Redwood Bend (Virgin River #18)(70)

She smiled and snuggled a little closer. He remembered they had to pick up the twins. And stop by her brother’s house.

Yes, it was going to take a special kind of patience to let him know he’d be safe with her. And she would require a special kind of courage to take a chance on him. Green Berets were a piece of cake compared to movie stars.

Dylan sensed a sort of peacefulness about Katie as they left the beach and drove back to Virgin River. Or maybe it was just that she wasn’t as uptight about this peacemaking confrontation with Conner as he was. He remained quiet while Katie talked about Dylan’s mysterious special pizza for dinner, about how to make peace with her bear, about how the sound of the waves had been so relaxing she’d fallen asleep, but then she was so sleepy these days she could fall asleep standing up.

“I know I’m not very talkative right now, Katie, but it’s not you,” he said.

“I don’t care, Dylan, because my mind is made up about how I’m moving forward. I’m sure when you work out a few things in your head, you’ll talk a little more.”

He turned toward her. “Exactly,” he said.

When they pulled up to the little prefab schoolhouse, the boys were busy on the play set that Dylan had helped to erect. “Katie, when we get to Conner’s house, can you get the boys occupied with something so I can talk to your brother without the boys around?”

“If you promise you’re not using that as an excuse to get into a fistfight…”

“Look at my eye. You think I want to sacrifice the other one? I just want to talk to him, but if he gets angry the boys shouldn’t be there. If you want to, I can take you and the guys home and come back by myself for this talk.”

“No—I’ll find them something on TV they can watch. But behave!”

He didn’t reply to that but he didn’t feel that he was the loose cannon—behaving was his sole intention. And he knew the road to hell was paved with good intentions.

He and Katie got to Conner and Leslie’s house before they were home from work. “The door will be unlocked,” she said. “I’ll take the kids in and get them settled in front of the TV with a snack. Conner has a few of their favorite movies and games here. Would you like something to drink?”

“How would he feel about me having a beer from his refrigerator?”

She flashed him a teasing smile, lifting her brow. “Need a little calming courage?”

“Baby, after what I learned about an hour ago, I should probably have a six-pack. I’ll wait on the front porch.”

He leaned against the porch rail and waited. This must be what it felt like to be a teenage boy who was meeting a girl’s father when he’d gotten her in trouble, except it was probably the rare father who launched an attack. Even with all the siblings Dylan had, he’d never been close enough to one to feel that kind of protectiveness. In fact, he felt more protective toward Katie after knowing her for half a summer than he ever had toward one of his own family members. He wondered if that little bun in the oven was making the difference.

She finally brought him a beer. “Sure you don’t want to come inside?”

“Nope,” he said. He walked down the porch steps.

“Where are you going?”

He turned to look at her. “I’m not doing this in front of you, Katie. I mean, you might see us, but I’m not having this conversation for your entertainment.”

“Trust me, I don’t feel real entertained.”

“If I’m away from the house, you won’t be tempted to put in your two cents’ worth.”

“Well, jeez, you’re a little bossy there, aren’t you?”

“Making us a very well-matched set, when you think about it,” he said, and he walked back to the street where her SUV was parked. He leaned against it. It was his own damn fault he had this mess to clean up and he was going to figure it out before it got any worse. When he thought about what Lang would do it didn’t really help his situation much. Lang wouldn’t hesitate to try to convince his woman to marry him, provided the woman had been Sue Ann.

Finally the yellow SUV that Leslie drove pulled up to the house and into the drive, all the way forward to the carport. Right behind her was Conner in his great big truck and Dylan thought, I should’ve rented a bigger truck. Conner got out of the truck and briefly glared at Dylan, and Dylan had to look at the ground in front of his crossed legs to keep from laughing. Conner had white tape across his rather swollen, purple nose.

Conner took his lunch tote into the house, but momentarily he was back, striding toward Dylan. Dylan just couldn’t help it, he grinned stupidly.

“You look in the mirror, idiot?” Conner asked.

“So,” he said, ignoring the taunt. “I’ve been told to work this out with you, so let’s work this out. I learned about one hour ago why you lost your temper.”

“Because you weren’t here!” Conner returned rather loudly.

Dylan came off the truck and stood straight, meeting him eye to eye. “You want the women involved in this conversation?” he asked. “Because at the first sign of trouble, they’re right in the middle of it, I guarantee it. I wasn’t here because I had to go to work. I told Katie from the day I met her, I was going to have to go to work, but because she’s Katie, I put it off as long as I could.”