First Down (Texas Titans #3) (23 page)

“What can I say to change your mind?” he asked, his handsome face pinched in frustration. “Anything. I’ll do anything.”

“You can prove to me that you really care about me.”

“How? Just tell me what you need from me.”

“I need you to leave me alone. Just go. Leave me alone.”

“I can do anything but that,” he said, his broad shoulders slumping. “Please. Don’t ask me to do that.”

Her lip quivered, and she knew she was at risk of losing it. Seeing him broken was breaking her, but she couldn’t allow herself to fall victim to another man’s empty promise to change. “That’s the only thing I want you to do.”

“I love you.” His voice was choked with emotion. He raised his hand to touch her face and let it fall again. “I don’t know how to stop.”

“You don’t have a choice.” She stepped back, reaching for the door handle. “For the record, you don’t have anything to worry about. I may not have signed that contract, but I have no intention of suing High Rollers. I’m sure you’re relieved to hear that.”

“I know you wouldn’t do anything like that. In spite of how it might look, I do trust you.”

“There’s one more thing you can do for me.”

“What’s that?”

“Take the afternoon off.”

“Why?”

“I’d like to go clean out my desk. I have to explain to Bob and H.R. why I won’t be coming back to work.”

He swallowed, once, twice, three times as his eyes glazed over. “You really think I could go back to work right now?”

Alana looked at the floor, holding back the tears. “Good-bye, Grayson.”

Grayson sat in his rental car, staring at the beautiful old farmhouse with the wraparound porch. Birdfeeders were scattered about the property, and old wooden rocking chairs were positioned to appreciate the view. He imagined Alana growing up in that house, sitting on those rockers with one of her parents and pouring out her heart about the latest man to disappoint her.

It had been three agonizing months since she’d left, and every day had been worse than the last. His partners couldn’t reason with him, his friends couldn’t stand him, and his family could barely tolerate him. He wasn’t the same person. The guy they knew had disappeared the day Alana had walked out. He couldn’t believe it had taken him a lifetime to find love and only days to lose it. It didn’t seem fair, but he knew he didn’t have the right to complain about injustice.

Getting out of the car, he thought about Alana’s comment about her father’s gun collection. Grayson couldn’t help but wonder whether her daddy had one with his name on it. But fear didn’t stop him from approaching the front door. Nothing Alana’s father could say or do would be worse than the misery he’d lived for the past few months.

Before he could walk up the steps, a big burly man wearing a plaid shirt and faded blue jeans stepped onto the porch. He had thick, wavy white hair, but his eyes alerted Grayson that he was Alana’s father.

“Who are you?”

Grayson took a deep breath before stepping forward and extending his hand. “Hello, sir. My name’s Grayson Barrett. I’m a friend of Alana’s.”

He glared at Grayson’s hand. “I know who you are, and you’re no friend of hers.”

Grayson knew he shouldn’t be surprised. The man was doing what any father would, trying to protect his daughter from the man who’d hurt her. “I guess she told you about what happened in Arlington.”

“She tells me everything,” he said, slamming the door behind him. “Consider yourself lucky you’re still standin’, boy.”

Grayson wasn’t used to being disrespected, but he knew he’d earned it. “I know you don’t like me, and I can’t say I blame you.”

The man narrowed his eyes. “If you know that, then why’re you here? To cause more trouble?”

“No, sir, I’m here to set things straight, to try to correct the mistakes I made with your daughter.”

He grunted. “You’re a little too late for that. She’s moved on.”

Grayson could almost feel his world turn. He’d planned what he would say, imagined how Alana would react, but another man had never even entered his mind. How could she have moved on when he couldn’t stop thinking about her?

“You look surprised.” The man leaned against the railing, bracing his arms on either side of his body. “My Alana’s a beautiful girl. Smart as hell. Men have been lining up to date her for as long as I can remember.”

Grayson steadied himself against the white pillar that supported the old house, hoping it could support him too. “I’m not surprised men are interested in her. I’m just a little shocked that she—”

“Didn’t waste any more time crying over you?” His face tightened. “She did enough of that to worry me and her mama half to death. Hell, she wasn’t that upset when she left her husband. What I want to know is how you managed to get under her skin so quick. Seems she wasn’t in Arlington long enough for you two to develop that kind of connection.”

