"That's right. You shouldn't." Zach kept his voice level a near-impossible task, reminding himself John was just a kid.
A kid who'd had his hands all over Shelby a few short minutes ago.
The red haze threatened to blaze over him again. "It's time for you to leave. No detours, I'll call your house to make sure someone's up waiting."
"I'm not going until I'm sure Shelby's okay."
Restraint edged further away. "Want to run that by me again, boy?"
"I'm not leaving yet."
He might have admired the kid's courage, if it weren't so damned stupid given the circumstances. "Keep this up and I can guarantee your father will be volunteering for an assignment in Nairobi." Zach stepped toe-to-toe with the kid and allowed the quiet heat of his anger to seep into his words. He wanted this boy scared and running. "Good luck finding a girl to sweet-talk into falling asleep with you there when everyone's speaking Swahili."
Shelby slid between them. "Stop, Colonel. Okay? This is so lame." She turned to John.
"Go home, really, it'll be better if you leave. He's not gonna hurt me. He'll just ground me again, but I'll see you at school Monday anyway."
John hesitated, then nodded. Shelby followed him to the screened porch while Zach waited, piecing together control and what the hell he would say to his daughter.
He pressed a thumb between his eyes, right above the throbbing headache with Shelby's name tattooed all over it. Honest to God, he was going to have a stroke before the girl graduated high school.
What would Julia say? He steadied himself with thoughts of her calm voice.
The door snapped closed and Zach opened his eyes to confront his daughter. "Well, Shelby Lynn, what do you have to say for yourself?'
"Nothing. Not one thing." She spun on her heel, flouncing out of the room.
"Think again."
Shelby sighed a lengthy beleaguered teenage exhale that had long ago lost any impact due to overuse. She pivoted back around and stared at some point over his head with pretended boredom. He wished he could just lose his temper and have it out with her as he had done with John. Except, control became more elusive with this daughter of his who meant so much more to him.
Zach clenched and unclenched his fists and knew he would never use them on his children the way his father had. But he also knew angry words thrown like punches could leave other bruises. He tried to think as a reasonable parent or even a logical commander, not just an enraged father who'd found his kid a second away from screwing on the sofa while she should have been watching her little brother.
Brother?
Zach pinched the bridge of his nose. "Shelby, we trusted you to watch Patrick tonight."
"I was watching him," she insisted, swiping a strand of her rumpled dark hair out of her eyes. "I could hear him on the monitor. I checked him every twenty minutes."
"You knew there wasn't a chance I would agree to John being here alone with you."
"I needed to be with him tonight."
Shelby blinked back tears, which would have moved him if it hadn't been for that damned hickey on her neck. Zach wanted to pound a wall. "Sex without commitment is wrong."
She rolled her eyes. "Like you're really committed to Julia. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you two just married because of your kids. And it's no great lean either to guess that you didn't spend all this time on your motorcycle."
True, but none of her business. His daughter needed to remember who was the adult.
"Shelby, don't push me."
She hooked her hands on the h*ps of her low-slung jeans, attitude and anger radiating from her. "You can ground me now and ground me again, even pitch my phone in the trash, but you can't control what I'm thinking. Another year and half and I'll be old enough to leave if I want."
Her words stopped him cold. Of course he knew her age, but somehow he couldn't erase the image of her at nine years old climbing a tree to save a nest of baby birds.
But she was sixteen, almost seventeen. He and Pam hadn't been more than eighteen months older when they'd started "just sleeping" together. The past sure had a way of biting a man on the ass when he least expected it. He needed Julia's help keeping track of Shelby now more than ever.
Zach scrubbed a hand over his unshaven face, up to his bleary eyes, suddenly so damned tired beyond what the flight, party and unbelievable hours with Julia should have drained from him.