“We could produce the script you wrote.”
His shoulders stiffened as he turned to look at Dax, who had turned in his chair to gauge the reaction to his suggestion.
“No.”
“Why not?” he countered. “It’s better than the script we’re working on now.”
“This one will pay the bills and make a profit. The one I wrote won’t.”
“You promised Mom you would make it.”
“I promised her I wasn’t going to let her die. That shows you what my promises are worth.” Ignoring his coffee, he ran a weary hand through his hair. “You’ve got this. I’m going to bed. I have to be up at four to meet with Slim. He wants me to double-check Zeke’s rigging for the next stunt.”
“You need more than a couple of hours sleep. I’ll push it back until the afternoon. I’ll order breakfast for you at ten.”
“Dax, I don’t need you to order my breakfast. Slim wants plenty of time to fix the stunt if I don’t give it my approval. I also don’t need you having Dee watching, playing gofer for me every five seconds. I can’t even take a piss anymore without her trailing after me to go to the toilet. I’m not senile or incapable of finding it myself.”
“I just don’t want to stress you out, so you won’t take off again.”
The admission cut him like a blade to his heart.
“Stress isn’t why I left. I wanted to visit some old friends, and I knew you didn’t need me to hold your hand anymore. You basically did the last two films on your own. I was trying to give you the freedom to run the company.”
“What if I don’t want to run it on my own? What if I want you here? If you’re tired of action movies, I’m game. It’s just not fun for me without you.”
“It didn’t bother you before we lost your mother. Dax, everybody eventually dies. You and Grace are being overprotective. Grace calls me at least three times a day, and I’m willing to bet she’s calling you just as much to check if I’m telling her the truth that I’m doing okay.”
“We just want you happy again.”
“Son, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Are you happy right now?”
“No.”
“It’s going to take time to get over losing your mother. She was a big part of our lives, and we doted on her like crazy because she enjoyed it. I, on the other hand, feel like I have one foot in the grave the way you are both acting.”
Dax laughed. “Okay, I’ll back off, and I’ll tell Grace to stop calling so much.”
“Don’t. It’ll hurt her feelings that I complained, and it’ll make her call you more often or send another bounty hunter to find out for her.”
His son grimaced. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“No. I told you I wanted to be by myself for a while. I didn’t want my location leaking. I didn’t expect Grace to freak out and hire a bounty hunter to find me, or that you would give her the go-ahead.”
“It wasn’t my finest moment. She broke me when she kept saying that we wouldn’t know if you wrecked on your bike and could be in the hospital with amnesia.”
“You and Grace have watched too many movies.”
“I wished I could have been there when you called Grace and told you what she had done.”
“What you both did.”
Turning red, he finally admitted his own culpability. “What we did.”
“At first, I was more stunned than anything else. I really didn’t have time to do anything more than that. I was still talking to Whip about it when a blond bombshell showed up with two of the club members.”
“Did you know it was the woman Grace sent?”
“Whip and I both did. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Dagger and Nails aren’t exactly the types that would have drawn that woman’s attention.”
“If she’s that pretty, I need to get Grace to introduce me.”
Dalton didn’t know why that thought bothered him, then he shrugged it off mentally.
“If she does, watch your balls. She nearly had me singing soprano with her knee shot. She’s not the shrinking violet you usually prefer.”
“I don’t prefer shrinking violets; they’re just easier to deal with than the drama queens I come into contact with. Normal would be nice for a change.”
“There wasn’t anything normal about T.A.”
“That’s her name?”
“So she said. You’ll have to ask Grace.”
“I will when we go see her Saturday.”
“I thought you said you were too busy to go?”
“That was before I talked to her this afternoon. She called me half a dozen times to ask if I was coming with you. I miss her. I’ve had too many commitments to see her for the last year.”
“Are you going because you’ve missed Grace or because you’ll be close to where she said T.A. lives?”