Too Distracting (The Lewis Cousins 3)

“How dare you…” her father seethed.

“We gave it to Laurel and expressed our wishes carefully; she knows better than to go against her father,” her mother put in, while Laurel looked back and forth between the two of them with traces of hope.

“Dad, Mom, I did want your approval before I moved ahead, and I guess I was missing the point of what those documents that I signed meant, but if what Dillon is saying is true, then, I’m sorry, but I’m going to run my business as I see fit.”

“We’ll run them by Reardon, just to make sure everything is as it should be,” I told her, then looked back at her parents and said, “I guess we’ll be leaving…”

“Laurel, don’t you dare change one thing … not even a splash of paint,” her father warned. “You know how we want the shop to be run, and, as our heir, you need to heed our wishes.”

“I’m sorry, Dad, but I swear, you’ll see, this expansion is going to be great for business,” Laurel said, pleading with her father to believe her. To believe in her.

“Get out of my sight,” he said, his tone low and firm. Ugly. Then he turned and walked back the way he’d come.

“If you do this, Laurel, if you go against your father and I, you’ll be banned from this house. You won’t be welcome here anymore,” her mother said nastily.

I heard Laurel gasp, and felt a fresh bout of anger slash threw me.

Placing my arm around her shoulder, I said, “Come on, Laurel, let’s go,” turned her around, and led her out of the house.

As we crossed the threshold, I vowed that Laurel would not darken their door again unless they both got their heads out of their asses long enough to be parents and realize what an amazing daughter they had.

I wasn’t going to let them, or anyone else, hurt her again.

28

Laurel

“You must think I’m a total idiot,” I said as we stood on the path in front of my parents’ home. “I mean, I feel like one. Gosh, to not have realized when they had me sign those papers that they were signing over the company and as the owner I have carte blanche to do what I want?”

Dillon reached out and took my hand, squeezing it slightly to get my attention as I rambled on.

“All this time I spent trying to get their approval, all the comments and nasty looks, and I didn’t even need it.”

“Laurel,” Dillon said, but I didn’t look at him, so he said more firmly, “Laurel.”

I stopped and looked toward him, not quite catching his eye.

He moved his hand to my chin and made me look at him.

“They’re your parents, you wanted them to be on board with the changes you plan to make to the shop they’ve been running for decades. That doesn’t make you an idiot, it makes you a good person. A good daughter.” He moved his thumb to stroke my cheek and said, “The only mistake you made was thinking they’d change, after a lifetime of letting you down. The good news is, you don’t have to get their permission to do anything. The world is yours, babe.”

Oh, I liked that … Babe.

I basked in the warmth of that word for a moment, then said, “I’d better get those papers to Reardon first, just to be sure, before I plan world domination.”

Dillon chuckled and asked, “Want me to go with you?”

“Sure. Wait, don’t you have work?”

“I’m allowed to break for lunch, which is actually why I was calling, to see if you wanted to grab some.”

My stomach fluttered.

“Oh,” I said, unable to hide my surprise. “You were?”

“Yeah,” he began, then he said something that rocked me to the core, “I missed your face.”

My mouth dropped and I know I gaped at him for a full minute.