeks, O’Connor, and what happened. But not with her around,” Ford stated. His voice was sharp and commanding, and I subtly squeezed my thighs together.

“Plus, I know damn fucking well that she should not be going back to see her home that was trashed last night until she’s had some time andmaybe a therapy session or a few to process what the hell even happened,” he continued. “She’s still a kid. So, as adults, it’s our job to keep her away from it as much as we can. Got it?”

Mumbled agreements came from my parents, and I caught a brief grin passing on his mom’s face as I quickly looked back at Ford. He finished drying his hair and scanned the room once more.

“Colette, do you have any doctor shit to do today?” he asked.

“You know, Ford, honey. Your language has really gone to trash,” his mom quickly said before I had a chance to answer, and I bit down on my bottom lip to stop the smile.

“Sorry, Mama,” he said, raising his brows at me. “The question still stands.”

“No. I’ve got a couple tomorrow, but honestly, I think I might give them to Doctor Brandt and take a temporary extended leave, until everything gets fixed with O’Connor,” I answered without filtering my thoughts. I hadn’t even allowed myself to toy with the idea of not being a doctor for a while, yet for whatever reason, I just spilled my guts to Ford.

He tipped his head, and something flashed in his eyes. Sympathy? I wasn’t sure what. “I know you hate that idea, but that would be the safest thing for a bit. Look, O’Connor’s out of town for a couple weeks, but I don’t know exactly when he’ll be back, or if being out of town means he won’t send anyone to do sh—” Ford paused and cleared his throat. “Stuff. He may still send guys to intimidate us.”

“He’s left for a couple weeks?” his mawmaw asked. Ford nodded, and my brows furrowed with hers. “How do you know that?”

“Intel I got this morning,” he replied without directly answering the question.

Confusion sparked in my veins.Intel?Who the hell saysintel?

“Anyway, I’m gonna go put long pants on since shorts and motorcycles aren’t the smartest combo; though, that also wouldn’t be the stupidest shit I’ve done before.” Ford tipped his head and chuckled to himself. He turned around and disappeared into the bedroom I’d slept in. His bedroom. The bedroom that had seen much of Ford and me growing up.

The bedroom that would definitely see more of us.

Chapter 23

FORD

The package of security systems wasn’t even at the post office yet, but I’d seen Azelie’s face, and Colette’s. Plus, making sure Azelie was squared away with a crowd of her friends and some trusted adults would help ease my worry. Then I would confront Colette about all the shit I knew and meant to talk to her about last night.

Azelie sat unusually still behind me as I steered the motorcycle off the main road and up toward the high school. The parking lot was visible from here, and I knew the moment that her eyes had scanned all the cars already there because her fingers tightened around my shirt at my waist.

Releasing the throttle, we slowed as I shifted down and turned into the lot. I pulled into an empty stall near the base of the path that led up the hill. With the engine rumbling beneath us, I shifted to neutral and raised an arm to help her off.