He held my hand as we walked down the stairs. “And I’ll help you do it. Just know that, sometimes, the best thing a family can do is back off.”
Dad sat up on the couch. “He’s got that right.”
“Dad,” I said breathlessly. I rushed to his side, but he held up his hand and shot me a look.
“This right here is what he’s talking about,” Dad said as he propped himself up.
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll work on it, okay? But, it won’t get better overnight. It’ll take time.”
He nodded. “I know it will.”
Bart walked up to us in the living room. “Need a pillow?”
Dad nodded. “And a glass of water. But, have Luna get it. I want to talk with you a bit more.”
Bart sat down on the other side of the couch. “Of course.”
I kissed Dad’s forehead. “Be right back.”
As I slipped a pillow behind his back, I went to get some ice water from the kitchen. But, when I crept back down the hallway, I heard the two men I loved most in my life talking lowly among themselves.
And I couldn’t help but eavesdrop.
“You boys still going to be reckless and do that personal loan?” Dad asked.
Bart sighed. “Honestly? I don’t even think that’s going to work. Even if we got the personal loan to go through, there’s still a matter of selling off our old headquarters to fund hefty renovations. It’s essentially a crapshoot. With the personal loan, we’ve got one shot and zero room for fuck-ups.”
I furrowed my brow as Dad nodded, as if he understood what Bart was saying.
How does he get it?
“Well,” Dad said, “if you boys went back to the business loan, how much would you still need to front to make it work?”
Bart snickered. “At least a million. Though it would be closer to two in order to make all of us more comfortable.”
“You got any more room for investors?”
What the hell?
Bart blinked. “Yeah, we’ve always got room for that.”
Dad nodded. “What do your investors buy at in?”
“Uh, our newest investor bought in a valuation from three years ago, so I’d probably give someone a fair shake and continue with that valuation.”
“Which is?”
Bart paused. “Eight hundred thousand for four percent.”
Dad didn’t even hesitate. “Make it ten for the two million and you’ve got a deal.”
I couldn’t contain my reaction. “What?” I leaped from around the corner and sloshed cold water all over my hand.
“What the hell just happened?” I asked breathlessly.
Bart looked up at me. “I’m honestly not sure myself.”
Dad chuckled. “I’m sure he’d have to get approval from his brothers, but I’m pretty sure I’m investing in my new son-in-law’s business.”
I set the water down on the couch-side table. “You don’t have two million dollars, Dad. This isn’t some sort of a—a loan or something you can pay in installments.”
He blinked. “Yeah. I know.”
I paused. “You’re on a fixed income!”
“I know that, too.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Can someone please explain to me why we’re struggling to make ends meet, but somehow my dad’s got two million lying around in a couch somewhere?”
Dad shrugged. “I mean, not a couch, but…”
I glared down at him. “Spit it out, Dad.”
He waved his hand in the air. “Money needs to be grown, Luna, not shown. I made some good investment deals when I was younger, even though your mother about killed me some months.”
Bart finally spoke. “If someone knows their way around the stock market, then theoretically—”
My eyes bulged. “Does anyone find this as ridiculous as I do?”
Dad smiled. “Your mother did.”
I swallowed back a growl. “No wonder people in town call you a cheapskate.”
He shrugged. “A badge I wear with pride. If I weren’t one, I wouldn’t be able to help right now, would I?”
I shook my head. “I just always thought you were a rancher, Daddy. A rodeo competitor in the summers. Stuff like that.”
“And I was, sweetheart. But, I’m also other things.”
I drew in a sobering breath. “We’ve got a lot to talk about once you have the strength to take my verbal lashings. You know that, right?”
He smiled lovingly up at me, and it made my heart melt. “Whatever you need.”
I sighed before I bent over and kissed his forehead, and then I looked over at Bart, who was still sitting there with shock in his eyes and his jaw swinging. It made me giggle as I reached over and closed his mouth with my fingertips, shocking him back to life before he drew in a quick breath of air.
“Like you said, I’ll have to talk to my brothers, but I’m sure they won’t have an issue with it at all,” he said.
Dad nodded. “Good. Get my number from Luna, and just let me know how you want the money delivered.”
“Wire transfer will probably be easiest.”
He held out his hand. “Then, it’s settled.”
And when my fiancé and my father shook hands, it forever redefined for me what a “family business” looked like. It solidified a future I’d always been trying to carve out for myself, and it made my heart swell with happiness. I found a man my father saw as an equal. I found a man I could respect and love and devote myself to without losing my independence and what made me, well, me. In some crazy whirlwind of events I still couldn’t sort through, my life had been plunged into darkness before being ripped into a light so bright it threatened to blind me for the rest of my life.
And it was a fate I’d happily accept if this was the outcome.
A family—rooted in business and in love—who stuck by one another through thick and thin.
It doesn’t get any better than this.
Then, my phone rang.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Miss Faircloth?”
I furrowed my brow. “Who is this?”
The man cleared his throat. “Officer Rinkinson.”
I rushed into the nearest corner. “Hey! Hi! Uh, wow, I wasn’t sure if I’d hear back from you guys. How are—well, how are things?”
He snickered. “They’re better as of an hour ago.”
I blinked. “Why?”
And when the police officer assigned to my case uttered those perfect words, I realized that all things could get better given time. “We got him, Luna. We caught the son of a bitch.”
Epilogue
Bart
One Year Later
I looked in the mirror as my best man—my father—straightened my bow tie. I drew in a deep breath as Bryce brought my white suit jacket over and slid it up my arms. And when Dad smiled at me, Will yelled from the bathroom.
“You got that red rose to pin on your titty yet?”
I rolled my eyes. “If you call it ‘titty’ one more time, I’m gonna punch you.”
Dad chuckled. “And a bloody nose isn’t a good look for a wedding.”