Donald flicked a glance at Adam.
Adam shook his head. “I’m fine.”
“Hear that?” Donald asked Holly. “He’s fine.”
Men. “He’s got a bunch of stitches in his shoulder.”
“That’s nothing,” Donald said.
Holly just stared at him, and her dad patted her leg. “Honey, after the things he’s seen and done, these past few days have probably been a picnic in the park. Isn’t that right, boy?”
Adam’s mouth quirked slightly, as if the thought of being a boy was amusing to him. And hell, it probably was. Even when he’d been young, he’d never really had the luxury of being a child. As long as Holly had known him, he’d always had that air of tough readiness. But surely he wanted to get back as badly as she did. Even badasses needed rest.
Adam repacked his gear to add some of Donald’s load to his, and then they left. Holly started down the trail ahead of them. Adam watched her go for a minute, then slid his gaze to Donald. Who was eyeballing him blandly. Like a rattler at rest. Or the father of a beautiful woman…
Yeah. There was nothing more dick shriveling than lusting after a woman and being caught at it by her father. No matter if the father was a man who’d been there for him more than once.
Saying nothing, Donald began walking, keeping the pace slow. Adam accommodated him, thinking maybe the guy was feeling more weak than he’d let on.
“What’s up between you two?” Donald asked bluntly, not sounding old or particularly weak at all.
Adam thought about pleading the Fifth and not answering, but he respected Donald too much for that bullshit. “None of your business.”
Donald stared at him for a long beat, then let out a bark of laughter that had Holly turning around to look back at them. She narrowed her gaze on them both, but then faced forward again, continuing on at the same pace.
Donald shook his head at Adam and kept walking. “You’re not her type.”
This was undoubtedly true, but for a little while last night he’d felt a whole hell of a lot like her type.
“She likes them older, sophisticated,” Donald said. “The cerebral type. I told you this years ago. You don’t listen.”
Once again, Adam’s gaze locked on Holly walking ahead. She had her ear buds in, iPod in hand, clearly over the both of them. “I listened,” he said. He just hadn’t necessarily agreed.
“Yeah, after you got yourself in trouble,” Donald said. “If it hadn’t been for that, I’d never have been able to talk you into getting the hell out of Dodge and into the military—where I knew you’d learn what you needed to learn.”
“You mean how to be a functioning member of society instead of a drain on the system behind bars?” Adam asked.
“Well…” Donald rubbed his jaw ruefully. “Yes.”
Fair enough. Adam had definitely been on a one-way track to the wrong side of the law. “It worked.”
Again, Holly whipped around, eyes narrowed right in on Adam.
The minx hadn’t been listening to music at all. She’d been far too busy eavesdropping. She glared at him and then stared at her father. “You talked him into going into the military?”
Adam grimaced. “Listen, we’re going to lose daylight if we don’t keep moving—”
Holly lifted a hand in the direction of his face, the universal sign for him to Shut it.
Adam shoved his hands in his pockets. This wasn’t going to go well. For any of them.
Holly stalked back toward them. “What do you mean, you talked him into going into the military?” she demanded of her dad.
Well, shit.
“You remember the trouble the boy got himself into there at the end,” Donald said.
“Yes,” Holly said. “He was always in trouble. That was nothing new.”
“Not like that last time,” Donald said. “He could have ended up in jail.”
“But he didn’t.”
“Because it was suggested that if he went into the military, it would be a better course of action.”
“Suggested by you,” Holly said, clarifying.
“Yes,” Donald said.
Holly turned to Adam, emotion blazing from her eyes. He could have dealt with that—except for the hurt. Christ, so much hurt.
“So you didn’t have to go into the military,” she said. “The judge didn’t make you. You chose to leave.” Not a question but a statement.
It hadn’t been the biggest lie he’d ever told her but definitely the harshest. “Yes,” he said quietly. “I chose to leave.”
She blinked once, then looked at her father again. “And you had a hand in it. It was your idea. You talked him into going into the military, which could have cost him his life.”
“At the time I thought it was best.”
Holly lifted a hand and rubbed it to her chest as if it ached. “You took him from me.”
Donald’s gaze never left her face. “Well, to be fair, I didn’t know there was a you and him. If I’d known, I’d have sent him a lot farther. Like to f**king Mars.”
Adam gave a wry smile. It was true. Donald was notoriously protective of his only daughter. When she’d run off to New York and gotten married at nineteen, it had nearly killed him. If Donald had been aware back then that Adam had taken his precious daughter and shown her a walk on the wild side—for an entire summer, in fact—it was questionable as to whether or not Adam would still be breathing.
But Holly wasn’t amused. Not in the slightest. She turned on her heel and kept walking. For about three seconds. Then she whirled back and blasted her father with another look. “I can’t believe you interfered with my life that way.”
“I believe it was the boy’s life I interfered with,” Donald said mildly.
Holly ignored this and faced Adam. “And you.”
Yeah, him. The crux of her problem. Hell, let’s face it, he was the crux of a lot of problems.
“You protected him all these years,” she said, pointing at her dad, “by not telling me that it was his idea. Why?”
Fair enough question. “Because it was the right thing to do.”
“You let me think the judge said you had to go.”
“Because I didn’t want you to think you could talk me out of it. I needed a clean break.”
“From me.”
“From everything,” he said. “Going was the right thing to do. I wasn’t about to let your dad take any blame or have you decide to waste your life waiting on me. I went because I needed to go, Holly.”
She stared at him for a long beat, then tossed up her hands and stalked off, muttering something about stupid, stubborn, idiot, Neanderthal alphas who were too stupid, stubborn, and idiotic to know a damn thing about life.
