Page 72 of Home for Justice
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Jack had murmured something low to Justice before heading upstairs, his gait steady, his shoulders squared. If Tyler hadn’t known the man had undergone major heart surgery just weeks ago, he’d never have guessed it. Jack McClay carried himself like a man who didn’t yield to pain, circumstance, and certainly not to age or illness.
Tyler watched him until he disappeared from view, waiting silently beside the couch, uncertain of what Justice wanted tonight. He didn’t want to presume anything. Just because she had gone home with him the previous night didn’t mean that would become their rhythm. Not unless she also wanted it.
But the moment she turned to him, the answer was clear in her soft gaze and steady stride. She walked straight to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her cheek to his chest. He folded his arms around her and held her close, breathing her in. That quiet moment when words weren’t needed, where the beat of their hearts, and the way her body fit against his said everything, she was becoming something he looked forward to more than he ever expected.
Eventually, she leaned back slightly and tipped her head to look up at him. “Do you want to go back to your place, or did last night taint the memory of our first night together?”
A grin pulled at his lips. He shook his head. “Being with you, in my house and in my bed, was perfect. Now… the middle-of-the-night sprint to deal with a barn on fire?” He lifted his brows, amused. “Not high on my romance checklist, but it doesn’t take away a single thing about what I feel with you.”
Her smile spread slowly, tired but genuine. “I’m glad. I feel the same.”
They locked up the house together, a shared rhythm already forming, then walked out into the cool night. Under the newly installed security lights that came on, she turned to him before they got into his SUV
“I can drive,” she offered. “That way you don’t have to bring me back in the morning.”
He brushed her knuckles with his thumb as he opened the door. “Sweetheart, my job with Lighthouse has already started. I have no reason not to get up with you. Besides, I like mornings better now that they come with coffee and your sleepy smile.”
Her laughter was soft and real, and it carried him all the way home. Inside, she kicked off her shoes and pulled her sweater tighter around her, the fatigue from the long day showing in the slope of her shoulders. Tyler, though, had one more thing weighing on his chest, and it wasn’t the fire. It was Jack’s quiet words from earlier. He needed them out in the open.
“Your dad is worried,” he said gently, stepping in close.
She stiffened, just a little, her brows pulling together.
He realized too late that he should have eased into the subject. But the words were already spoken. Tyler caught her hands, linking his fingers through hers. “He knows something’s going on. That there’s danger. And he hates that he’s stuck onthe sidelines. For a man like Jack, that’s brutal.” He gave a small shrug. “I get it. I’d feel the same way.”
Justice’s expression softened as her thoughts turned inward. “Dad’s always been my protector,” she murmured. “Not in some overbearing way. He didn’t treat me like I was delicate or helpless. It was just… it was him. Always there. Solid. Unshakable.”
She paused, then tilted her head, clearly sifting through old memories. “He’s not exactly what you’d call alpha,” she said, wrinkling her nose adorably. “But he’s always had this strength, this quiet intensity. My mom was tough and strong in a different way. She worked part-time at the shop, kept the place running when Dad was on a job. Handled customers, handled chaos. She was grace under pressure. But if anyone so much as looked sideways at her, my dad would be there in a heartbeat.”
Her voice turned wistful. “He would’ve gone to war for her, no hesitation. And I think that’s what crushed him the most when she got sick. Cancer… it wasn’t a fight he could win for her. He couldn’t step in and fix it. So I did what I could. Took on more. Tried to be their steady ground.”
She sighed, her thumb sweeping across his hand. “But no matter how much I helped, I knew he still carried that helplessness with him. Like a weight he didn’t know how to set down.”
Her words struck him straight through the heart, so pure and earnest that it left him momentarily breathless. “I understand your dad very well,” Tyler said, his voice low and steady. “Because I feel the same way about you.”
Justice’s smile was a soft reflection of the blossoming emotions between them. She squeezed his hands, grounding them both in the truth of the moment.
Still holding her gaze, he added, “Your dad also mentioned he didn’t want me to feel indebted to you. I didn’t like that Ispoke with him first because I wanted these words to come to you directly. You deserve that.”
She nibbled at her lower lip, her beautiful eyes unwavering, wide open to him, to whatever came next.
Tyler gathered his thoughts, but the truth poured out with surprising ease. “I told him about that first hug you gave me, standing in the hospital when I felt like I had nothing tethering me. That hug wasn’t just comfort, but it changed something inside me. It clicked something into place that I didn’t even know was missing.” He squeezed her fingers gently. “I’m not here because of obligation, Justice. I’m here because of you. I’m falling for you. And you deserved to hear that from me first.”
The smile that broke across her face could have lit up every shadowed part of his soul.
And then she giggled in a sweet, irrepressible sound that had him grinning before he even knew why. “Every time you say something like that,” she said, a playful gleam in her eyes, “it makes me want to jump you.”
He barked out a laugh, the tightness in his chest giving way to something lighter, happier. “That’s exactly what I was hoping for.”
Still holding her hand, he laced their fingers tighter and led her toward the stairs. They didn’t rush. There was no frenzy, only a shared sense of certainty, a pull between them stronger than gravity. Step by step, they made their way to his bedroom, the quiet night wrapping around them like a cocoon.
At the threshold, she tugged on his hand, halting him. He turned, giving her his full attention, sensing that whatever she wanted to say was important.
She lifted her chin slightly, her voice soft but sure. “I want to be just as honest with you. I felt something the first time we hugged, too. It might’ve started because I was scared andoverwhelmed... but it didn’t fade. Every single time we touch, it gets stronger.”
Tyler’s chest tightened, her words sinking deep into places he hadn’t even realized were still raw.
