Page 3 of Receiving His Mercy
But no.
He was still a jerk to his only daughter. For years, he’d blamed Lacey for her brother’s death, even though she’d only been seven when Brax had snuck out of the house to go to a party and died while driving under the influence. His uncle still idolized Brax and continuously put Lacey down.
Travis knew his uncle didn’t like Gray, mainly because Gray wouldn’t put up with him speaking badly to Lacey.
Something to admire about Gray.
Like he said, Gray wasn’t a bad guy. But sometimes he still wished she was that little girl who’d looked up to him, who’d turned to him for protection.
“What did he do? Did he say something? Where has he gone?” Actually, he hadn’t even arrived tonight, had he?
“He’s gone back home!” Lacey cried. “He told me that he didn’t want to be part of this wedding and that Gray was an asshole and he didn’t want to deal with him. So he’s gone! I should have known this would happen. He called me and begged for an invitation and now he does this? Gray warned me and I should have listened.”
That motherfucking prick!
“Oh no,” a quiet voice said.
Shit. He’d forgotten Caren was there. Someone with manners would have moved away. But then she’d never had manners, had she? He could remember her snatching up cookies before everyone else and stuffing them in her mouth without a word of thanks to his aunt.
Who was another waste of space. Thankfully, Lacey hadn’t invited her. Travis wished his own mom was alive to help support Lacey. But she’d died fifteen years ago of cancer.
Didn’t matter. He and his brothers were the only family that Lacey needed.
“I’m sorry, honey,” Travis told her.
“I feel sorry for him,” Caren said.
He turned his head to scowl at her. What sort of garbage was she about to spout? This was why she shouldn’t be here. She wasn’t a good friend to Lacey.
Travis took a moment to properly look at her. She was wearing a bright pink dress. It had layers of some sort of material at the bottom, sort of like a tutu and she wore this huge orange cardigan which seemed completely unnecessary considering that it was seventy-five degrees outside. Although the air conditioning was on in here. And were those orange sneakers on her feet? Bizarre choice. As were the orange feathers dangling from her ears.
Her blonde, curly hair had streaks of pink in it and was pulled up into a high ponytail, but some curls had escaped, falling around her face. Those blue eyes peered up at him curiously, and he didn’t like it.
The last thing he needed was for her to be curious about him.
“Why the hell would you say that?” he snapped.
She took a half-step back and he immediately felt like a dick. Just because she was self-absorbed and rude didn’t mean that he got to scare her. He knew he was intimidating. He’d had a lot of people tell him that.
It was the vibe he was going for.
Of course, some women really liked that vibe. They wanted to tame him or some shit. He usually only interacted with women at the club where there were set rules and boundaries. Out in the wild most people didn’t stick to rules.
Like this woman.
Instead of moving away as any sane person would do, she stepped closer and wrapped her arm around Lacey’s waist. Her hand touched his hip. He shifted so he couldn’t feel her touch against him.
A strange look filled her face before she smiled at Lacey who was sniffling.
“You know why?” Caren asked.
“She doesn’t need to hear this mumbo-jumbo,” Travis muttered.
“Hush, Travis,” Lacey said. “Why do you feel sorry for him?”
“Because he’s a giant dickhead who is missing out on watching his beautiful, amazing, smart daughter walk down the aisle to marry her gorgeous, loving fiancé. He’ll never see that now. And he’ll probably never repair this tear in your relationship. And he’s the one who misses out. The prick.”
Lacey actually let out a small giggle as he gaped at Caren. That wasn’t what he was expecting from her.
