NFH 03 Checkmate (40 page)

“
Let’s go see if my dad is
here yet,” Rory said, sounding upbeat and happy while he resigned
himself to the day of hell and his truck being ransacked by
Bradfords.

* * * *

“
Are you hiding from me or
my boys?” the man that he wanted to deck asked as he stepped up
beside him.

“
Both,” Connor admitted,
taking a sip of his lukewarm beer as he looked across the large
lake at absolutely nothing.

“
Afraid my sons are going to
hurt you?” Mr. James asked, sounding curious.

“
No,” he said, his grip
tightening around his bottle as he forced himself to stand there
and not take a swing at the bastard who had it coming.

For the past five hours, he’d been forced to
put up with this bastard ignoring Rory, talking down to her and
acting indifferently towards her. Several times he had to stop
himself from doing something that he’d regret, not that he’d live
long if he punched her father with dozens of Bradfords and James
around. He honestly didn’t care if they beat the shit out of him.
Knowing that it would upset Rory was the only thing that stopped
him. Rory deserved so much better than this asshole. She deserved a
father that loved her and appreciated her and knew that she
was-

“
Did you know that Rory is
my favorite?” Mr. James said, catching him off guard.

Connor took a sip of his beer, not sure if
calling his future father-in-law a lying sack of shit was the way
to go on this one. It was painfully obvious, at least to him, that
the man hadn’t wanted a daughter. He’d never treated Rory like she
was anything special. All he did was push her away. It was clear
that the man didn’t have a clue how to deal with a daughter, but he
should have tried. Connor had no clue what to do with a little girl
either, but if he and Rory were blessed with one, he would damn
well do what he had to for her even if that meant dressing up like
princesses and playing with Barbies.

“
Parents aren’t supposed to
have favorites, but the moment that I held Rory in my arms she
became my world,” Mr. James said, sounding pleased and that was
pretty much what made Connor snap.

“
Bullshit,” Connor snapped,
moving to take a sip of his piss warm beer when it was suddenly
snatched from his hand and just as quickly replaced with a fresh
cold beer.

Frowning, and a little surprised that Mr.
James hadn’t swung at him, he looked over at the man just as Mr.
James tossed his old beer in one of the trash cans that someone
placed near the water’s edge, not that it was really needed since
everyone was still back at the main campsite, eating. He hadn’t
seen anyone in over an hour and he’d been hoping to keep it that
way for the rest of the night.

“
I know it’s hard to
believe,” Mr. James said, staring out at the water, “but I love
that little girl more than anything and I’m damn proud of
her.”

“
You sure have a funny way
of showing it,” Connor bit out, taking a sip of his beer and
joining Mr. James in staring out at the lake.

Mr. James chuckled. “You were a hell of a
lot nicer the last time we had this talk,” he said, taking a sip of
his beer and still not looking at Connor.

“
This talk?” Connor asked,
wondering if Mr. James was drunk. He looked over his shoulder to
see if he could find one of the man’s sons to help him walk it off,
but everyone was still off enjoying the party.

“
The talk we had when you
showed up on my front doorstep on Rory’s eighteenth birthday and
asked permission to marry my daughter,” Mr. James said, reminding
him of another humiliating experience that he’d really rather
forget.

“
Are you going to tell me to
fuck off again?” Connor asked, taking a sip of his beer as he did
his damndest to ignore the memories of that conversation and how
close he’d come to pissing himself.

“
That’s not exactly what I
said,” Mr. James said, sounding amused.

“
Are you going to go for
your gun again?” Connor demanded, still pissed that the man
wouldn’t even hear him out and when Connor begged, yes, begged, for
his permission to marry Rory if he could make up for all the
bullshit he’d put her through over the years. The man wouldn't even
hear him out before he went for his gun.

“
You weren’t ready to get
married, Connor,” Mr. James said quietly. “And Rory deserved better
than that.”

“
I would have taken care of
her.”

“
I know you would have,
Connor,” Mr. James said, surprising him. “You would have worked
your ass off and taken damn good care of her as best as an eighteen
year old boy could, but it wouldn’t have been enough and it
wouldn’t have been fair to either one of you, Connor.”

When Connor didn’t say anything, Mr. James
continued. “You would have both struggled. Rory probably would have
dropped out of college, because she’s so damn stubborn and she
wouldn’t have felt right about you working your ass off to support
her. You wouldn’t be where you are today if you’d had a family to
hold you back. I know the type of man you are, Connor. You never
would have taken a chance starting a business that could have gone
belly up if you had a family to support. You both had a lot of
growing up to do.”

Connor chuckled without humor, because
that’s probably exactly what would have happened, but it still hurt
thinking about what could have been. “You’re right. We probably
would have started a family too soon and would have struggled just
to get by.”

“
You were too young and
headstrong to see that,” Mr. James said, nodding in
agreement.

He turned a glare on the older man. “You
could have just said that instead of going for the gun!”

“
My way was easier,” Mr.
James said, his lips twitching with amusement.

“
For who?” Connor asked,
glaring at the man.

“
For me,” Mr. James said,
chuckling as he took another sip of his beer.

“
And that’s really all that
mattered?” Connor demanded, seeing so much of Rory’s Bradford
cousins in the man at the moment that it actually frightened him a
little bit.

Mr. James chuckled. “It’s the family way,”
he said with a wink.

Connor took a sip of his beer as he turned
his attention back to the lake. For a few minutes neither one of
them spoke and he should have been fine with that, but he had to
ask, “Do you have a problem with me marrying your daughter
now?”

“
Absolutely none,” Mr. James
said, sounding like he meant it.

“
Then why have you been
glaring at me and pretty much ignoring Rory since you found out
that we're engaged?” he demanded, wondering if he’d ever understand
this man.

