Page 148 of Tangled up in You

“Daddy. You didnotjust follow us!”

“He obviously did,” Chris snarked before he could stop himself.

“I wanted to make sure you’re okay!” her father said. “Can you blame me?”

“Didn’t Josie tell you I was with them?”

“She did.” He looked even more sheepish. “And she’ll chew me a new one when I get back to the hotel, I’m sure.”

JESSE

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

To be honest, she’d hoped to coax Chris into bed, both to reassure herself this was really happening and to soothe the sudden need she’d felt now that she realized this had all been a horrible misunderstanding.

“Then why did you follow us?” Jesse asked. “You have their address.”

“I know.” He looked at Chris. “But I wanted to make sure.”

“Would you like to come in, Mr. Klevenson?” Christopher asked.

“No!” she said. “He needs to go back to his hotel.”

But her dad beamed and opened the door. “Thank you! I’d love to!”

Chris at least had the decency to shrug. “Sorry, but he’s here. I’d rather have him come in than know he’s sitting out here waiting.”

Jesse turned at the sound of another SUV rolling in, and she didn’t have to guess who it was. The back window rolled down and Josie leaned out. “Brand! Get over here right now! I told you to leave them alone for today!” She waved and smiled at Christopher. “Hi, Chris!”

“Hi!” he called back. “Want to come in?”

Jesse groaned and covered her face with her hand.This cannot be happening.

“Come on, Josie,” her dad said. “He’s being a good host!”

She opened the door and stalked over, still glaring at Jesse’s dad. “I told you they need this time together. And if they kept her alive before, I seriously doubt they’ll let anything happen to her now.”

“Doesn’t hurt to be sociable,” her father said with a playful grin. Then he clapped Chris on the shoulder and started walking with him.

Josie blew out an aggravated breath and turned to Jesse. “Honey, I’mreallysorry about this. He left before I could stop him, and then he kept sending my calls to voice mail.”

Jesse didn’t know why she started laughing, but it turned into tears at some point and she was hugging Josie tighter than she’d ever hugged her before.

“Hey, you okay, sweetie?” Josie asked.

“Yeah. I’m okay, Mom.”

Josie froze, but then hugged her tighter. “I’m okay with that, but don’t feel you have to if you don’t want to.”

“I want to. Mom would want me to. You’ve been a mom to me.”

“Everything okay?” her dad called out.

Josie waved him off. “Just go inside, Brand. We’ll be there in a minute. We’re having girl time.”

Jesse laughed and finally released her. “I’m really glad he met you. I’m sorry if you thought I was standoffish in the beginning.”

“It’s okay. He explained it to me, and I won’t lie that it took me a while to stop stressing over it. But I love you like a daughter. I know I’m only fourteen years older than you, and I didn’t want you to think I was trying to shove you out or take over your mom’s place.”

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