“Well, you’re welcome, Frank,” she told her father to draw his attention back to her. “I’m glad to see that you’re looking so well.”
He beamed at her.
“If that’s it, we should probably get—”
“There is a tiny matter that has come up.” He held up two fingers indicating how extremely small it was. “A dispute that could use your talents.”
“No,” she said flatly. “I’m not a lawyer anymore.”
“Of course you are. You didn’t do all that hard work just to walk away. That’s not my Katiebird.”
Her head throbbed with a flashback of migraine pain. “I’m no longer practicing, Frank. I’m a peony farmer. And a landlady. Not a lawyer. Even if I was, I told you at the beginning it was a one-time thing.”
“Do you see how ice cold she is to her dear old dad?” So breezy and witty, her father. So uncaring about any needs but his own. “Can’t you talk to her, big fellow? Such iciness from one’s own flesh and blood. It’s practically inhuman. But then, she’s always been so hardhearted—and hardheaded. You must know that by now.”
Kate felt heat slowly rise in her face. Just when she thought she was safe, her father twisted the knife right where he knew it would hurt. Hardhearted…did that word really describe her? Was that why she’d never let herself fall in love with anyone?
“I’m not—” she began, but Darius stopped her with one motion of his hand.
“I think he asked me a question.”
Her father beamed at him as if they were already best friends. “That I did. Perhaps you’re a father yourself, and you understand the pain of—”
“I’m not a father. Haven’t been that lucky. But if I were, I’d be pretty freaking proud if she was anything like Kate. Kate’s not icy, she’s not hardhearted. She didn’t have to come here, and if she takes my advice, she won’t do it again until you get your head out of your ass. But since she is a little hardheaded, she’ll do what she chooses. And I’m behind her a hundred percent.”
Kate felt his hand under her elbow and realized he was nudging her toward the door. Her father’s jaw was agape; she’d never seen him stunned into silence before.
That was the thing about Darius. He didn’t talk a lot, but when he did, people paid attention. Even Frank Robinson.
“Bye Frank,” she told her father. “I’ll be in touch.”
Her father dragged his fascinated gaze away from Darius long enough to blow her a kiss. “I like him,” he called after them. “You have my approval. Always thought you needed a man who could stand up to you. Don’t let this one slip away like the others.”
One last jab for the road, apparently.
Kate slammed the door behind her on the way out. Her face still felt hot and her fists kept clenching the way they used to do when she had tantrums as a kid. Familiar fury coursed through her system in a hot river of emotion. Frank always did this to her. He always turned her into a blubbery mess. No emancipation, no law degree, nothing had changed that. She should never have come here. She should know better by now.
“I’ll call a Lyft,” Darius said.
“No. I need to walk for a minute.”
Right now, she didn’t care if a bad guy spotted her. She stalked down the curving drive toward the upscale street with its sycamore trees and bougainvillea hedges. Darius caught up to her with one long stride.
“I’m sorry you had to see all that,” she told him stiffly. “I warned you not to come.”
“Hey, it’s no skin off my nose. Are you okay?”
“I will be. I just need a minute.” After a few more steps, her frustration erupted. “Can you believe how stupid I am?” she cried. “I actually thought he’d start acting like a real father if I saved him from prison. I thought he’d appreciate me. I mean, he tried, I suppose. He said ‘thank you.’ But then he just had to insult me and manipulate me and…I know not to trust him. I know it. And yet I fall for it every time.”
“And you know why?”
“Why?” she asked automatically, even though she doubted that he could possibly know anything about it.
“Because your father’s dead wrong. You’re not hardhearted. If you were, why would you have torpedoed your legal career for him?”
She spun around to face him. “You know what’s a hardhearted thing to do? Evict a fire chief. I tried to do that before I even met you.”
“And a little bit after you met me,” he pointed out.
“Exactly. He’s right. That was cold.”
“Yeah, well.” He shrugged his massive shoulders. “You didn’t evict me, did you?”
“But…that’s…” Maybe it was time to confess something. “Because I didn’t want to,” she admitted.
He laughed. “Right, because you’re not the shark you pretend to be.” His silvery eyes gleamed down at her. “And because you wanted me around.”
On the verge of telling him exactly that, she snapped her mouth shut. “Because you were so good with things like shoveling the path.”
“And giving you hockey tickets.”
“And fixing the handrail. You’re really a very useful tenant.”
He dropped his voice into the register where the hot growls lived. “You have no idea how useful I can be.”
Her lower belly clenched with a stab of excitement. Her frustration with her father evaporated as she threw herself into flirting with Darius. “Like with the migraine? That kind of useful?”
“Sure, anything physical like that, it’s kind of my specialty.”
“I thought fires were your specialty.”
“Absolutely. All kinds of fires.” His deep voice reached right into her bloodstream and started a fire all on its own. It spread through her veins like warm honey.
“I’ll call a Lyft.” Her voice, on the other hand, had gone all tight and breathy. She fumbled with her phone as she went through the steps. “But before Dmitri in the red Honda gets here, I want to say something.”
He cocked his head, waiting, his eyes steady on hers. Steady as a rock, that was Darius. And damn, it was everything she wanted. Everything she needed.
“No one has ever stood up for me like that,” she said softly. “Most people find my father amusing and don’t understand why I get upset with him. I love him, he’s my father, but I’ve never felt safe with him. I’ve always known I had to watch my own back around him. And I had to do it alone. I mean, it was good training for being a lawyer. But—”
A red Honda pulled up next to them. Their driver had arrived, just in the nick of time to keep her from getting carried away.
“Thank you,” she finished quickly. “It meant a lot.”
He nodded simply. “You got it. Give me a second to check out the driver.”
That was Darius, always saying so much with just a few words. Better yet, his words were on point and none of them were trying to deceive. Especially after that encounter with Frank, it was a little dose of bliss.
Actually, a tall and broad-shouldered dose of bliss.