Perfect Fling (Serendipity's Finest 2)

She glanced at Jed, her eyes warming with amusement. “Anything he dishes out, I can handle.”

His father muttered something under his breath, but his cheeks turned a ruddy color.

“I have other patients to check on, but I’ll be back. Buzz me if you need me, Jed.” She turned and walked out.

Cole pulled a chair up to his father’s bedside. Silence surrounded them for a few minutes, before he finally spoke up. “Well, you made it through.”

“Hurts like hell,” the older man muttered.

“I’ll bet.”

Cole leaned an arm on the metal bed rail. “Listen, there’s something you need to know.”

Jed met his gaze. “What’s that?”

Before Cole could reply, his cell phone rang. Unwilling to get sidetracked, he glanced down to see who was calling. Kelly Barron’s name came up on the screen. He narrowed his gaze.

“Someone important?” Jed asked.

Kelly was a paralegal at her husband’s law firm. The main firm in Serendipity. “Yeah, it’s important.” Legal documents, no doubt. But Cole planned to intercept Erin before dealing with those. “I’ll take care of it when I leave here.” Which had been his intention all along.

Turning back to his father, Cole gathered his courage. Though he’d prepped this speech, he knew it wouldn’t be easy, and he could never anticipate his father’s reaction. Especially after all he’d been through in the past couple of days.

“I’m staying in Serendipity. Permanently.”

Jed blinked, the only indication he’d heard as the announcement settled between them. “Erin know?” he finally asked.

“Not yet. I had some matters to take care of first.”

Jed nodded, his gaze focused on the wall across the room. “What if she won’t have you?” His voice sounded raspy from the tube, and weak.

But his words were blunt and very Jedlike. At least it hadn’t been couched in an insult. “I’m staying anyway. I have a kid to raise. That’s more important than any job.”

“Don’t screw it up like I did.”

Cole stiffened, unsure he’d heard correctly. In fact, he was damned certain he hadn’t. But he couldn’t ask. “I plan to do my best.”

“So did I. My mother, your grandmother, raised me by herself. She worked and pretty much ignored me, letting me run wild.”

Cole sat in stunned silence. Jed never discussed his past. Never considered it important. All Cole knew was that Jed’s father hadn’t stuck around, and his mother had died while Jed was in the army. Now his father was talking and Cole was afraid to interrupt and have him stop.

“I was just like you were. Just like it.” He pointed to the can of ginger ale.

Cole copied what the nurse had done and lifted the straw to his father’s mouth. Jed took a few sips and, wincing, relaxed back again.

“Got myself arrested too.”

What the hell?

“Yep. Just like you. But I didn’t have a mother who’d bail me out or take me away. In fact, she wiped her hands of me. So the judge said I could do time in juvie till I hit eighteen, which was only a couple of months, and then he strongly suggested I join the army. Get myself some discipline before I ended up back in front of him again. If I enlisted, he’d expunge my record. I didn’t see any better options, so I did.”

Cole’s mouth grew dry. At least Jed didn’t seem to expect a reply, just kept talking.

“I met a colonel who took me under his wing,” Jed said into the silence. “A hard son of a bitch who decided he’d make a man out of me. It worked. The discipline and routine suited me. Straightened me right up, and I knew if I’d had him around growing up, I’d never have ended up in jail in the first place.”

Cole blew out a long breath, finally able to gather his thoughts. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me all this?” Knowing he’d been like Jed would have formed a bond, let him see his father was human and not a cold machine.

“Didn’t see how it mattered.” Jed’s hands worked the blanket on the bed, crunching into his palms.