Reaper's Stand(59)

“My old man is Hunter,” she said, her eyes sparkling as she said his name. “He’s here for the meet. Bunch of clubs coming together, but that doesn’t have anything to do with us. Your only job here is to have fun, okay? Let’s go find you a drink and we can talk. I want to get to know the woman who’s moved in with my dad.”

“I wouldn’t say we’ve moved in together …”

“Have you slept there more than one night?” she asked, her voice challenging. I nodded. “Well, that’s more than he’s done with any other woman since my mom died.”

Damn. No pressure there.

Em took my arm and pulled me over past the tables to where several plastic garbage cans held silver kegs surrounded by ice. She grabbed a red Solo cup.

“Beer?”

“Sure.” Not that I’m a particularly big beer fan. Usually I drink wine, but it seemed the polite thing to do and I could nurse it through the evening. I pulled out my phone while she primed the pump, wondering why Reese never answered my message. He’d told me to text him when I arrived. Nothing.

“You waiting to hear from my dad?” Em asked, holding out the cup. I shoved the phone back into my pocket, nodding. “He’s probably welcoming the other officers who traveled here. It’s important—otherwise I’m sure he’d be out here with you already. As the president, he has certain things he needs to do at events like this, but he obviously trusts you to handle yourself. Want to sit down?”

“Sounds good,” I said, noting that she hadn’t gotten a cup of beer for herself. Hmmm … Should I have accepted her offer? Maybe it wasn’t considered appropriate to have a drink so early? A quick, surreptitious glance around told me other people had already hit the beer.

I decided I was overthinking things. Sometimes people just don’t feel like drinking, and if I kept worrying about doing something wrong I’d go crazy. We found a spot at a picnic table near the playground, and she sat down, straddling the bench to face me.

“So, this is different,” she said, and while her tone was friendly, her eyes were serious. “Since my mom died, Dad hasn’t exactly been dating women. Half the bitches he screws are younger than me and none of them have brains. I hear you own a business and while I’d never say you’re old, you’re definitely in the right age range for him. What gives?”

I smiled weakly.

“Not sure how to answer that,” I said, wondering why the hell I’d let him talk me into coming out here tonight. If he wanted me to meet everyone, he should be introducing me to them. Instead he’d thrown me into the deep end without a warning, which was sort of a dick move. “Your father and I are sort of seeing each other, I guess. Officially, just a couple days ago, although it feels like longer. It’s complicated. I’ve worked for the club since last February, and he hired me to clean out at his place. We hooked up and then my house blew up. It’s not a typical relationship.”

Her eyes widened.

“No, I guess not,” she said thoughtfully. “Why did your house blow up?”

“Good question,” I said, shrugging. “Gas buildup, so far as I can tell? Maybe the oven—in the past year or so, gas started leaking if you bumped the controls wrong. The fire investigator is looking into it. I guess for my purposes it doesn’t really matter why the place blew. All that matters is I don’t have a house … That’s really what I’m focused on at this point.”

“So he moved you into our place,” she mused. “And he moved in your daughter, too? Did I hear that right?”

Taking a drink of my beer, I tried to figure out the best way to answer that question.

“Melanie isn’t mine,” I said. “In fact, I don’t have any children of my own. I’ve been raising my cousin’s girl, though, and Melanie is her friend. Jessica is down in California right now and I don’t know if she’ll be coming back or not, but Mellie needed a place to stay. We’re actually really lucky she wasn’t hurt in the explosion—she was in the house right before it went up.”


Em’s eyes widened.

“Interesting …” she said, and I wished I could read her thoughts. “You realize this isn’t normal for my dad at all. Is Melanie out here tonight?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head emphatically. “She’s already got a crush on that Painter jerk, and the last thing I want is her out here spending more time near him.”

Em snorted.

“Let’s not talk about Painter, okay? Hunter and I will probably sleep out at the house tonight, so maybe I’ll meet her in the morning. We weren’t sure we were coming until the last minute. Things are sort of up in the air, but we usually stay with him …”

I caught a hint of question in her voice, and I realized she must be wondering if my presence would change things out at her dad’s place. I took a deep swig of my beer, because the longer this conversation continued, the more awkward it got. Where the hell was Reese?

“I’m sure he’ll want you to do whatever you normally would,” I told Em. “Please don’t let us get in your way. You’ll like Melanie—she’s a sweet kid. And she deserves better than what she’s got going on back home. I really appreciate your dad’s kindness.”