Page 51 of Adoring Delaney

‘Close’ wasn’t an accurate description. More like intimate. My front was pressed to his chest, my arms around his middle, and his hand was on my hip.

“Mornin’, Dad,” I mumbled.

His eyes came to mine and he gave me a sad knowing smile. “Morning, sweetheart.” Then they went to Carter and he asked, “Did you get my girl’s car sorted?”

“Yeah. I called Todd’s and they’re coming to pick it up this morning.”

“I’m sending Brady over there this afternoon to put up cameras. Should’ve done it years ago.”

I felt like my head was going to explode. They were carrying on a conversation about me, with me present, but acting like I wasn’t. And I didn’t want cameras in front of my house.

“No cameras,” I told my dad.

“Delaney, I let you talk me out of them when you bought the house. I knew why you’d refused and I gave you that play only because you agreed to the alarm. But the cat’s out of the bag. Not that it was ever in the bag. I gave you that, too, not talking to you about Carter’s truck in your drive even though none of us had seen him or knew he was coming into town. You’ve been left unprotected for long enough. There’s no need for privacy anymore so you and Carter can sneak around thinking all of us are too stupid to know.”

I may’ve flinched—more than once—at my dad’s statement.

He was correct, I’d refused to allow him to install cameras because I knew someone in the security room of Triple Canopy would be watching. And it wasn’t like I could turn them on and off at will. Which meant when Carter came over, they’d know.

“Brady will be there this afternoon,” Dad announced.

“Dad.”

“Laney baby, you need cameras.” I sucked in a breath and held it. Carter had never called me that in front of anyone. Most especially not our family. He called me Delaney when we were around them.

“But—”

“No buts. Last night someone was in your driveway long enough to knife all four of your tires. Thankfully you were not there. If someone’s stupid enough to come back, it will be their last act of lunacy. I prefer for them to be cuffed and hauled away, it’s less messy than the alternative.”

“What’s the alternative?” I inquired.

“The alternative is I have to hunt the fucker down. That’s gonna take time. Time I’d rather be spending with you. Which is gonna piss me off. So when I find the asshole who was in your driveway I’m gonna need to get creative in how I take out my frustrations. Then I’ll be coming home to you and you’re gonna have to figure out how to wash bloodstains outta my clothes. That’s messy.”

I didn’t much like the alternative, especially the part about washing out bloodstains. I also thought him committing a felony and being hauled away in cuffs didn’t sound fun either.

“Cameras, it is,” I grumbled, still not happy.

“You and Emily free tonight?” Carter asked my dad and dread hit my stomach.

“If we’re not, we are now,” Dad returned.

“Seven?” Carter asked and dread turned to ice. They were making plans that I was sure included me, but again, talking like I wasn’t there.

“Hello?”

“You coming to us or are we coming to you?” Dad continued as if I hadn’t spoken.

“Us,” Carter answered.

“I don’t know who ‘us’ is, but I hope there’s space in your hotel room to entertain my parents.” Carter’s eyes swung to me and there was a smile on his face. “There’s nothing funny, Carter.”

“Maybe not funny, but you’re always cute when you’re pissed.”

“You don’t get to invite my parents to my house without talking to me about it first. And before you say it, this isn’t ‘us’ talking about it. This is you being bossy and taking over.”

“I didn’t invite your parents to your house. I invited your parents to our house. And we’re not talking about it because I don’t wanna argue about it. There are things the four of us need to discuss and I know you don’t want to discuss them. But I keep telling you, no more secrets. No more hiding. Everyone knows we’re together, they’ve known forever. So it’s not going to come as a shock but they are going to hear it from us officially and not just see us together. This is our family. People we both respect and love and they deserve the truth.”

“We’re not together,” I protested.

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