“You have more than a right to be angry. Now, can I trust that if we come in, you’ll stand down? Or, do you and I need to go for a walk first?”
“I really can’t fucking believe this,” my dad muttered as he shook his head.
My heart was beating out of my chest—not just because my dad was standing here, mad as heck at me.
But because of Trey.
The way he was looking out for me right now was something that nobody had done before.
Well, other than my dad.
Most people—okay, most guys, which meant every one of my past boyfriends—had cowered to my dad.
It was actually kind of sad.
Of course, my dad didn’t feel sad.
No, he thought scaring the crap out of my boyfriends was the most hilarious thing ever.
Not that I had a lot of boyfriends or anything.
And not that Trey was my boyfriend.
Because he wasn’t.
He was my husband.
On paper, at least.
And soon, he wouldn’t even be that.
I secretly hoped we could maybe stay friends. That might be asking too much.
Especially after meeting my dad.
“Your choice, Mr. Hunter,” Trey repeated, still standing his ground. And that ground was one step in front of me.
“Son, the only thing Lexi ever has to fear from me are my words. I’ve never in my life taken out my anger physically on her—or any other woman. You can go ahead and ask her for yourself,” he said, nodding toward me.
For some reason, I stepped under Trey’s arm and wrapped my arms around his middle. “He’s right, Trey. It’ll be okay, I promise.”
Trey gazed down at me—letting his eyes scan my face. “You sure you want to go in there?” he asked me in a calm, cool, and collected voice.
I smiled up at him. “No,” I said and squeezed him tight, “but we both need to face the music sometime, right?”
His hand came up and brushed my hair away from my face. “Unfortunately.”
I shrugged, and said, “Let’s rip off the Bandaid.”
His hand rested on my shoulder, then slid down my arm. We looked into each other’s eyes, and I swear if I could jump into his, and live there forever—I would.
“Okay, sweetheart. Let’s get this over with,” he said with a half-smirk. Then, he let his lips touch my forehead, and I felt the tension in my shoulders relax.
Too bad that was only temporary.
As soon as he reached for my hand, and took that first step forward—it all returned again.
Well, almost all.