Page 44 of Untamed Heart

If there was one man on the planet who could understand exactly where he was coming from, it was me. As it was, it would have been a lie to say I wasn’t a bit jealous that he was making progress with our girl, and I was still stuck on the benches. Hell, even Cassie was getting annoyed with how slow I was moving. It hadn’t taken long at all for Honeybee to win over my little girl,and she was ready for her newly minted best friend to become a much bigger part of her life. That was why I was here today.

“Whatcha got in the bag?” Pops asked, tapping the bag with the toe of his boot. “Whatever it is, smells fuckin’ delicious.”

I snatched the bag out of his reach and shot him an angry look. “It’s butter chicken, and you can’t have any. I made it for Dakota.” I reached up to drag a hand over my hair, suddenly feeling like an idiot for thinking this would work. “It was Cassi’s idea that I cook for her, and I’m starting to think I might have been wrong to trust my seven-year-old’s advice on something like this.”

“Well, first, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. After all, if the chef is always cooking for everyone, who’s cooking for the chef?”

“Christ,” I grunted, “That was practically what Cass said, word for word.”

“Which leads me to my second point. You can never go wrong trustin’ that little girl. Evil might be in front, but genius is still in the title.”

He might have a point with that.

“Speaking of evil geniuses, where’s my little sparkle?”

“Today was her first day of wilderness camp.” Leave it to my little girl to want to spend her summer learning survival skills in the wilderness instead of doing something like arts or theater. Then I remembered the call I’d gotten right before heading over here. “Speaking of evil geniuses,” I started, using his same words, “I already got a call from the camp director. It’s day one and my baby girl’s already on her third strike.”

Pops didn’t bother to cover his snort. “What did she do this time?”

“Apparently one of the kids was being an asshole to a smaller kid, so she punched him in the throat.”

Pops guffawed, throwing his head back on a roar of laughter. “That’s my sparkle! Sticking up for the little people. Let ’em kick her out, that’s their loss. Bet that kid learned his lesson.”

He sure the hell had, and I didn’t think that, after he pissed his pants in front of everyone because he got his ass handed to him by a girl, he’d try bullying someone smaller than him again. I knew that, as the responsible adult, I should discourage her from using violence. But how was I supposed to do that when she was using said violence to protect others? I hated the thought of doing or saying anything that might snuff out a little bit of her fire. It was that fire that made me love her so damn much.

“I suppose you’re right.” Things across the street seemed to be winding down. The boys were waving frantically at Dakota as their dad led them into the house. Dakota and the mother were exchanging hugs, then a second later, the woman who had my heart in a chokehold was heading our way. “Do me a favor, old man. Think you can make yourself scarce for a while? Now that you guys got your talk out of the way, I think it’s time for mine.”

He didn’t hesitate to push to his feet, patting me on the shoulder as he said in a low voice she couldn’t hear, “She hasn’t had happy, Roe. Not a single day since she left. Admitted that to me as I held her while she broke down in tears.”Fuck me,but it killed me to hear that. “If there’s one person on this earth who can give her happy, it’s you. So do it, son. Give my girl happy, ’cause I can’t stand those fuckin’ shadows in her eyes for one more goddamn second.”

My heart felt like it lodged itself in my throat as I rasped, “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

“The food’s a good start.” With one more pat on my shoulder, he started down the front walk, stopping to pull Dakota in for a side-hug and a kiss to her temple.

“Where are you going?” she asked, her brow furrowed with a mixture of curiosity and worry.

“Got a standin’ neighborhood watch date with Mrs. Hofstetter down the way,” he answered, patting the binoculars he’d hung from his neck by their strap.

“No Mai Tais,” she shouted as he headed down the street.

“Don’t worry, baby doll. She made a special virgin batch just for me.”

Then he was gone, ready to sit beside an elderly woman who was probably lonely, and spy on their neighbors through binoculars while drinking fruity drinks. Sometimes life was surreal.

TWENTY-TWO

DAKOTA

When my fatherdisappeared inside Mrs. Hofstetter’s house, there was no other choice but for me to acknowledge the man standing on my front porch. It had been a couple days since my father and I had moved into Lennon’s old house, and I hadn’t seen Roe since he and the rest of the Wraiths had moved us in. I’d tried telling myself repeatedly I didn’t care, but it would have been a lie. With each passing hour, I grew more disappointed that I hadn’t seen him.

Now that he was here, it felt like a riot of butterflies had sprung to life in my belly.

I closed the distance between us, suddenly remembering I closely resembled a drowned rat, thanks to my Dementor fight with Darnell and Aretha’s kids. They’d been too damn cute to deny after they came knocking on my door.

Oddly enough, playing with them had been the most fun I’d had in a long time.

Lifting my arms, I did my best to pull my hair into some semblance of a normal ponytail before tying it off. There wasn’t anything I could do about my soaked clothes.

As I came to a stop in front of him, he rose to his feet, his full height causing me to have to tip my head back.