Page 34 of Home for Justice
Jack chuckled, already liking the man. “Call me Jack, please. And I owe you another thanks for helping Justice move things around. I heard that she roped you into rearranging half the house.”
“It was no trouble at all,” Tyler replied. “We just wanted to make sure nothing was in the way and that you had plenty of space to move around easily.”
“Well, you did a good job,” Jack said as he eased back into his chair. “You joining us? Justice was just serving dessert.”
Tyler’s eyes flicked to her, the corners crinkling with a quiet question. She gave a small nod, hoping he’d take the invitation.
“I’d like that,” he said, taking the seat she gestured to across from Jack.
Justice plated the dessert and returned to the table with three small dishes of baked cinnamon apples topped with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of toasted oats and chopped almonds. It had been one of the recipes she found that would satisfy her dad’s sweet tooth and the cardiologist’s restrictions.
Conversation flowed easily, much to her relief. Jack asked thoughtful questions, and Tyler answered with an honesty and humility that only made her heart soften more. She watched her dad lean in, nodding along, genuinely enjoying Tyler’s company.
The last couple of men she’d dated had barely survived the scrutiny of her father’s intuitive glare. He could sniff out pretense like a bloodhound. But Tyler didn’t seem to trigger a single alarm. If anything, he’d already vaulted to the top of her dad’s personal approval rankings.
When the conversation drifted toward Tyler’s circumstances, he explained briefly about his retirement from the Army, coinciding with Charlie’s heart failure.
Jack scraped the last of his dessert with the back of his spoon, sighing contentedly. Then he glanced toward Tyler. “Do you know what your plans are? Will you be staying around here for a while?”
There was the briefest pause, but she noticed it. The glance Tyler gave her before his gaze returned to her dad made her lean forward in anticipation.
“Right now, the answer is yes,” Tyler said, his tone quiet but certain. “I have a lot of Gramps’s things to take care of, and I want to fix up his house. It needs a lot of attention, but I’m not in a rush to be anywhere else.”
The conversation between Tyler and her dad continued, but behind Justice’s pleasant smile, her thoughts swirled like autumn leaves caught in a sudden wind.He says yes for now.Of course, that made sense. He has a house to deal with. A life to figure out. But still…what about later?
She didn’t want to be the woman who clung to a maybe. But already, in the space of just a few days, she’d found herself thinking about him in quiet moments. Wondering about things she had no business wondering—like what his kiss might taste like, or if the feel of his arms wrapped around her would lead to more.
She slammed a mental door on the thought before it could bloom further. A groan threatened to rise in her throat, and she bit it back, praying neither man had caught the flicker of her expression. Pushing her chair back, she stood abruptly and reached for the empty dessert plates. Busying her hands was always safer than letting her heart wander.
At the sink, she ran warm water and rinsed the small dishes, her movements steady but her mind still whirling. Behind her, she heard the low shuffle of her father returning to the living room. The soft crinkle of the newspaper told her he was already slipping into his nightly ritual of TV on low and the paper inhand. A small smile curved her lips.He’s home.That was all that mattered.
Then she realized Tyler was behind her. Not close enough to touch, but close enough that she felt it in her spine, in the heat that danced across her shoulders. She turned slightly, and there he was.
Tyler leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed casually, eyes locked on hers. Concern deepened the lines at the corners of his eyes, and something unspoken passed between them.
“You okay?” he asked, voice low and steady.
“Absolutely,” she replied, forcing a smile. “It feels wonderful to have Dad home.”
He gave a slight nod. “I’m sure it does.”
Before she could say more, her phone buzzed on the counter. She glanced at the screen and felt her heart clench. Her hand darted out to silence the call.
She exhaled hard, muttering curses under her breath.
Tyler’s voice softened. “I feel like I need to ask again. Are you really okay?”
She turned toward him fully this time, and there was no deflecting from the quiet steadiness in his gaze. She sighed and let her shoulders drop. “It’s Uncle Jordy. Again. There’s nothing he needs to say to me, and certainly not to Dad. He knows I won’t open the door to him, so he’ll keep calling.”
“If he keeps bothering you,” Tyler said, “let me know.”
She blinked, caught off guard by the quiet certainty in his tone. “And what would you do?”
“I’d have a talk with him.”
She couldn’t help the laughter that erupted. The sudden and sharp sound escaped like air from a balloon. “I’m afraid Jordy would make for poor conversation.”
Tyler’s mouth quirked into a half smile. “That’s fine. I’d be the only one doing the talking.”
