Page 124 of Rescue (Brazen Bulls Birthright 2)

“This is good, Kel. I canfeelhow good this is for you.”

Too emotional to speak just now, Kelsey nodded emphatically. Then she disregarded all the careful prep and hugged her forever friend as hard as she could.

They stood in that clutch until they heard a knock at the door. Maisie pushed Kelsey back and smoothed her hair and dress again. “That’s Big Daddy, and I have a job to do, so I’ll see you in a couple minutes, okay?”

Again, all Kelsey could so was nod and try to smile. She was trying her hardest not to cry. Her mascara was waterproof, but she didn’t want red, puffy eyes.

Maisie opened the door. She and Kelsey’s dad shared a quick hug, and then Kelsey was alone with her father.

Kelsey had wanted a princess wedding, but she was a Bulls girl, marrying a Bull, and there was no way she’d have tried to force the men she loved into suits—or worse, tuxedos. The Bulls wore their good jeans and pressed button shirts. They’d polished their boots and kuttes. They’d washed. Most had combed and trimmed. That was as formal as they got without misery, and it was perfect.

Her father stood before her just so. Still at the door, he stared at her. “God, pixie.” He set his hand on his chest, over his heart, and looked.

Kelsey saw a tear slip from his eye and slide down his lined face, and the sight of her tough, tender father crying was her undoing.

The first sob was like a cough, and she slapped her hand over her mouth, trying to hold more back, but it wasn’t enough. She began to cry.

He hurried to her and took her into his arms, offering her a clean bandana. She took it and clutched it in her hand, needing to be held right now more than to wipe her tears.

“I’m so proud of you, pix. I love you so fucking much.” He was crying, too.

“I love you, Daddy,” she wailed against his chest. The rich aroma of leather cleaner surrounded her.

“Okay, okay.” He kissed her head and pushed her gently back and wiped his eyes. “Your mom is going to hurt me if I make you late for your own wedding, so let’s get our shit together here, okay?”

She nodded and turned to the mirror to check the damage. Not too bad. Just a bit damp.

“Aren’t you supposed to have something blue?” Daddy asked, standing behind her.

Kelsey smiled at his reflection. “I do. It’s my underwear.”

He chuckled. “I guess you don’t need this, then?”

Turning to face him, she saw a hinged jewelry box in his hand. “What’s that?”

He lifted the lid. A pendant—a simple chain that had the bright sheen of platinum, and a heart-shaped sapphire set in platinum as well.

“OhDaddy,” she gasped. “It’s beautiful.”

“You will always be my pixie,” he said, lifting it from its velvet bed, “but today, I step back and let Dex be the man you love best.”

He raised the necklace like an offering, and she turned and lifted her hair so he could reach over her and lay it around her neck. As he closed the clasp, he said, “I don’t like to think of it as giving you away, because I’ll never do that. I think of it as making room.”

He set his hands on her shoulders, and they looked in the mirror together. Kelsey met his eyes in the glass. “I’ll never love you any less, Daddy. I’ve loved you completely since the first day I ever saw you.”

He smiled. “Do you remember when that was?”

She nodded. “At preschool. You were outside the fence.”

His smile vanished, and he gaped at her with naked shock. “You remember that?”

It was a misty, soft-focus memory, one of her earliest, but it was real. “I do. I remember thinking that you were sad, and being worried about it because … I don’t know how to explain it. It was like I knew you were important, even though I didn’t know who you were. And I knew I loved you.”

His work-roughened hands tightened on her shoulders, and he bowed his head. Kelsey lifted her hands and set them on his. The diamond engagement ring Dex had given her for Valentine’s Day sparkled in the mirror. “You’ve made me happy every day since that day, Daddy.”

“I hope Dex makes you happy for the rest of your life.”

“He will.”

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