Sixteen
Holly drove her dad’s ATV back to Sunshine, and she felt quite badass while she was doing it, too. It was hard to maintain a good mad while enjoying the hell out of herself, but she managed. For a while, anyway.
Her dad rode with Adam and all three dogs. They stopped at regular intervals, which she knew was for her sake. But she didn’t need the extra care. She could take care of herself. Especially since the snow had stopped and the fire road was manageable.
By the time they got off the mountain, she wasn’t mad at either man. Much. She really did understand why Adam had left for the military all those years ago. She also understood why her dad had encouraged him to. Adam had been right, he needed to go. It had changed his life, set him on a different path, one that worked for him.
She couldn’t resent that, not even a little bit.
No, what she resented was the fact that neither of them had trusted her to be grown-up enough to handle the situation.
Because you hadn’t been…
During one of their stops, she called Red and e-mailed Grif about finding their wayward father. The heart attack news would have to wait until she could tell him face-to-face, online. She also contacted Kel and Kate, just to fill them in. Kate responded with an immediate text.
You get lucky up there with your tracker?
Holly’s return text was simple and to the point.
You need your hormone levels checked.
Back in Sunshine, Adam got out of his Ranger to walk her father inside the big old ranch house. Holly moved to her dad’s other side and got a gruff “What did I tell you about hovering, girl?”
Holly clenched her teeth and backed off. Inside, the two men holed up in Donald’s office for a few minutes, where apparently no vaginas were invited. She was reduced to pressing her ear to the door to eavesdrop but could hear nothing.
Were they even breathing in there?
She feigned an interest in the row of pictures along the hallway wall for another few minutes for the excuse to be standing there, but since the pictures were all of her father’s favorite pets from over the years, she tired of that quickly. She tried an ear to the door again, and had just settled up against the wood when it was pulled open. She nearly fell but Adam caught her and pulled her out of the office with him as he shut the door behind them.
She jerked upright and out of his grip, and tried to look busy.
Adam wasn’t fooled. “You catch all that, or do you need an instant replay?”
“No.” She sighed. “The damn walls are too thick, I couldn’t hear a thing.”
Adam’s amusement faded. Taking her hand, he led her down the hallway, then outside, away from prying eyes and ears. “I got him to agree to go back to the doctor for a full checkup,” he said. “Just to make sure everything’s okay. I think his blood pressure meds aren’t a good mix with the antidepressants he’s taking.”
She unconsciously put a hand to her heart. “He’s on meds for depression?”
“Yeah, and before you ask, no, I didn’t know.”
“Oh my God.”
Stepping close, he wrapped his fingers around the wrist of the hand she was holding to her heart. She looked up into those eyes, warm and steady on hers, and actually felt some of her tension drain.
Of course, then an entirely different kind of tension filled her. She had no idea what it was about Adam that never failed to inspire confidence and a feeling of security. He could make it all better with one touch, which was just about the craziest thing. No one could make things all better. She freed her hand and slid it up his chest, tipping her face to his.
He stepped into her, holding her gaze for a long beat before lowering his head and brushing his lips to hers. When she sighed in pleasure, he took her mouth with his. No other word for it. He took, and she gave. Willingly. Gliding her arms up around his neck, entangling her fingers in his hair, she pressed closer. A groan sounded and she honestly wasn’t sure which of them it came from.
When Adam pulled free, his voice was lower, huskier. “Let me know if you need anything.”
She nodded, staggered by the intensity of their connection. It was different this time around. Deeper. Stronger.
Scarier.
She’d already decided on the ride home that she didn’t need to put a label on whatever this was. She’d done that once, and it hadn’t worked out for her. She didn’t need him to acknowledge wanting her when it was right there for her to see. She didn’t need him to put words to the fact that in spite of themselves, they had a relationship of sorts, whether it was friends, or friends with benefits, or more.
The bottom line was that he’d proved how much he cared about her with every action he made over the past few days. A conversation about it wouldn’t make it any more real than what it was right now. “Thank you,” she said softly.
“For the kiss?”
She smiled. “For finding him for me.”
His gaze drifted down over her mouth again. “That wasn’t all we found.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
He held her gaze, then stepped back and shoved his hands into his pockets as if he didn’t quite trust them. And that. That all by itself made her feel even better. Because she wasn’t the only one fighting this thing. In fact, she wasn’t planning on fighting it at all anymore.
But she understood that he would.
Too bad he didn’t stand a chance…
“He’s promised me full disclosure after his doctor appointment,” Adam said.
It took her a moment to switch gears. “And what about me?” she asked. “Do I get full disclosure, too?”
Adam shrugged.
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re kidding me. I don’t?”
“He doesn’t want you to worry.”
“Well, he won’t have to worry about me worrying, since I’m going to kill him.”
Adam shook his head. “Do I need to go back in there with you and referee?”
“No.”
He nodded and, with one last long look, left.
Holly headed inside and hauled open her dad’s office door. He wasn’t at his desk as she expected. He was on the couch, head back, staring up at the ceiling, Thing One and Thing Two at his feet. At the sight of her, the dogs bounced up and tried to slobber her to death. “Sit,” she said.
Thing One leaned on her, leaving dog hair all over her jeans. Thing Two licked her hand. “Sit,” she repeated sternly.
Neither of them listened. “Obedience class isn’t working.”
“Adam says it’s the owner who needs to be trained.” He snapped a finger and the dogs obediently sat.
Holly sighed. Okay, so she needed obedience class.
“Listen,” her dad said. “I don’t want you to tell Grif about…you know.”