My heart stood still as the man I loved squared his shoulders and met my dad’s gaze fearlessly. “I love River. I humbly ask for your blessing to—”
Dad didn’t give him time to finish before he was growling, “No.”
“Date her.”
Seven
Maverick
Going on runs was something I was used to, but I’d been pissed when Reid got stuck on a jobsite and couldn’t go with Jack and Kingston to Reno. When things had been delayed and we’d had to spend extra time on the road, I’d nearly blown the whole trip.
I shouldn’t have even been there to begin with, and then it seemed like I was going to miss my girl’s birthday. When I started shaking from the intensity of my rage, the guys we’d been there to meet had gotten nervous and then hurried shit along.
Worrying over not arriving in time hadn’t kept me from thinking about what would happen once I got in front of Colt. The night before in our hotel room, I’d practiced what I would say to the father of the woman I loved, rehearsing my speech on two of his nephews.
My plan was to ask for his blessing to marry River. Might as well let the man know just how committed I was to his daughter. But Jack had recommended working up to that and just asking to date her for a while. Throwing marriage out there right out of the gate was more likely to end with blood being spilled, which I had to admit was smart. So, I’d amended my speech to just dating.
But nothing I’d rehearsed had come out of my mouth as I’d stood before him.
“I love River. I humbly…”
Humbly? I mentally groaned, surprised that every one of my MC brothers didn’t burst out laughing at me being humble. But this was about openly making River mine. I could be humble and anything else Colt Hannigan needed me to be if it meant he didn’t stand in my way.
While I was silently berating myself, my mouth kept moving. “…ask for your blessing to—”
“No.” His vicious growl cut me off before I could finish speaking.
“Date her.”
He took a menacing step toward me, but I stood my ground as he got in my face. Colt was a tall man, but I was a good three inches taller, so we weren’t eye to eye as he pushed into my personal space. “No,” he repeated. “She’s too young to date.”
“She’s eighteen now,” I reminded him, trying to hold on to my anger. He was only a few inches from me. I could feel his breath on my face, could see the tiny red vessels in the whites of his eyes as his agitation started turning his face a puce color. If anyone else had gotten in my personal space like that, I would have already laid them on their ass with a punch to the jaw. But this was River’s dad. I couldn’t hit him. “I love her, and she loves me. We want to be together.”
“What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand, boy?” Colt seethed. “I don’t want you near my little girl. You’re not—”
“What?” my dad snarled behind him. I shifted my gaze to him to see he was holding Ian, but the look on his face was just as intimidating as Colt’s. Fuck, I was just surprised he wasn’t yelling at me too. He loved River like a daughter. All the women in our family were important to each and every member of the MC, but there was just something about those Hannigan females that got a man’s protective instincts engaged on a whole other level. “He’s not what, brother?”
Colt’s jaw clenched. “Your kid has no business dating mine.”
“Why not?” Uncle Bash asked, his brows raised as he looked down at his brother-in-law. My MC prez and godfather defending me made something tighten in my chest. “He’s a good kid. Keeps his nose clean and does what he’s told when we tell him to do something. The boy has a job and hasn’t been in any trouble. From what I’ve seen, he respects River.”
“Doesn’t matter. No one is dating my girl. She’s too young and—”
“And you’re full of shit.”
I was getting whiplash from all the new voices entering the conversation. Aunt Kelli squeezed between her husband and me, getting in his face as he’d gotten in mine. Reaching behind her, she pushed at my chest with one hand, silently telling me to back up. “River is eighteen today, you idiot. Eighteen. That makes her an adult. She can do whatever the fuck she wants. If she wants to date Maverick, she can, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. The boy had enough respect for you to ask for your blessing, and you turned into a dick.”
“She’s just a little girl,” he argued, his face turning an even darker red, making me wonder how high his blood pressure was at that moment. “River is still in high school.”
“She graduates in little more than a month,” she yelled at him. “Would you stop for two seconds and just look around you? Our daughter is all grown up, Colt. She’s not a baby anymore. This party only proved to me that you haven’t faced the reality that she’s an adult now.” She lifted her hand, waving it at the banner hanging from the ceiling then at what was left of the pink cake. “You told me to let you take care of the party, and look at what you did. This is the same exact setup we had at her eighth birthday. Even that ugly pink cake.”
“She loves pink!”
Kelli stopped and inhaled sharply. “Does she?”
“It’s her favorite color,” he grumbled.
“Dude, it’s blue,” my dad muttered from behind him.