Jared looked like he wanted to argue, but then his shoulders slumped. He turned and paced away, head bowed with his hands on his hips. Forrest waited. He knew this was Jared trying to collect his thoughts. His friend needed a moment or two for himself.
“Okay, fine. I’m not going to shout at Chrissie.” He turned back. “But I still want an explanation about why nobody told me that someone was stalking her. Why wouldn’t she tell me?”
“It’s not exactly stalking. More like getting harassed at work.” Forrest held up his hands. “Don’t look at me like that. Chrissie was handling it fine on her own. She knew if she told you, you would end up locking her in the house and never let her out again.”
“That’s not true.”
“Given how much you’ve changed since Heather and Lucy died, I think that would be pretty close.”
Jared started to protest. Then he slumped against the wall with a curse through gritted teeth.
“I guess after what happened to them…can you blame me for wanting my only remaining daughter to be safe?”
“To the point you would wrap her in bubble wrap?”
Jared winced.
“You think I’m doing too much.”
“Jared, I get that you’re grieving, and so is Chrissie. And I wish we could find the bastard who caused the crash. But you can’t hide away from everyone, and you can’t restrict what Chrissie does. If she wants to do something, trust her judgment.”
“Trust her judgment,” Jared grunted. “Like I have to trust her judgment about having the hots for someone the same age as me.”
Forrest could feel his face getting warm.
“Hey, don’t look at me! I didn’t ask her to ‘have the hots’ for me.”
“I know, but…it does feel a bit odd.”
“Look, I know you’re not going to like this, but I love Chrissie.” Saying that out loud, finally, didn’t sound as scary as Forrest thought. “I know you’re going to say it’s wrong, and it shouldn’t be happening, but I do love her. I haven’t loved anyone like that since my wife. She’s special, and I held out for a long time out of respect for you. I don’t want to do that anymore. If she wants me, then great. If she doesn’t, I’ll respect that. But it’s to be her decision, not yours.”
Jared arched an eyebrow.
“You’ve made up your mind about that pretty quickly, haven’t you?”
“I wouldn’t say that. But it is made up.”
“I never thought I’d see you, of all people, get with my daughter.”
Forrest rubbed at his chest.
“I’m not asking for approval, Jared. But I would like that we didn’t fight. Whatever Chrissie wants, I’ll do it.”
“I believe you.” Jared sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Damn. This is not something I’m really prepared for. It’s going to take a while to get used to.”
“I get that.”
“But as long as you don’t hurt Chrissie, you’ll be fine with me.”
Forrest didn’t know if he should be relieved about that or not. But the weight was slowly lifting off his shoulders.
Some of it, though. Not all of it.
“Now, you are going to tell me about this guy harassing my daughter.” Jared folded his arms. “I want to know what the hell is going on.”
“I’ll tell you on the way to the stadium.”
“Why there?”