When I'm with You (Hope Town #3)(36)

There was no doubt about it; the thought of her with someone other than me was unfathomable. At that moment, I knew that my old man was right. I had to work my ass off to make up for the shit I had done that not only hurt her and pushed her away, but also get to the bottom of that night at my sister’s wedding.

My memories still start and end with the dream that had haunted me for months, but until I hear it from Ember, I’m not sure how to make up for that.

The only thing I know for sure is that I’m going to f*cking do it.

I hear the door open but don’t look away from the monitor in front of me. I had neglected my responsibilities here at CS for a week now, and regardless of my responsibility to be at Dirty, I can’t let my dad down.

“What’s wrong with your face?”

I look up from my computer at the sound of Maddox entering the room.

“Shit,” I mumble under my breath.

“I can hear you,” he says, walking around to drop down on the chair at his desk. I look up in time to see him scowl at the picture of his girls, the same picture that I had turned slightly so I could see Ember better earlier, and wince when he grumbles low in his throat before shifting it back—only this time so I can’t see shit.

“You want a picture on your desk of my girl, you need to earn the right to have it there.”

“Yes, sir,” I smart.

“Nate,” he calls, and I pause my typing to focus on him. There’s no way in hell I’m going to do anything that could piss him off when he knows I’m after making his baby girl mine, so I wisely give him one hundred percent of my attention. “Did you fix things with her?”

A lesser man would have looked away when Maddox Locke turned his penetrating black eyes on them. He’s a hard man; rarely smiling unless it’s at one of the three women in his life, but that silent dominating hold his very presence commands hits hard. He has a dark side; a side you don’t ever want focused on you.

“Working on it,” I respond, my voice strong and true.

“Work harder. I don’t like seeing her upset, Nate.”

My brow furrows. “I wasn’t aware that she was upset,” I add.

This time, his expression darkens, and I know I f*cked up, even if I didn’t mean it in the way it sounded.

He opens his mouth to speak, but I stop him with a sigh and one hand in the air. “Don’t. I understand that you mean well right now, and I respect the hell out of that, but from now on, what happens between Ember and me will stay that way—between us. Before you assume that I didn’t know she was upset because I had been avoiding her, let me set that straight. I’ve been working at Dirty from noon until almost four in the morning for seven days straight, and I finally pulled myself away from that to give up some much-needed sleep in order to close these cases out. I already told Shane, my manager, that I wouldn’t be in tonight because I needed to take care of something. Now, it isn’t any of your business, but I had planned to go see her tonight. I’ll also share that I’ve talked to her briefly during the week, and she understands that I couldn’t get away until tonight. So if she is upset still, respect me enough to know I’m working on it.”

“You done?” he probes when I stop talking, an odd look crossing his features.

“I think so.”

He nods, looking down at the frame before reaching out with one tan finger and pushing the corner of it until it is—once again—facing in a way that I can see Ember’s beautiful face.

I take a deep breath, slowly, so he doesn’t see I might have been seconds away from shitting my pants.

We continue to work on our respective cases in silence, the hours passing quickly. I look down at my work, making sure to finish my notes up in as much detail as possible before hitting the enter key with so much force that it echoes around us.

I lean back with a satisfying smile when I think about the hell storm that is about to rain down on the CFO I had been investigating. Now, with that strike against the keyboard, not only will our client know the depths of his employee’s deceit, but the FBI will as well.

Now that my work is done, the rest is up to them.

And that officially ended my work at CS for the foreseeable future.

I look back at the turned frame and let myself relax knowing that even if she puts up a fight, now that I’m finished here, I can go there and then, I’m one step closer to getting my girl.

“Nathaniel.”

I look up at Maddox and pray he isn’t about to kick my ass now. I would rather not have to explain to Ember that her father tried to kill me before I even had a chance to win her.

“Sir?”

“I’m proud of you,” he declares, causing me to pause cleaning up my files. “I’m not an easy person to stand up to and the fact that you had no problem putting me in my place shows me just what kind of man you’ve become. You might play the part of the carefree clown, but you have a strength about you that shows me if my baby girl decides to give you her heart, you’re worth holding on to it.”

I almost lose control of my body and drop dead in shock at his words. Fuck me, but I never thought I would get his blessing. I figured winning Ember would be the easy part—winning her father’s approval being the fight.

“Thank you, Maddox,” I reply, pretty damn proud that I’m able to keep myself from pumping my fist up in victory.