Page 41 of Before You Can Blink (Rust Canyon #4)

Jett

December

“Jett!”

Daisy’s sharp cry from deep within the house had me lifting my head on instinct, forgetting that I was beneath the sink until my head collided with a metal pipe, and pain radiated through my skull.

“Fuck,” I cursed low under my breath, bringing a hand up to rub against the spot where I would likely have a bruise later.

I was carefully maneuvering my way around the plumbing when my wife called my name again, this time with more urgency.

“What?” I yelled back, rising to my feet. The sound of my knees cracking made me cringe. Getting old was a bitch and a half, no two ways about it.

“Aspen’s on the phone, and she has something she wants to tell you!”

Daisy’s over-the-top excitement gave me pause. There was only one topic she got that animated about, and it was grandbabies.

Surely Aspen wasn’t . . .

No. She wasn’t even seeing someone.

You know damn well a relationship isn’t a prerequisite to knocking a woman up.

Sweat gathered at the back of my neck, and my heart began galloping faster than the horses on the open range. I could hardly stand the thought of my sweet girl getting pregnant as the result of a one-night stand, left to raise a child alone.

“Jett! Pick up the line in the kitchen. She’s waiting!”

Pulling in a cleansing breath, determined to support her in any way she needed, I lifted the wall-mounted receiver to my ear. “Hey there, darlin’.”

“Hi, Daddy,” came her upbeat voice in response.

“Your mama said you had something you wanted to share?” I prompted.

“I know it’s last minute . . .” Nervousness crept into her tone. “But I was wondering if it might be all right if I came home for Christmas.”

I sagged against the wall in relief. Visits from our girl were few and far between. There wasn’t a chance in hell I’d deny her request.

“Well, if that isn’t the best news I’ve heard in ages. We’d love to have you home, sweetheart.”

“And that’s not all,” Daisy chimed in. “Tell him the rest, honey.”

Aspen’s deep breath was audible. “I won’t be coming alone.”

“Oh no?” I questioned.

“My boyfriend, Mike, will be making the trip with me.”

Just like that, the chest-crushing anxiety was back.

My daughter was bringing home a man to meet me and her mother. Even though I’d always known this day was coming, I wasn’t prepared. Truth be told, I never would be.

In my mind, she was still a little girl, not a grown woman of twenty-six. Hell, there were times when I half expected her to come running around the corner into the kitchen, barely higher than my knee, with pigtails holding her wild copper waves away from her face.

“Mike, huh?” My voice had gone gravel. “He good to you?”

Bashfully, she chided, “Daddy,” and I could picture her freckled face turning red.

“Well? Is he?” I pressed.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Lifting my gaze, I found Daisy stretching the cord on the living room phone as far as it could go so she could fix me with a wide-eyed stare while drawing a hand across her neck in a cut it out gesture.

Pressing my lips together to express my annoyance, I dipped my chin, agreeing to lay off.

“He’s very respectful, Daddy. Promise.”

I’d be the judge of that.

“When are you coming in?” Daisy took the line of questioning in a different direction.

Aspen hummed, as if she were checking her schedule. “We land a touch before three on the nineteenth.”

Eight more days and our girl would be home, where she belonged. If only there were a way to convince her to stay.

My wife let out a delighted squeal. “Oh! I can’t wait! Your father will come pick you two kids up, right, Jett?”

“Uh, yeah.” I cleared my throat.

“Well, I have to get going,” Aspen said. “Lot of projects due before the holidays, but I’ll see you soon.”

“We’ll be counting the days,” Daisy chirped, her excitement evident.

Aspen called out a quick goodbye, and the line went dead.

I’d barely hung up the receiver when my wife burst into the room, cheeks flushed, blue eyes bright. “Jett! Aspen’s coming home! ”

Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I nodded. “Yep, I heard.”

“And she’s bringing a boyfriend !”

“Hmm.” A displeased rumble rolled through my chest.

Eyes narrowing, she pointed a finger in my direction. “Don’t do that.”

“Fine. Just so long as you don’t get your hopes up.”

“How can I not?” Bouncing on the balls of her feet, Daisy clasped both hands to her chest. “She’s never gotten serious with a boy before, and now she’s bringing one home. That has to mean something.”

I refrained from pointing out that the reason things hadn’t gotten “serious” with any of the guys Aspen had dated to this point was because our girl had a habit of dating unavailable men. Every single one of them had preferred men to women in a romantic capacity.

