Written in Ink (Montgomery Ink #4)(69)

Of course, that wasn’t quite true since the couple he’d just left seemed to be on the right path, but he wasn’t sure yet. Then of course, the couple he was in front of had been together for over four decades and still looked like they were more in love every day.

But love hurt when one person was sick.

Harry Montgomery had always been larger than life. He was a big man with an even bigger heart. Yet the man in the chair in front of him didn’t look like that now. The extracorporeal radiation therapy—Decker had been reading up—that targeted Harry’s prostate cancer had taken a toll. The man looked so much smaller, weaker, and paler than Decker had ever seen.

The doctors told him they’d caught the cancer early and things were looking good, but the treatment looked like it hurt worse than the cancer. And now, in Decker’s eyes, Marie was forced by love, duty and circumstance to stand by her husband’s side as he grew weaker and weaker. How was that reward for love? How could that be worth it? The pain and loss that could come with growing close to someone didn’t make sense to him, and he wasn’t sure he deserved it in the first place.

“Come here, boy,” Harry growled out, a sparkle in his eye.

Thank God.

Decker crouched near him, his hands shaking. He didn’t know what to do. Did he hug him? It looked like, with just one hug, Decker would break the man he thought of as his father.

“How you feeling?” he asked. And damn if his voice hadn’t choked up.

Harry patted his arm as Marie came to Decker’s side, kneeling so she could hug him. He put his arm around her, inhaling that sweet Mom scent that had worked so well to calm him as a kid.

“I’m doing better,” Harry said softly. “It doesn’t look like it, but I’m not dying. Not yet.”

Decker felt like he’d been stabbed in the heart with those words. Jesus. He couldn’t lose Harry. He couldn’t.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that,” Harry said. “I told you all I’d be honest with you about my recovery. We caught it early. The radiation hurts like a bitch, but we’re pushing through. Now I wanted you to come over here because, one, you’re my son and I wanted to see you, and two, because you helped with that prick of a husband my daughter chose. I couldn’t get up to fix it, so thank you.” The slight helplessness in Harry’s eyes was too much.

Decker swallowed hard and willed his eyes not to fill with tears. Fuck.

“I’d have kicked his ass…” He shot a look at Marie. “I mean his butt, but the kids were there.”

“You can say ass when it comes to Richard,” Marie put in. “He is an ass.”

Decker threw his head back and laughed. “I love you both. I just wanted to make sure you knew that.”

Marie’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, that’s the sweetest thing. The sweetest thing. We love you too, baby.”

Harry nodded, and Decker leaned into the strong woman’s arms.

The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and he stood up slowly. He turned to see Miranda walking into the backyard, her long legs bare under her sundress.

Holy f*ck, she looked amazing.

He willed his cock not to fill, considering he was standing between her parents. Griffin came up to his side, and Decker knew there was a special place in hell for a man who lusted after his best friend’s little sister.

Harry and Marie gave him a knowing look, and he held back a groan. Yep. He was going to hell. He was going to burn, and he’d deserve every moment of it.

Miranda turned to them and smiled brightly, her eyes twinkling.

He fought to keep his gaze on her face and not on her breasts or her legs that never quit.

He could do this.

This was Miranda Montgomery. The woman who was a girl no longer, and she was not for him.

He wouldn’t drool over her. He wouldn’t make an ass out of himself.

Griffin gave him a weird look, and Decker groaned inwardly.

Yep.

Going to hell.