“Brat. You are in so much trouble,” Clint said with a mock growl.
Right now, he didn’t care how sweet or hot Macca was, God help him, he was going to rip him a new one for taking so long. Just then his phone rang and he snatched it up.
“Took your fucking time,” he snarled into the phone.
There was a beat of silence. “Didn’t realize I was being timed, chief.” There was an odd note to the other man’s voice. As though he was holding back.
“Well? She okay?”
He fully expected the other man to say she was fine, because if she wasn’t then she surely would have called him, right? It had only been a few days since he’d seen her.
“I don’t think she is.”
It was like a punch to his gut and he froze. “What? What the fuck do you mean? What’s wrong with her?”
He was aware of Clint and Charlie staring at him, but he tuned them out as he listened to Macca.
“She was acting funny. Jumpy. Wouldn’t open the door all the way, like she was hiding something. And she’d dropped some groceries on the floor.”
Dropped her groceries?
“She’s clumsy,” Kent said slowly, thinking that through.
“I don’t think that was it. She didn’t even mention the mess on the floor. She was nervous. High-strung. I’m going to stick around and watch her place for a bit. Got a bad vibe.”
And Macca’s instincts were rarely wrong.
“I’ll come in.”
“It’s no problem for me to stay here,” Macca replied. “I’m here already. Wait, she’s leaving. I’ll follow her. Crap, she’s driving in her shitty car with those bald tires. Need to get her new ones. She lied to me about that too.”
“What? Lied to you about what?”
“About getting new tires. She’s gonna have an accident on those ones.”
“I’ve ordered her new tires,” Kent snapped. “You don’t need to follow her, I’m coming in.”
He knew he should just leave Macca to discover what was wrong with her.
But that felt like it was his job. So maybe Abby wasn’t what he thought he wanted. Perhaps he still didn’t know if he had it in him to be her Daddy. But he also knew that the idea of her in some kind of trouble made his heart race with panic and his skin go clammy. The urge to go to her was overwhelming.
He cared about her. Wanted to protect her. And he really wanted to kiss her again.
Only you make up the rules for your relationship. It can be whatever the two of you need it to be.
He glanced at Clint. Damn, he hated when he was right. As though his brother could sense his thoughts, he smirked.
So maybe he’d been looking for the wrong thing all this time. Or he’d been searching for a type or relationship when all he needed was a person.
Abby.
“Really, chief—”
“I’m coming in,” Kent told the other man firmly. “Thanks for checking on her for me. Follow behind her, keep me updated so I know where to find you both.”
“You want her?” Macca asked, surprising Kent.
He didn’t reply.