“Okay, I’m coming! Hold your horses!” Forrest got to the door and opened it, staring in bewilderment at the guy on the doorstep. “Jared?”
“What, Forrest? Surprised that I’m actually out of the house?”
“Erm, yeah. You haven’t gone further than the end of the drive in a while.”
His friend was standing there, hands clenched into fists with fury blazing in his eyes. Forrest didn’t need to guess why he was here. Had Chrissie told him about what they had done?
“Where’s my daughter, Forrest?” Jared snarled.
“How do you know that she’s here?”
“Rita sent me a message, letting me know that you were more than likely taking her home. When I asked why, she told me that you let her stay with you because someone was following you?” Jared stepped towards him. “So, where is she? And why the hell didn’t you tell me that she had a stalker?”
Forrest sighed.
“I don’t know where Chrissie is. She’s already gone.”
“What?”
“I woke up, and she was gone. I can’t contact her.” Forrest held up his hands as Jared snarled again. “Whoa, calm down, Jared.”
“Calm down? You fuck my daughter and you expect me to calm down?”
“Wait, what? What makes you think we were intimate?”
Jared snorted.
“Everyone tiptoes around me, but I’m not stupid. I know she has a crush on you. And from the way I’ve seen you look at her, you feel the same way.”
“What?”
“Do you want me to beat the crap out of you, Forrest? Don’t stall me, and tell me the fucking truth!”
Forrest could see Jared was going to punch him either way, so he braced himself.
“If you want to know if two consenting adults spent the night together, then yes, we did. And it was your daughter who initiated it all.”
“You think I’m going to believe that?” Jared cried. “She’s my daughter!”
“She’s twenty-three! She’s not a kid anymore! I’ve kept my hands to myself for a long time, but when she made her feelings clear, I wasn’t going to be a gentleman about it anymore. We’re adults, and we don’t need to run things by you.”
“You b…”
“Nothing’s going to happen to her!” Forrest shot back. “You can’t keep her protected from the world forever. She’s not going to die if she does something you’re terrified about. And that includes who she has intimate relations with.”
He was expecting Jared to punch him, but it still came out of nowhere. Jared was still very fast. The punch caught him right below the eye, and Forrest was knocked back a few steps. Damn, he had forgotten how strong his friend was.
Jared was breathing heavily, rubbing his knuckles. His face throbbing, Forrest straightened up.
“Feeling better?”
“Not even close enough,” Jared growled.
“Next punch you throw, I’ll hit you right back. Chrissie is not a little kid, Jared. She’s an adult, and she knows what she wants.”
“If she knows what she wants, and she wants you, then where the hell is she? She hasn’t come home.”
“I honestly don’t know. I’m trying to figure out where she is.” Forrest ran his hands through his hair. He then realized that he was shaking. “I don’t know if what happened was too intense that it scared her, or if she began to regret what she did. But she’s not here, and she’s not going to appreciate you screaming at her for doing something that you didn’t know about.”