Page 149 of Just One Kiss

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Gus walked into the small office at the Harbor Pointe sheriff’s headquarters where Josh had been waiting in a creaky wooden chair next to the older man’s desk.

He gave Josh a once-over. “Been quite a couple of days for you, young man.”

To say the least.

Josh knew Gus didn’t like him. Carly’s dad had made no bones about it. Convincing Carly to give him a second chance was one thing, but it would be nearly impossible to win over this man.

Still, he had to try.

The past few days’ events had shown him what was important—and he wasn’t about to lose them again—no matter how much easier it would be to run the other way.

“You know this is going to be all over the news.” Gus turned off the small television overhead and sat in the chair behind the desk. “Could get ugly.”

“I know.” Josh had already thought about that. Small-town gossip could be hard to stomach—it was the last thing he wanted for Jaden and Carly.

“You won’t like what people have to say.”

“No, sir, I don’t expect I will.” Josh surveyed Gus’s weathered face and found a fatherly concern knitting his brow. “And I don’t think people will like what I have to say either.”

“Ran into Linda Martin yesterday.”

Josh leaned back in his chair and met Gus’s eyes. “And?”

“She told me about the office space you leased.”

Josh thought about the space he’d found a week ago—a loft right above a coffee shop downtown and only a few blocks from the Harbor Pointe hospital. He’d stupidly imagined meeting Carly for lunch on the days she worked. In fact, he’d worked out a whole life for himself, and every inch of it involved her.

A lot had changed since the day he signed that lease.

But his desire for Carly remained.

Still, he needed her father’s approval. It was important to him to do things the right way this time.

“Seems like a pretty good spot.” Gus ran a hand over his bushy white mustache, and Josh couldn’t be sure, but he thought he might’ve even smiled.

Gus was making this much more difficult than Josh had expected simply by being unpredictable. Because instead of being his usual brusque self, Carly’s dad was being kind, and Josh didn’t know how to accept kindness from him. He’d planned out his whole speech to convince Gus he was worthy—but Gus wasn’t giving him the cold shoulder, so Josh wasn’t sure where to begin.

“You’re not here about your father, are you?” Gus eyed him.

“Partly,” Josh said. “I want to make sure he’s behind bars.”

Gus cackled. “Between me and Judge, that man is going to be locked down as long as we can legally keep him inside.”

“I need to make sure he doesn’t hurt her again,” Josh said. “Because he will try.”

“She filed a restraining order before the arrest. We can put a GPS tracker on him, monitor his whereabouts. If he comes within a certain distance of your mother, the tracker will alert us, and he’ll be arrested again.”

“So she wears a tracker too?”

“Or carries it with her, yes,” Gus said.

“What about Carly and Jaden?”

“Them too.” Gus leaned forward and looked at him across the desk. “We’re on the same page, son.”

Josh nodded. “You think they’ll be okay?”

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