Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 133849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
His father lowered his head until it rested against Pops’s, and he took a moment to breathe as though the other man gave him strength and calm.
Josh looked over and Grim was watching them with open affection. Maybe Pops was right, and it was time to bring the heat level down.
But not before he made things plain to his father.
“I’m in love with Nicole, and there’s nothing you can say that’s going to make me turn her away,” Josh stated plainly.
His pops mouthed the words told you before stepping back. “Grim, do you feel the same way?”
Grim stood, joining Josh. “I do.”
“Yeah, I get the feeling you’ll be saying those words soon,” Pops said under his breath. He returned to his seat. “I’m happy for you both. I look forward to some grandbabies. It’s been too long since I was around someone on my intellectual level.”
Pops winked as Dad turned, pointing his way. “That’s a good twenty, Sam.”
“Let’s make it thirty,” Pops shot back.
“Okay, I love you both, but could we dial back the sexual tension? You’re my parents and it’s getting to me,” Josh complained.
“I know we’re in a club and that’s apparently a trigger for Pops to turn into an unapologetic brat, but it’s gross. I say that with all love and respect.” Grim groaned and sat back.
“I love freaking the younger generation out.” Pops looked infinitely pleased with himself.
“I’m glad you all find this amusing, but Nicole is in trouble, and that means we’re all in trouble.” Dad was back to looking tense, his shoulders straight. “According to Chase there’s serious evidence against her. You can’t expect me to not talk about this.”
“But you didn’t talk about it.” Josh was right back to tense, too. “You went behind my back and planned how to deal with the situation without me or Grim being involved at all. I love you, Dad. I appreciate everything you’ve ever done for me, but this is how you lose me. I am not a child. I am a fully grown man who you raised and trust with your business. You don’t get to hand over all the things you don’t want to do and then walk in and tell me how to run the place, and that damn straight includes my love life. I’m going to marry Nicole.”
“We’re going to marry Nicole,” Grim corrected.
“You can’t marry Nicole because Nicole doesn’t exist,” his father pointed out. “Son, you don’t even know her real name.”
“Her real name is Nora Holloway, but her name doesn’t matter,” Josh countered. “I’m going to ask you something and I want you to think about this. If you’d found out Mom was in the situation Nicole is in, would you have backed off? Or would you have trusted in the love you had for her? Would you have shrugged and moved on and hoped it all worked out for her? Or would you have fought?”
His dad went serious. “You know what I would have done.”
“Don’t expect me to be less of a man than you are.” Josh stood in front of the man he would look like when he was older. There was no way to deny that he was Jack Barnes’s biological child. It was in his hair and eye color and the build of his body. It was also in his stubborn will. But he was his mother’s child, too. And beyond all biology he was Sam Fleetwood’s. It was his pop’s infinite patience, his quiet grace that took over. “Dad, I don’t want to fight with you. Grim and I need your help. I know you see me as a kid, but I’m not. I’m ready to start my family even if that means fighting whatever demons are coming after Nicole. Even if it means fighting you.”
His father took a long breath and moved into his space. “There’s no fight here, son. None. I’m sorry. Grim, come here.” Grim moved in, and Dad wrapped them both up. “I’m proud of both of you. I know it was wrong and I should have talked to you, but it’s hard for me to stop trying to shield you from the world. You boys and your sisters are precious to me.”
“And Nicole is precious to us,” Josh said. “When you get to know her, you’ll love her, too.”
Dad stepped back. “I know I will.” He looked at Grim. “You all right, son?”
Grim stood there for a minute. “I don’t know. I feel weird.”
Pops was right beside him. “It’s okay, son. It’s called emotion, and it’s hard to deal with. You’ll get the hang of it in another forty years or so. Josh handles it better because he wasn’t raised entirely by religious zealots steeped in toxic masculinity. The masculinity he was raised around was open and honest, but it took us a while. Grim, you know it’s okay to cry, right? Ain’t no one here going to think less of you.”