The phone was snatched up immediately. “Hello?”
“I’m fine, Dad,” Jeff said immediately. “I went out to check the highway last night, see if there was anyone in trouble, and I found a mother and her baby stuck in the snow. We stayed in one of the vacation cabins up on the mountain. I didn’t have my phone with me and she didn’t have any reception, so we couldn’t get hold of anyone until the plow came through this morning.”
“You scared the hell out of us, son,” his father said. “We thought you’d gotten lost in the storm or something.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Jeff said sincerely. “I didn’t mean to worry anybody. I should’ve checked in with Cal before I left.”
“Damn right you should have!” his father barked. “That was irresponsible, Jeff, and I’m surprised at you.”
“I didn’t think I was going to have to stay up there overnight, Dad. But I had to—I couldn’t let Leah and Emily stay out in the cold any longer.”
“That’s the mother and baby? Are they all right?” his dad asked gruffly.
“They’re just fine. They’re staying with me for a little while.”
“They’re staying with you?” Jeff could hear his father’s eyebrows go up. “Do they not have anywhere else to go? Where’s this woman’s family?”
Jeff wasn’t sure he could explain Leah’s family situation in a way that his dad would understand. In the Hart clan, family was everything, and everyone would help out a brother or sister or cousin in trouble—let alone a child or grandchild. Saying that Leah couldn’t ask her family for help just wouldn’t compute.
“She doesn’t have any family around here, Dad, but even if she did, I’d want her to stay with me.” Jeff hadn’t meant to do this over the phone, but he had to explain something. “Leah’s my mate, Dad. I want her with me forever.”
There was a long pause. Then, “Jeff, you know what your mother says about that.”
“I know,” Jeff said. “But I’m right about this. There’s no question about it.”
“There’s no question that you’re very attracted to this woman, I believe that,” his father said gently. “She sounds like she’s in trouble, if she’s all alone with a baby. But Jeff, just because she’s in trouble doesn’t mean that she’s your mate. You can help her out without thinking you’re destined to be together forever.”
“I don’t just want to help her out, Dad.” Jeff struggled to stay calm. “I want her to stay with me. It’s my job to help people who’re in trouble, and I’ve helped plenty of them without falling for them.” He took a deep breath. “Leah is my mate, and if you can’t accept that, I hope you can at least accept that she’s very special to me and I’ll be asking her to stay as long as she likes. If you can’t...I might not be coming around for a little while.”
“All right, all right,” his dad said. “I hear you. But I just want you to think about this, all right, Jeff? If nothing else, she’s all alone with a baby. A woman doesn’t end up like that without a history.”
Jeff’s fists clenched, and his calm evaporated. “If you’re implying that she’s got something wrong with her because she was in a relationship with someone who turned out to be untrustworthy, well, Dad, I think that reflects more on you than it does on her. Please let everyone know I’m fine. Goodbye.”
He hung up before his dad could say anything else. Then he let out his breath on a long sigh.
Well. He’d known that his parents were going to be skeptical of the whole mate idea, but that could still have gone a lot better.
He couldn’t believe that his dad had as much as implied that Leah was the one who’d done something wrong.
His dad had raised Jeff to believe that if he ever ended up a father, no matter what, he had to step up and take responsibility for that. So Jeff couldn’t understand why his dad seemed to think that it was Leah’s fault that another guy hadn’t done that for her.
Annoyed, Jeff shoved his phone in his pocket and got out of his car, slamming the door. Grey, who’d pulled in just ahead of him and was waiting at the door of the rangers’ official SUV, said mildly, “Something wrong?”
Jeff stepped up to him. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure. Can’t promise I’ll answer.”
“How did you know Alethia was your mate? Could you tell the instant you laid eyes on her?”
Grey’s eyes widened minutely, the only sign of surprise on his impassive face. “Why do you ask?”
Jeff hesitated, but it was probably obvious already, so. “Leah. She’s my mate, I know it, but my family...they don’t really believe in mates. So I wanted to talk to someone who’d found his.”
“Well,” said Grey slowly, “all right. No, I didn’t know Alethia was my mate the second I saw her. But I knew there was something about her.”
“You had a connection,” Jeff guessed.
Grey nodded. “Yes. But it wasn’t until we’d spent,” he hesitated, “a day or so together th