Finding You

“Daddy,” I said as I narrowed my left eye.

“Fine, I won’t ask any questions, but I swear to God if he gets you pregnant, I’ll kill him with my bare hands. Or if he hurts you in any way.”

Giving him a smile and a wink, I said, “Don’t worry, Dad. I’m on birth control.”

A look of horror moved across my father’s face. “Ugh . . . really? Did you have to say that, Grace?”

“You took the conversation there, Dad, I didn’t.”

Turning, he started back toward the house as I let out a giggle. As we drew closer, I pulled on his arm to stop him. Glancing at me, he asked, “Did you change your mind? You picking your father over that little dickhead?”

Dropping my mouth open, I slapped him on the arm. “Dad! Don’t call him that. I love him.”

Rolling his eyes, my father looked away.

“So tell me something, Dad. You’re very attractive and I’ve seen pictures of you when you and Mom started dating. Did you whore around on Mom?”

Choking on his own spit, my father asked, “Excuse me?”

“You know, did women throw themselves at you? Was the temptation too much to handle?”

“Grace Hope Johnson. I would never cheat on your mother. Ever. I’ve never even looked twice at another woman.”

Lifting my brows, I asked, “Never, Dad? Never a sideways glance?”

“No!”

Smiling from ear to ear, I patted his chest. “See! Goes to prove that just because a guy is good looking, it doesn’t mean he is going to be a man-whore.”

My father looked at me with a confused look as he shook his head. Walking around him, I headed back inside. For some reason, I felt the need to protect Noah. I just didn’t know what from.

Noah

I stood by Grace and watched her say goodbye to her father and her Uncle Matt. It didn’t take me long to figure out why Grace loved Matt so much. He was Grace’s mother’s brother and he had Fragile X. Grace had mentioned it before, but I had forgotten. I made a mental note to look it up and read about it. Matt was funny as hell, repeated things he probably shouldn’t be repeating and was probably the most talented painter I’d ever seen. Grace had showed me some pictures on her phone that she took of Matt’s paintings.

Matt walked up to me and smiled. “I like you, Noah. But you are still an assmole. Jeff says so.”

Peeking over to Jeff, I saw him look away. Will let out a laugh as Alex said, “Matt! It’s not nice to call people assmole.”

“Unless they are,” Jeff said with a smirk.

Shit. I could see it was going to take a lot to win Grace’s father over. I was willing to do whatever it took, though. It wasn’t starting off too well. It was obvious he was pissed Grace wasn’t going home this weekend. The fact that Grace told him she was coming back to Austin with me had me wanting to scream from the mountaintops how much I loved her. We’d only been back together for two days, but it felt like we had been together for the last year. We picked up pretty much where we left off, except this time our relationship was coming out to more people in our families.

Matt walked a few steps closer to me. “I’m going to hug you now, Noah.”

“O-okay, Matt,” I said as I held my arms out and Matt slammed his body into mine, causing me to stumble backward. Jesus, this guy was huge!

After a quick hug, Matt turned and looked at Grace. “Bye, Grace.” Turning, he walked over to Jeff’s truck and got inside. Grace stood there with her jaw to the ground.

“I didn’t get a hug. I’ve always gotten a hug,” Grace said as she turned to me.

“I got one!” Alex said.

“Screw you, Alex,” Grace said as she leaned into me while I slipped my arm around her waist.

The moment Jeff turned and looked at me with a look like he was ready to kill me, I pulled my hand back and took a step away from Grace.

Jeff walked up to Grace and took her in his arms as he whispered something into her ear. Grace smiled at her father and gave him a wink.

Jeff took a step back and turned to me as he held out his hand. Reaching my hand out, I said, “It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Johnson.”

Nodding his head, Jeff said, “Same here, and it’s Jeff. Maybe you can come to Mason soon, meet the rest of the family. I’m sure Ari would love to meet the man my daughter says she’s in love with.”

Holy shit.

I was stunned by Jeff’s words and my heart felt like it was about burst from my chest. Knowing Grace told her father she loved me did weird things to my body. Good weird things. I couldn’t help but smile at Jeff.