Page 33 of No Love Lost

She grinned up at him. “I think I do. Whenever you say my daughter, it makes me feel good, too.” Then she blew out a breath. “Okay, let’s try this out. Put the car in gear, Dad. I don’t want to be late.”

Laughing, he squeezed her hand. “Okay, Spitfire. Whatever my daughter needs, she gets.”

Once he was on the road, she shocked him again. “I think you should ask Mom to go with you to Boston.”

His head whipped to the side, then back to the road. “What? Why?”

Nina’s face flushed, and she shrugged. “You’re going to do a really hard thing. Mom’s going to worry about you, and it might be easier for you if she’s there. I can stay with Nimii and Ginny for a couple of days. Plus, I think she likes you. Well, obviously, she likes you. She always has. But I think you like her too. Anyway, I think she should go with you.”

He was still floating on the good vibes when he walked into Phail General after he’d dropped off Nina. His daughter was worried about him. And she was definitely matchmaking him and Addy. For the first time in a long time, he was excited and hopeful about the future.

“What’s got you smiling, Slick?”

He shrugged. “Just dropped Nina off at school and feeling like a real dad.”

Troy grinned. “That’s awesome. She’s a great kid. I can’t believe I didn’t put it together before. She might look a lot like Addison, but there’s enough of you in there now that I know about the connection. Wish I’d seen it sooner.”

Heath felt the same, but maybe things had happened the way they were supposed to. Time to turn the topic. “I want to know more about what you guys have been planning without me. Which isn’t what good friends do, by the way.”

Troy simply laughed. “We’ve been extending invitations for a year, Slick. Not our fault that you were slow to respond.”

And that nearly made him sick again. He’d wasted a year.

Troy’s face sobered. “Sorry. Didn’t mean it that way. You’re here now, and it’s all going to work out for the best. You’ll see.”

He sure as hell hoped so. He didn’t know how he would cope if it didn’t.

Addison hadn’t been back to Boston since she’d left with Nimii all those years ago to raise her daughter in Phail.

The city held so many memories. Those ranged from miserable to wonderful and stopped everywhere in between. The most powerful, both good and bad, revolved around the man driving beside her.

The three-hour trip had flown by easily. Conversation had never been a challenge for the two of them. Neither had silence.

She’d been more comfortable with Heath than with anyone else in her life except Nina. Even Nimii and Ginny. With Heath, she’d been herself and for the first time, she’d been enough.

She could feel Heath’s tension rise as they moved through the city. “Tell me more about your business. Not the financial structure stuff Nina finds fascinating, but the reasons behind it, why you like it.”

He smiled but kept his eyes on the traffic that was swallowing the roads. “I always knew I was lucky to grow up with money. My grandfather always impressed me as the type of man I’d like to be. You’d have liked him, and he would have liked you.”

Addy knew Heath’s parents had never liked her, even before they’d known her. She wasn’t from the right type of family, hadn’t attended the right schools, hadn’t had the right skin color, and shouldn’t have been allowed around their son.

“Gramps was injured in the Army and came back to build a small fortune with his savvy about businesses that were going to be successful. He invested in businesses he thought were smart and a little different. Ones that could compete without being swallowed up by the many that were exactly like them. He liked people with a vision of how to do things differently.”

“Sounds like someone else I know.”

He grinned. “Thanks. Unless you’re talking about Nina. Wait, that’s still a thanks.”

She laughed, happy she’d been able to lighten his mood. “Our daughter has eclectic tastes. One day, I’m sure she’s going to be working for NASA. The next day, I think she’ll be creating new computer programs. And then I’m sure she’ll be a veterinarian.”

“I love that about her. She’s so interested in everything.”

“Every last thing.”

“Tell me more.”

He sucked up every tidbit she shared. This time, she talked about the science projects, Nina’s dinosaur stage, and her fascination with plumbing.

“Maybe she’ll go into partnership with Sean one day. I can see her liking all aspects of construction.”

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