Her eyes shone, telling Olin she held back tears. “But won’t everyone ask where I am? Won’tthatcause you problems?”
“Not really,” her mother said. “Honestly, no one asks about you, Kat. After this many years with nothing positive to say, it is an awkward situation that most people are polite enough to leave well enough alone.”
“You can’t do this!” Kat slammed her hands on the table and stood, leaning forward.
Her father didn’t jump. Instead, he set his fork down as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “This is part of the reason, Katherine. Your hysterics, your refusal to dress appropriately, your constant rebellious streak. If you behaved properly, like a good daughter should, you would be invited. Consider this a wakeup call, perhaps. If you choose to shape-up, then next year you might find yourself invited.”
Kat swallowed hard, but as she went to sit, to just accept the things her parents said, Olin had had enough. He stood and set his napkin down on the table. “Come on, Kat.”
Her father nailed him with a hard look, as if daring Olin to intervene in a family problem that was so far above his station. But Olin had faced down the barrel of gangsters before—some rich man who thought too much of himself wasn’t about to shake him.
Kat turned to look at Olin, and he gave her the softest smile he could. “Let’s go. There’s no reason to sit here and listen to them.”
“But—”
Bradley stood as well, having said all of nothing during his time there. Then again, Bradley didn’t tend to be a talker. Maybe that was why it surprised Olin when the man finally did. “Always heard that you should never listen to people who don’t know shit. Had a hand come out to work the ranch one time, and they kept telling me my stallions were too headstrong. Turned out the idiot had only worked with geldings, and old ones at that. If I’d have listened to him, I’d have passed on some of my best horses. Point being?” Bradley turned a cold look on her parents as he said the last part. “People say a lot of stupid shit, but that doesn’t make any of it your problem.” He held out a hand and waited.
Kat set her hand into his palm without hesitation, and he tugged her toward the door without another look at her parents.
“She came here with three men and thinks we’re supposed to just overlook everything? She’s too brash, too quick to do things that could ruin us,” Barlow said.
Olin kept in what he wanted to say, that they could go fuck themselves, and looked toward Dean instead. “Ready?”
Dean stood, his gaze sharper than Olin normally saw it. Dean could be charming and funny, but Olin had always seen him decimate people in a courtroom and bring even the most secure to tears. In fact, Olin was rather glad not to be on the receiving end of all that anger.
“You know, after meeting you, I’m even more impressed with that woman. For her to have grown up with assholes like you and for her to still have turned out the way she did? Well, I’d say it was a miracle if I didn’t know better. There was nothing miraculous about it—she’s just tougher than either of you, and she’s a lot better off without you.” Dean turned his back on the sputtering couple as if they meant nothing before walking out of the room.
Which was for the best, really. What would yelling at the two do? If two people could be that cold toward their own daughter, nothing any of the men said would change a thing. Her parents saw what they wanted, believed what they wanted, and there wasn’t a damn thing Olin could do about that.
Well, other than make sure he loved Kat enough that she knew her parents were idiots, that she didn’t take it to heart.
And he was pretty sure he could love her so much that sheknewshe didn’t need those idiot’s approval.
* * * *
Kat wiped her eyes, hating the headache she still had from crying. It seemed entirely unfair that she not only got to spend most of the evening crying, that her face was a puffy mess because of it, but then to also be in pain?
It felt like an insult being tacked onto the whole thing.
At least the men had left her be. Maybe they’d realized she needed a break, that she needed to regroup. She’d never have brought them if she thought for even a moment that the meal would go like that.
Sure, she’d expected her parents to berate her—that was simply the language they communicated in. Nowhere on her list of things to expect, however, had been them not inviting her to the annual family reunion. She’d gone every time they’d held it for her entire life. Originally it had been hosted by her grandparents, back when she was little, before her parents took it over when she’d been a teenager.
A knock on the door had her pressing her cool fingertips to her eyelids to try to ease the swollen look of them as she called out for whoever it was to come in.
Olin had already brought her food, so that wasn’t it. Most likely, they’d simply reached their limit of allowing her to hide and cry by herself.
Sometimes being with Doms was great—made her feel safe and cared for—and sometimes it annoyed the fuck out of her.
Like right then, when she wanted to bury herself in an igloo of blankets and pretend the whole world had disappeared but no doubt her men felt if something was wrong, she should talk to them.
Stupid Doms…
More than one set of heavy footsteps echoed off the wooden floor, so Kat wasn’t surprised when she finally moved her fingers to find Olin, Dean and Bradley all in her room. “What?” she asked, not bothering to soften her tone at all.
“You can’t hide all night,” Bradley said. “I’m getting sick of hearing you cry in here all by yourself.”
“Well, I’ll try to do it more quietly,” Kat snapped.