Maybe Mike did too, and all my worrying about giving her away was for nothing.

“They can stay in the cabin now that it’s all fixed up!”

Was she trying to give me a heart attack?

“No.” I shook my head for emphasis. “Absolutely not.”

Both hands landed on her hips. “And why not?”

I leveled my wife with a glare. “You know exactly why not.” No way in hell was I giving my daughter and her boyfriend carte blanche to fornicate in a cozy little love nest on my land.

“You’re right. We should set them up in Aspen’s room, instead. You know, the one that shares a wall with ours. Thin walls, I might add.”

Digging the heels of my palms into my eye sockets, I muttered a low curse.

“The cabin doesn’t sound so bad after all now, does it?” There was a note of triumph in her tone.

“Why don’t you make sure to stock it with condoms while you’re at it?” I grumbled .

There was a pat on my bicep. “Oh, I didn’t even think of that. Great idea.”

My eyes sprang open in time to see her hustling out of the room.

“I was kidding!” I called after her.

Knowing Daisy, her mind was already working overtime, planning the wedding.

I could only hope that this Mike guy was a dud.

The man my daughter brought home turned out not to be Mike after all, but Mac—short for Macallan—and beyond the name mix-up, he was not at all what I was expecting.

He was charming, rich, and reeked of city life. The direct opposite of the type of guy I thought she would be attracted to.

“Does Aspen seem a little off to you?” I pulled back the covers and climbed into bed.

Oh, and the two of them were lying through their teeth about being a couple.

Daisy pursed her lips, rubbing lotion into the skin of her forearms and hands. “No, I don’t think so.”

My wife might not see it, but I knew something fishy was going on from the start.

The first thing that tipped me off was when Aspen sat stiff as a board the entire two-hour ride home from the airport.

The three of us had squeezed onto the bench seat of my vintage pickup—Aspen sandwiched between me and her “beau”—but she kept leaning into my side instead of his, almost as if she was trying to put space between them.

On top of that, he made no claiming moves, like a hand on her knee or an arm around her shoulders.

If it had been me with a girl I was not only sweet on but dating, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my hands to myself, her father’s presence be damned.

But it wasn’t until they shared a kiss under the mistletoe—at my ma’s insistence, shocker—that I realized it wasn’t completely fake for him .

Macallan Blaze, heir to a multibillion-dollar hotel conglomerate, had feelings for my daughter.

And the way she responded to that kiss, spending the next hour or so dazed as a result, betrayed that there was a spark between them.

As a father, I should be thrilled. This was the kind of man who could take care of my daughter in the way she deserved. She would never want for anything, would never struggle the way her mother and I had.

But on the flip side, his life and his family business were in California. Bright lights and big city life were Aspen’s future if she built a life with Mac. Rust Canyon would become a distant memory. My baby girl would be gone forever, all hopes of a permanent return dashed.

I’d always imagined how it must’ve felt for Daisy’s father when I stole her away, but now I truly understood. A piece of my heart, an integral part of my soul, would be entrusted to another for safekeeping. All I could do was pray he cherished her the way I always had, the way she deserved.

“What are you doing out here in the cold all alone?” Daisy’s voice floated from the open back door to the house .

Seated on a chair on the deck, I lifted a glass tumbler, swirling the amber liquid inside.

“Kid had a bottle of the good stuff delivered.” Mac had explained he’d been named after the expensive scotch, and when he heard I’d never sampled it, he had taken it upon himself to have a bottle sent to the ranch as a gift.

Daisy hummed her interest, so I patted my thigh. “Come here and have a taste.”

Soft footsteps sounded from behind me as she made her way across the deck before settling onto my lap. Automatically, her head dropped to my shoulder, and she sighed.

I handed over my glass, and she took a sip. Smacking her lips, she remarked, “Ooh, that’s smooth.”

“Sure is,” I agreed.

Stroking down the length of Daisy’s long brown hair, now mostly gray, I let the action soothe my racing mind after having a heart-to-heart with my daughter’s fake-boyfriend-who-wished-he-was-more.

Against the top of my wife’s head, I said, “He’s in love with her.”

Craning her neck, she looked up at me. “Of course he is. What’s not to love?”

She had a point there. To me, Aspen was perfect, and apparently, Mac thought so too.