Page 41 of Winning His Wager

“Damn it, young lady. Why won’t you just listen to me?” He gave her that look again—the one that said she was disappointing him and everything.

“Because I am too much like you? I have heard it before.” Well, her father wasn’t going to leave, so Dylan would. She headed toward the hall.

“Where are you going now?” her father yelled.

“I am going to go shower. I have to be at the Talleydinerin an hour. See, not abandoning the fam. You should take lessons in that, you know. It might make you less of a poophead. Goodbye.”

Once again, Dylan just had one real option where her father was concerned. Dylan just walked away. This was not the best way to start her day at all.

* * *

Fletcher lookedat Arthur Talley the instant he stepped back inside his kitchen. Fletcher bit back most of what he wanted to say. This was her father. He would respect the relationship even when he did not respect the man, and never would. “Do not come to my house withoutherpermission first ever again. I don’t want you constantly upsetting her. Am I clear?”

He’d hurried through the morning chores to get back to her. He’d found her missing and her father pacing around his house like Talley belonged there.

“She ismydaughter. If she’s living here, I can be here.”

“It really isn’t going to work that way.” Fletcher wanted to punch the older man. He knew that. He was a Tyler—the urge to protect the ones he cared about was strong. And he cared about that woman more than her father would believe. “I’m not going to let you keep hurting her.”

“Hurt her? I’m just trying to protect her. Do you know what people are saying about her now?” There was anger but also pain in the green eyes Dylan had inherited. Like Talley really was upset.

“Tell me. Tell me what they are saying and who it is—I bet Abby Vanderguard is behind it.”

“Earl Vanderguard’s girl?”

“That’s her. Works at the inn. Has a problem with other women and always has. Miranda slugged her a few times in high school, even broke her nose once when Abby wouldn’t leave Dixie alone about her weight. Abby’s been saying things in front of Dahlia to upset her lately. Why don’t you go bully your way around the inn, take care of Dahlia instead? Give Dylan a break for a while? Did it ever occur to you that after what she’s been through lately that the damned inn is triggeringheranxiety and she needed to get away?” He had figured that out weeks ago. She always got a little too quiet on the days she was scheduled for the inn. The diner, no—but the inn, definitely.

It hurt him how much she was hurting.

He didn’t know how to fix it. To just make it better.

He'd made a point of driving her in himself over the last week. And hanging out there when he could. Just to be there if she needed him.

“Why would it? It’s her home.”

“It’s not herhome,Talley. It never really has been, either. No matter how much you keep pushing it at her. If you knew her at all, you’d understand that. She shouldn’t be forced to live your broken dreams. You can’t force her to be there. You just can’t.”

“The inn will take care of her.”

“When you’re gone? Well, what if that’s not what she wants at all?”

“You planning to pay her to clean your damned house forever, Tyler? I want more for my girl than this.” Talley waved his hand around—right over the seed packets she still had arranged on the kitchen table so neatly. Dismissively. It was how dismissive he was that pissed Fletcher off even more. Did Talley know Dylan’s heart at all? “What do you really know about my daughter?”

“More than you do. I know that if she’ll let me,I’mgoing to be the man to take care of her from now on. You’d better just get used to it. You’ve done a horrible job so far. It’s someone else’s turn now. I see the real her. I don’t think you can say that right now at all.”

He saw Ben’s surprised look, but his brother nodded. He understood.

Talley kept blustering for a good twenty minutes. Fletcher just let him rant—part of him understood. Talley thought she’d be safer at the inn—with her family. He understood that, Fletcher really did. Safe, loved, protected. He understood.

But that wasn’t what Dylan wanted right now. And she should be the one to decide what she needed—not her father. He and Ben just ate breakfast—Dylan had pumpkin muffins she’d made the day before, just waiting as her father kept up his tirade about the two of them and their Tyler ancestors.

He finally shut up when Ben informed him that his grandchildren would be Tylers someday—Talley was just going to have to get used to it. Or Talley wouldn’t get toseethose grandchildren at all. Ever. Period. Something for Talley to keep in mind.

Then Dylan was there, a look on her face that stabbed Fletcher in the gut. She’d apparently been listening to her father rant for a while. “I’m so sorry, guys. He just never listens—or stops. I’m sorry this is how your day started.”

Fletcher just reacted—he scooped her close and kissed her on her forehead. “Heis not your fault. And he never will be. And if he shows up here again without permission, I don’t care how old he is, or who he is, I’m going to kick his ass. Just for you. I promise.”

“Fletchie, you may just be redeemable, after all.”

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