Page 23 of Their Forever Daddy

“I don’t know who the hell you are, but you have ‘til the count of three to get the fuck off my property. One.”

“Put the gun down, Edie, and I’ll explain.”

“Two.” Jesus Christ, dude, please don’t make me shoot you. She would, if she had to, but shooting some Hollywood asshole hadn’t exactly been on the bucket list she’d written out with her girls back when Carly had first come to town.

“Goddammit, woman. I’m not here to hurt her. I’m?—”

“Daddy?”

At the sound of Jesse’s voice behind her, Edie froze. The man on the porch didn’t take his eyes off her, or the gun, and she was close enough to watch as emotions danced in the dark brown. “Hi, baby. Could you, ah, ask your friend here to point that gun somewhere that isn’t my general direction, please?”

“Oh my god, Edie! Are you fucking insane? He’s not going to hurt me.”

The soft brush of Jesse’s fingers over her arm jolted Edie out of her shock enough for her to lower the barrel of the gun to the floor. Mind racing, she glanced at Jesse, then back to the man on the porch, who was watching her with the same kind of wariness one might show a wild animal.

“Daddy?”

Chapter 9

Jesse

* * *

She was in so much trouble.

Even so, relief was the prevailing emotion as Jesse yanked open the storm door and flung herself into her Daddy’s waiting arms. He hauled her up against him, burying his face in the side of her neck as a shudder racked his frame.

“I was so fucking worried about you, baby.”

Guilt wiggled its way up through the storm of emotions inside her, nudging relief aside as she pulled back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

His brow rose, and her bottom clenched as if anticipating the punishment she was no doubt going to receive the second they were alone. “You disappeared with nothing more than a note, turned your phone off, and didn’t so much as text me to let me know you were safe in the three days you’ve been gone, and you didn’t mean to make me worry?”

Uh oh. “I mean, I did leave a note,” she offered weakly, despite knowing it wasn’t going to help. She’d known when she’d left that he wasn’t going to be happy with her. She’d just… hoped it would wait until she got back home.

In hindsight, she really should have known better.

Daddy closed his eyes, and she had a feeling he was counting to ten. When he opened them again, there was still a hard glint in them that promised retribution later, but then his gaze shifted from her to something else, and he carefully schooled his expression into something more pleasant. “Mrs. McDowell. I’m afraid we got off to a rather rough start. I’m Grant Carter, Jesse’s fiancé.”

“Jesse, what the hell is going on?”

There was a tightness to Edie’s words that had Jesse’s bottom clenching all over again. Once upon a time, that tone would have spelled doom for her poor backside, but she tried to remind herself that Edie wouldn’t actually spank her.

Somehow, that didn’t really make her feel any better.

Bracing herself for the inevitable, Jesse turned and pressed herself to Grant’s side, drawing on her Daddy’s strength. “Um, well, I might have sort of… not told Daddy where I was going. Or that I was leaving at all. And I guess he felt the need to come looking for me.”

“Yes, I did feel the need, Jesse Lynne.”

Jesse winced at the use of her full name and the growl in her Daddy’s voice. Leave it to her to say exactly the wrong thing when she was already in heaps of trouble.

For a long, tense moment, Edie simply stared at her. After what seemed like a short eternity, she sighed and stepped back, gesturing with her non-gun-toting-hand for them to enter. “I guess y’all should come in so we can talk.”

“Thanks,” Daddy said, the growl in his voice softening only a little for Edie’s sake as he nudged Jesse forward. “After you, little outlaw.”

Her cheeks flushed at the old nickname, and she blushed even harder when Edie raised an eyebrow. “Little outlaw?”

“We met while I was filming a Western a couple years back,” Jesse explained as they made their way inside. “When I told him my real name, he started calling me Jesse James whenever I’d send him pictures of me in costume and it sort of evolved from there.”

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