The Strength of the Pack (Suncoast Society #30)(44)

Nate knelt so he was at eye level with Laurel. Not just leaned over, but got down in front of her. “I promise you that I will protect your mommy and take care of her.”

She seemed to be thinking about it. “Okay. Thank you.” She flounced down the hall toward her room.

Leo’s eyebrows were still raised. “Wow. That was…interesting.”

Nate stood. “Remember, I raised Cherise from when she was nine.” He pointed down the hall, the way she’d gone. “If you think she’s a handful now, you just wait. I would have killed to have had it that easy sometimes.”





On the drive up to Tampa, Eva rested her arm on Nate’s leg, comforted and reassured when he held hands with her.

“Is there anything in particular I need to know for today before we get there?” he asked.

She considered her answer. “I told you about my dad telling me I was on my own after Leo’s accident.”

“Yes, but you didn’t tell me why.”

“Because I agreed to the deal Leo’s lawyer offered me, which gave Leo and Jesse primary custody and gave me the house.”

“I’m curious why you agreed to the deal. Someone who didn’t know any better might have thought you were trying to keep Laurel away from your parents. You were willing to give up full custody of your daughter in exchange for a house and unlimited visitation with her. I’m not judging, just making an observation.”

She stared out the windshield for several long minutes without talking, hoping he’d break the silence and interrupt her thoughts, but he didn’t.

“I was,” she quietly said. Tonight, she wanted to deal with the baby issue, not…this.

He gently squeezed her hand. “Okay. You don’t have to tell me anything else if you don’t want to.”

Part of her wanted to. Wanted to let the emotional sewage come pouring out of her right then so he could turn the car around, take her home, and forget he even knew her name. She’d held on for so long, held back the truth from Leo, and felt guilty as hell over that. In a way, she’d taken Leo’s consent by not telling him the full story when they first got together.

“I want to,” she said. “But it’s not a good time right now. Not before we get there. I don’t want to show up there having been crying. It’s too long and emotional a story to tell right now.”

He squeezed her hand again. “So here’s my plan for today. You tell me if I’m wrong or you want to do things differently, all right?”

“Okay.”

“When we get there, you let me be the buffer between you and your dad after you introduce me. You let me handle how I deal with him. You don’t need to try to manage me, or protect me, because I’m there to protect you. I will deal with him and anyone else. I will also keep myself between you and him physically. If I decide we’re leaving because I’m concerned about you, that’s it, I get no argument from you. Understand?”

“Thank you, Sir.”

He squeezed her hand. The gesture felt comforting, calming. Conveyed the gentle strength she felt within him. “You’re very welcome.”





No, Nate didn’t need to hear the whole story right now. She was right, it wasn’t the best time, and if she couldn’t summarize it in a few sentences, it meant they needed to wait for a better time for her to tell it.

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to put the pieces together. A history of self-harm, a horrible relationship with her father, and an almost irrational need to prevent her daughter from having contact—especially unsupervised contact—with her father?

No-brainer.

When Eva was ready to tell him the whole story, they could move forward. An emotional minefield still lay spread out between them, however. Nate had put the power into Eva’s hands of when she finally opened up to him so they could move forward, with a collaring and…more.

He also knew he’d need to see and carefully study the map of that emotional minefield before taking their relationship any deeper than what they already had. Yes, he could see himself spending the rest of his life with Eva.

Until she could reach out and bridge that last gap, he would have to wait for her.

And he was a very patient man.





Chapter Seventeen


She’d given Nate her parents’ address ahead of time so he could plan their route. They hadn’t hit any traffic and would arrive about twenty minutes early.

Then he pulled over into the parking lot of a grocery store.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He shifted the car into park. “Buying a little time.” He turned. “I want to arrive on time, not early. Not to something like this.” He stroked her hand. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

She nodded. “We drove all the way up here.”

“That wasn’t my question or a qualification. If you tell me you’d rather I turn the car around right now and head back to Sarasota, we will.”

She stared into his brown eyes. Today he’d left his hair loose at her request. It made him look a little wilder, a little less subdued than when it was neatly tied back for work.

Today he’d worn jeans and a patterned midnight blue button-up shirt with the long sleeves rolled up below his elbows.