“
I can’t let Rory know that
I’m actually pleased,” Mr. James scoffed.

“
Why the hell not?” Connor
asked, thinking that Rory would probably be happy to hear that her
father was happy about something in her life.

Mr. James sighed heavily. “And here I
thought that you knew my daughter.”

“
I know her better than
anyone,” Connor argued, finishing off his beer and chucking it into
the barrel.

“
Then you know that she’s
stubborn as hell and will become suspicious if she knows that I
actually like you,” Mr. James explained, once again shocking him
into silence.

The man actually liked him? That was
surprising since he’d done nothing but glare at him since they
first met. Of course, he couldn’t forget those times when their
little misunderstandings went to court and the man had volunteered
to beat some sense into him, at no charge of course.

“
I learned very early on
that my daughter doesn’t like doing things the easy way. She likes
to argue, put her foot down and do the opposite of what’s expected
of her. Anytime I’ve tried to support her, she’s either shut down
or has given up. It’s only when I’m a cold bastard that she ends up
following her heart. It’s what makes Rory, Rory and I wouldn’t
change her for anything in the world. I’m banking on you marrying
her and making her happy.”

“
I will,” Connor promised,
hating to admit that the man did have a point. That was also what
he loved about Rory, but her stubbornness was also what made him
want to bend her over his knees and spank her beautiful ass most
days. She was the most frustrating woman that he’d ever
met.

“
I know you will, because if
you don’t, I’m going to give in and let my boys do what they’ve
been dying to do for the last twenty-five years and kick your
ass.”

Chapter 35

“
I don’t think this is a
good idea,” Haley, Jason’s wife and the cutest little thing she’d
ever seen, said, again, as she pushed her glasses back up her nose
and shot another nervous look around the dark parking
lot.

“
Relax,” Rory said as she
continued to search through Connor’s rather impressive collection
of tools that he had stored in the truck bed’s huge toolbox. “Aunt
Megan just had the seventh set of desserts put out. We’ve got a
good twenty minutes before they’re done eating.”

“
Actually, we should have
thirty,” Zoe said, Trevor’s wife and one of the most entertaining
women that she’d ever met, said as she risked a glance from their
crouched position in the back of Connor’s truck.

“
You didn’t put out any of
your baked goods, did you?” Rory asked, trying to mask the fear in
her voice as she shot Zoe a look only to find the woman rolling her
eyes.

“
I’m not allowed to bake
while I’m pregnant,” she muttered, lovingly rubbing her very large
stomach as she gave up crouching and carefully dropped to a sitting
position with Haley’s help.

“
Trevor’s afraid of the
babies getting food poisoning,” Haley explained, shooting Zoe an
apologetic smile and a shrug when the woman gasped in
outrage.

“
My baking isn’t that bad!”
Zoe argued.

“
Sweetie,” Rory said,
pausing in her search to reach over and give Zoe’s hand a quick
squeeze, “there isn’t a Bradford alive that will willingly touch
your baked goods.”

“
I overheard Jason and
Trevor telling everyone that you baked my cupcakes so that they
wouldn’t have to share,” Haley added softly as she took Zoe’s other
hand into hers. “Not one single Bradford will touch them. In fact,
they actually demanded that everything the guys claimed that you
baked be taken away and given its own section.”

“
Oh,” Zoe mumbled, her
shoulders sagging in defeat. “That would explain why Bradfords kept
blocking me from going to the table overflowing with cupcakes,
cookies and brownies and telling me that they weren’t good for the
babies. I thought they were just afraid of the babies getting
fat.”

“
Nope, Bradfords don’t get
fat,” Rory said with a shrug as she once again turned her attention
back to the task at hand.

“
Lucky bastards,” Zoe
muttered and she couldn’t help but agree.

Bradfords could eat whatever they wanted,
whenever they wanted and never had to worry about getting fat. The
same could be said for any of the James that had Bradford blood.
Rory didn’t mention to Zoe that she’d also been blessed with that
little problem, minus the insane appetite, because it would upset
the very hormonal woman who was constantly struggling with her
weight. The only time Zoe didn’t worry about gaining weight was
when she was pregnant, which was understandable since she was
pregnant with Bradford twins and it was actually a chore to eat
enough to keep her unborn babies satisfied.

“
He’s gotta have one in
here,” Rory mumbled to herself as she carefully sorted through
Connor’s impressive assortment of tools. She’d already picked out a
few that she was going to steal later, but none of them would do
for what she needed right now.

“
Maybe you should wait until
next week,” Haley said, sounding nervous, which was a tad
insulting. “Your doctor’s appointment is on Tuesday. Maybe you
should leave it up to him to cut your cast off.”

“
I know how to handle a saw,
Haley,” Rory said, sighing in exasperation.

“
On wood!” Haley snapped.
“It’s different from using a saw to cut something off your arm
without taking the arm with it!”

“
It will be fine,” Rory said
dismissively as she continued her search.

“
Um, I kind of have to agree
with Haley on this one,” Zoe said, shifting uncomfortably and
making her wonder how exactly they were going to get the eight
month pregnant woman off the back of the truck. Getting her up here
had been a miracle. She really didn’t see getting her off going
well. Nope, not well at all.

“
It’s not a big deal,” Rory
said, hoping they’d just drop it.

“
If it’s not a big deal,
then why are we sneaking around to do it?” Haley asked.

“
We’re not sneaking around,”
Rory said, carefully moving the large circular saw to the side in
hopes that she’d be able to find something smaller and more
manageable.

“
Then what would you call
sending us text messages, asking us to sneak off with you when it’s
dark and wait until the men are distracted to meet you at Connor’s
truck and to keep our mouths shut?” Zoe mused, making her lips
twitch.