Finally, the man nodded. “And what is this? I know how men act around pretty girls. They think with the wrong head.”

He couldn’t debate that fact, but Skylar was more than just a pretty girl to him. “I care about your granddaughter very much.”

“Love?”

“I…don’t know.” Aside from Addison, he had no experience with love. What he felt for Skylar was different, darker, and more layered. “I’m trying to be completely transparent here.”

“You’re a politician. Your kind’s as muddy as gravy.” He snuffed out his cigar on the side of the bucket and stood. “Here’s what I want.” His hand gripped Rhett’s shoulder in an unbreakable hold and steered him around the corner of the building. “You see the street there, where all the cars are parked?”

Rhett squinted through the alley. “Yes.”

“I want a parking spot for my driver. Every time there’s a delivery, we lose time looking for parking. You get me that, and I’ll talk to my son.”

He was freaking bribing him? What the hell was this, Good Fellas? Still, Rhett was desperate to make things right with Skylar. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Vincenzo turned and smacked him twice on the cheek. “If you really care about her, you’ll find a way.”

19

“Try to eat something, love.”

Skylar picked at her breakfast, but she didn’t have an appetite.

“If you don’t start eating, you’re going to give me a complex about my cooking.” Gran refilled her coffee, nudging it closer to Skylar’s fingertips. “At least have another cup of coffee. You’re wilting away.”

She’d been staying at the big house since the night she left Rhett’s, unable to face her parents after her father caused such a scene, nor willing to make excuses for her actions. Gran’s had always been a sanctuary, so she disappeared to the one place she’d always be welcomed and accepted, no matter what the circumstances were.

Despite how much her grandmother loved to gossip, she would never stand for one of her grandchildren being the center of unwanted attention. Skylar had given her a brief explanation, but Gran didn’t push. Pop watched her with concern, but never said anything on the subject. He simply gave her a passing cuddle and a kiss on the head, like good grandfathers are meant to do.

“You know, dear, your parents will come around. I mean, they’ll have to. They made their fair share of senseless mistakes. Glass stones and such. You know how the saying goes.”

But she hadn’t done something senseless. She always overthought her actions and choices. It offended her that everyone assumed they knew what was best for her and that they somehow believed they might know her better than herself.

“I never saw him behave like that before. It was…humiliating.” As if their family didn’t already have enough of a reputation for being the crazy people up on the mountain.

“Oh, he’s just being a dad. Hell, your grandfather once tried to leave your father for dead in the woods. Men do all kinds of stupid things when it comes to protecting their daughters.”

“He treats me like a kid.”

“That’s because you’re his first. It pisses them off, seeing their little girls turn into women. You’ve grown into a beautiful young lady, Skylar. Imagine how terrified that must make him. Plus, it reminds him he’s gettin’ old. Their fragile egos can’t handle aging.” She glanced at the hall as Pop shuffled by, picking at his ear hair as a fart squeaked out. Gran shut her eyes and solemnly shook her head. “And forget about any of them trying to age gracefully.”

Her phone buzzed, and both she and Gran read Rhett’s name on the display. Skylar silenced it. “I’m not ready to talk to him.”

Then came another text from her father. She flipped the phone over so she wouldn’t be distracted by the screen.

“You’re quite popular.”

Skylar gave a humorless grin. “Why should Dad care what I do? He’s never even around anymore.”

Her grandmother clicked her tongue with disapproval. “Hush now. Your father’s working very hard for your family. You have younger siblings he still needs to support. They’re getting older, and he has to plan for their futures. He’s not absent because he wants to be. He’s absent so that he can be around later, for the important things.”

Important things like Hannah’s graduation or Vinny, Ciera, and James’s older years. Every time he showed up at one of Frankie’s games, Skylar shoved down more envy, making excuses for the events in her life he’d been unable to attend.

She had always been the most accommodating of all their siblings, always trying to make things easier for others and put their needs first. This was the first time she acted for herself, doing something purely self-indulgent, and everyone lost their shit.

There was no excuse. “He just burst in there and started screaming. Everyone was staring at him. And then he punched Rhett!”

Tags: Lydia Michaels Jasper Falls Romance
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