Page 59 of I Do With You

I decide to interpret his answering grunt as approval.

“If you went after Shep and showed him up the way you did Roy, I can’t honestly say that I wouldn’t have done a whole lot more than a gravity check on you.” His lips twitch as he fights off a grin.

I think that’s Jim’s way of telling me good job on knocking Roy down a peg or two.

Shepherd makes a noise of disbelief. “Pssshaw, you wouldn’t have shown me up.” He does some fancy footwork with his fists lifted into a guard position. “I got skills and thrills, make the girls go—”

“Ill?” I interrupt to suggest, and he whips his head my way. His anger at the insult is quickly replaced by a good-natured laugh when I remind him, “Hockey’s different than street fighting, as we’ve established.”

“Man, that shit with Roy wasn’t even a street fight. Did you see his punch?” Shepherd slow-motion mimes the horrible punch, complete with sci-fi-esque sound effects and his thumb tucked into his fist like some sort of catfight punch-slap. In Shepherd’s mind, that’s probably one of the worst, most serious insults he can give, but Roy wasn’t quite that bad. Notmuchbetter, but he did at least have his thumb on the outside of his fist.

“What about Roy?” Jim asks, sticking with facts rather than insults.

I think about that for a second. The younger me would’ve hunted him down, fucked him up, and made sure he knew not to come around again. I’d like to think I’m not only older but also wiser. Plus, I have significantly more to lose now. I’m not a broke-ass kid with a too-busy mom who can spend a few months in juvie and be out.

I have a life, one I don’t want to fuck up, especially right as it’s getting so much better.

“That’s up to Hope. I don’t have any issues with Roy beyond her, and it sounds like she’s handling herself just fine. I’m happy to be her backup support system and let her lead on this. If she needs me to step in, I will.”

“Good answer, son. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing my whole life, with Lorie and then with the kids,” Jim shares as he claps me on the back.

It takes my breath away, not because he put any power behind the slap, but because I’m struck with a loss I never even realized I experienced. It was always me and Mom, and I never gave my absentee father a second thought. Why would I when he didn’t give me one? But righthere, in front of the sheriff’s department where Jim Barlowe went to bat for me, a virtual stranger, because his daughter feels some type of way about me, I figure out what a father is supposed to be.

Maybe what a man is supposed to be.

I don’t know if Hope realizes just how lucky she is, but I do. And I’ll not only protect her, I’ll protect the Barlowes ... even if it’s from me.

Chapter 21

HOPE

“They’re almost here,” I tell Joy and Mom.

Shepherd’s been texting me updates as though they’re busting Ben outPrison Break–style. His latest text saidPackage secured.I said package. Get it? On our way.

I can’t wait any longer and run out front so I can see them coming sooner. I squint, staring down the road, and then I see a teeny-tiny dot that’s a slightly darker gray, so is possibly—hopefully—Dad’s truck. “There they are!” I shout.

You’d think Ben’s been locked away for years, not hours, but it feels like it’s been entirely too long. Especially with everything that’s happened since they took him away from me.

Sitting here twiddling my thumbs with Joy and Mom has given me time to think and process—about Roy, about me, and about Ben. About the future.

Mostly I’ve decided that I don’t want to waste a single second. I’ve wasted too many already, and they’re a precious commodity I should fill to the brim with all the things I’ve been thinking about.

So when the truck stops and Ben gets out, I follow my instincts and run full speed ahead at him, flinging myself into his arms. He catches me easily, his hands cupping my ass right there in front of my momand dad, God, and everyone as I wrap myself around him like a bear hugging a tree to slam my lips to his.

“Y’okay?” I mumble into the kiss. “Miss’du.”

I feel his lips widen into a smile. “Mm-hmm, ahm fine,” he mumbles back, neither of us willing to stop kissing the other.

I tilt my head the other way, wanting to make sure I spread the greeting to every corner of his mouth, and somebody clears their throat.

“Guess we’ll be going, then,” Dad says, and I lift one hand to wave, still kissing Ben.

“I’m sure you two have lots to talk about,” Mom adds.

Joy and Shep giggle. “Yeah, ‘talk’ ... that’s what the kids are calling it these days,” Joy jokes.

Shep laughs. “Really? I usually call itfucking like rabbits.”

---