“Glad you feel that way about me, baby,” my father’s voice, amused and low, came from behind me.
I turned to find him standing there with his arms crossed.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped.
He gestured to a waiting room. “Had a buddy getting something done today. Saw Peyton and started talking to her. Then heard you yelling, so I thought I’d see what the problem was.”
I wrinkled my nose at him.
“I can’t believe that you yelled at Dax,” I snapped.
“Rowen…” Dax started, sounding amused.
“No.” I held up my finger to shush him. “You yelled at him because of me, didn’t you?”
My dad didn’t bother to deny it.
“Was I more harsh with the situation than was warranted? Maybe. But Dax was in the wrong. We have a negotiator on that team, and it’s not him,” Dad replied bluntly. “He put himself out there as the point of contact, and both people in that situation are more than a little connected to Dax whether he wants to be or not. He shouldn’t have been there in the first place, and he knows it.”
Dax was nodding, which was pissing me off more.
“And did I care that my daughter’s new man, the one that she hadn’t told me about but that we all knew about, was out there putting his head on the line when it was unnecessary? Yes. I fucking cared. I don’t like seeing you cry.”
Dax’s lips twitched.
Mine pulled into a smile.
That smile fell off my face seconds later when he said, “And, to make matters worse, I just found out that Theo has moved back to town.”
My face went pale as those words settled in.
“With his new girlfriend,” he continued. “He applied at the PD today. Shondra was waiting for him in the lobby. He even told me he was inquiring about a room for rent in the duplexes that you’ve recently started living in.”
That’s when my mouth fell open in shock.
“You’re fucking shitting me,” Dax said, shocking me out of my silence.
“You’re goddamn joking. Tell me you’re joking,” I pleaded.
Dad was already shaking his head. “Not about this, sweet pea. Not about this.”
I groaned and covered my face with my hands, feeling the tightness of a noose around my neck.
“That’s… Jesus Christ.” Dax groaned.
“Dax?”
A woman’s shaky voice had us all looking up to find his mother, Peyton, standing in the entryway to the waiting room.
“Hey, Ma.” He held his arm out, and she walked right into his side. “I was just talking to my boss. You remember that he’s my direct boss now?”
Peyton smiled. “I do. Hey, Luke. How are you?”
Dad grinned and tapped her head. “Your husband’s in there?”
She nodded. “He’s getting a colonoscopy.”
My father blanched. “I have one of those scheduled for next month, actually.”
She grinned. “Good, then you can have this!”
We both looked at her holding out a chocolate bar.
“What is it?” Dad asked, not reaching out to take it.
“It’s an extra strength bar of chocolate Ex-Lax,” she said, shaking it. “Max demanded that we buy it just in case the stuff they gave him didn’t clean his bowels out like it was supposed to. But, even though I assured him it would work just fine, he made me get it anyway. And then made me take the wrapping off so nobody would know what it was. And I’ve been carrying it in my purse and I don’t want to accidentally get hungry and eat it on accident.”
I snickered and held out my hand, taking the chocolate bar that she’d extended. “I’ll take it and give it to him.”
Peyton’s eyes turned to meet mine. “You’re so pretty. Though, gotta say, your hair is my favorite feature.”
My brows rose.
“Really?” I touched the spiky mess absently.
“I’ve always wanted to go that short. Gosh, I bet the time it takes you to get dressed and out the door every morning is very minimal,” she continued.
I laughed then.
I hadn’t really thought about the positive side of having no hair.
I mean other than the time it now took me in the shower since I only used a bar of soap to wash my hair, I hadn’t really thought about it.
“You’re right,” I admitted. “I find that I’m a lot cooler. Oh, and now that I’m thinking about it, I’m a lot less aware of how I look. I mean, I used to always think about how my hair was looking. Fixing it when I got in front of a mirror. But I can’t even tell you the last time I looked in a mirror once I’ve left for the morning.”
Peyton beamed.
I’d never, not in a million years, thought about bonding with my boyfriend’s mother due to my lack of hair, but we did it.
“I gotta go,” my dad announced. “My buddy is finished with his surgery and I was supposed to be at work fifteen minutes ago.”