When You're Back
Page 33

Shit. Motherfucking shit! Harlow didn’t need this. And why hadn’t she called me? I threw the feed I’d carried over from my truck against the wall and swore loudly.
“Dad said we don’t get it. We don’t know how Kiro was back when he had Emily. He told me it would be like me losing Blaire. And man, I can’t imagine that. If Kiro loves Emily like I love Blaire, then, dude, he’s in fucking pain and has been for twenty-three years.”
I understood that Kiro loved Emily. It was obvious. But dammit, he had a daughter with a heart problem. One year ago, Harlow had been given a miracle when she gave birth to Lila Kate and lived through the process. She didn’t need this shit on her now. He never thought of anyone else, only how much he was hurting.
“Harlow can’t deal with this,” I said angrily. My brain was already spinning. I had to do something. I couldn’t leave her to deal alone. I also needed to see Kiro. This shit had to stop. One day, Emily would pass away. She’d been given much longer than any doctor expected. Kiro had to come to grips with that.
Rush nodded. “She has Grant. He’s worried like hell about her. She’s crying a lot. I figured you needed to know. Harlow needs you. She needs you to do something with your father.”
He was right. She did. “Thanks for telling me. Don’t know why she hasn’t called me.” Or Grant, which pissed me off. Grant should have called me.
“She said you’d get mad at Kiro and it wouldn’t help anything. She asked Grant not to call you, so Grant came to me instead. She never asked him not to tell me to tell you.”
Damn. I had to give my brother-in-law more credit. “I need to pack and let Momma and Dad know I’m leaving. Shit! Reese has a new job. She’s not gonna want to take time off yet, and honestly, I don’t want her seeing all this shit with Kiro. It’s fucked-up. She doesn’t need to be involved.”
“Go on and figure things out. We’ll be flying out at six tonight if you want to leave with us. We’ve got the jet.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you then.”
“Life as a rocker’s son sucks more than it doesn’t,” Rush said, and he headed up the hill to leave.
I could have said he understood, but he didn’t really. He was the son of Dean Finlay. Dean had never done the shit Kiro had done. Dean had been a loving, present father—for the most part. Dean wasn’t always mixed up in some crazy shit. Rush had no idea how it felt to be Kiro Manning’s son.
It sucked. That’s what it fucking did. It sucked. All the time.
Reese
When the office door opened just after two, I somehow knew it was going to be him. My entire body tensed as I looked up to meet Captain’s eyes. There was a gleam in them as he sauntered into the room.
“Good afternoon, Reese. I have some paperwork and receipts for you,” he said, as he sank down into the leather chair closest to my desk.
“OK,” I replied simply. I’d already resigned myself not to ask him about the concert tickets.
“You looked like you enjoyed the concert,” he said, as if he had read my mind. Again. How did he do that?
“It was a great concert,” I said. Although I had nothing to compare it with.
He smirked. “You say that now. Wait until you see a band like U2 in concert. Then you’ll know what a great concert is.”
I didn’t even know who U2 was, so I just ignored his remark. “The paperwork?” I asked, holding out my hand, wanting to get this over with.
He chuckled. “You don’t like me, Reese. Why is that?”
I didn’t have an answer, other than that he made me nervous. And he flirted with me. Well, I guess that was the answer. “You flirt. I don’t like it,” I replied.
He studied me for a moment, and then his amused smile turned to something more serious as he leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. His face was closer to me, and the table between us felt like a safety guard.
“I haven’t been flirting with you, Reese. When I flirt with you, you’ll know it.”
Oh. OK. Well, what he was doing now seemed kind of flirty. But was I wrong about that? Was I assuming that his trying to be friendly was flirting? No. He had made comments about wanting what Mase had.
“You’ve made comments, comments about me . . .” I trailed off, feeling my face grow hot.
He shrugged. “I’m honest. I don’t worry about what others think. If I want to say something, I do. Doesn’t mean I was flirting, baby.”
He was so confusing. I fisted my hand in my lap, totally frustrated. “OK. Well, then, let’s forget all this and get to business. What do you have for me?”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a manila folder. “Here you go.” Then he stood up and headed for the door. “If you have questions, you can call or text,” he said, without looking back at me. When the door closed behind him, I sank back into my seat and let out a frustrated sigh. How had I ended up sounding like the jerk? He had been honest and turned it around to make me look like the idiot.
Shaking him off, I opened the folder to find more paperwork and receipts than I was going to have time to handle today. I still had several things to do for Piper. She would be gone tomorrow, and I had to feed and water the horses, on top of brushing them down and cleaning stalls. Piper had recently let her stable help go because the girl had kept talking on her phone during business hours. She hadn’t hired a replacement yet.