Grayson had never believed in love at first sight. He’d laughed at people who claimed they were in love after a date or two, but he finally understood it could happen. He didn’t expect Alana’s father to understand; he was just glad Kent Shelton hadn’t thrown him off his property. “She was. I mean, we did.”

“Maybe you’d better sit down,” he said, pointing at one of the rockers. “You don’t look so good.”

Grayson hadn’t expected kindness from a man who clearly hated him, but he took him up on his offer. The last thing he wanted was for his legs to give out and force Kent to peel him off the porch. “Thanks.”

Kent sat on the wooden bench next to Grayson. “Seems you’ve gotten yourself into a hell of a mess.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re in love with her.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes, sir, I am.”

“Call me Kent,” he muttered. He narrowed his eyes at Grayson. “Of course, you probably already knew my name, didn’t you? My name, address, Social Security number, make and model of my car. That’s the way you operate, isn’t it? Invading people’s privacy.”

Grayson’s spine stiffened. “I got your address from Alana’s resume. I assumed she’d be staying with you until she got on her feet.”

“She was here, but she moved out last month. She got a job keeping the books for some boutique downtown.”

“Oh.” Grayson knew Kent wouldn’t divulge her new address, and she’d changed her cell phone number shortly after she moved back home. He knew, because he’d tried calling in a moment of weakness. “Well, I’m glad to hear she’s doing well.”

“Are you?” Kent asked, crossing his arms.

Grayson had a sense of how the man’s suspects must have felt locked in an interrogation room with him. “I’m in love with her. Of course I want her to be happy.”

“Love and trust go hand in hand, boy. From what I heard, you didn’t love her enough to be honest with her. Nor did you trust her enough to be honest with you.”

“I made a mistake.”

“You made more than one mistake.”

“I know that.” Grayson rested his elbows on his knees and hung his head. “But that doesn’t change how I feel about her.”

“We all make mistakes,” Kent said, his gruff voice softening. “I’m sure as hell not perfect. I happen to think a man isn’t defined by his mistakes. He’s defined by what he does afterward.”

Grayson looked up, trying to read his expression, but Kent remained impassive.

“If I loved a woman, I sure as hell wouldn’t wait months to ask her forgiveness.”

“I was trying to give her space.” Grayson sighed. “She said that’s what she wanted.”

“I think you were trying to get over her.”

“Maybe I was. What else was I gonna do? She told me if I cared about her, I’d leave her alone. I was just trying to honor her wishes.”

“You honor the woman you love by being there for her through the good times and bad. You honor her by refusing to give up on her.”

“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” Grayson said. “Isn’t that what your son-in-law tried to do?”

“My ex-son-in-law is a worthless piece of shit. He wasn’t fit to shine my baby girl’s boots.” Kent grinned, a flash of white teeth slashing across his weathered face. “Glad she finally came to her senses on that score.”

“Yeah, me too.” Even if he could never have her, Grayson couldn’t imagine Alana settling for a man like Ronan. “Is he leaving her alone?”

Kent chuckled. “Soon as Alana gave them the word, my boys paid the man a little visit. They made sure he understood that if he bothered their little sister again, he wouldn’t be
walking
away from their next meeting.”

Grayson smiled in spite of his sadness. “Your sons sound like my kind of guys.”

Kent tipped his head and studied Grayson. “They might be after all.” He remained quiet for a moment. “I was prepared to hate you, but I have to admit I don’t.”

“You don’t?” That was the last thing Grayson expected him to say.

“No, I don’t.” Kent drummed his fingers against the wooden armrest. “You think I don’t know what kind of man you are?”

Grayson held his breath.

“I was a cop most of my life. You really think I’d let my little girl move to another state and take a job without finding out more about it? I know all about you and your partners.” Kent watched the storm clouds rolling in. “It wasn’t long before Alana started talking about you when she called her mama. I did a little digging, and learning about the kind of man you are put my mind at ease. So you can imagine my surprise when she came home broken-hearted.”

“I know you think I’m a bad guy, Kent, and I don’t blame you. But I had my reasons for what I did. There’s no question I was wrong, but…” Grayson let his explanation die. It didn’t make any difference if Alana had moved on with someone else.

“So tell me why you did it.”

“I had her checked out when she got to town, because I got the feeling she was hiding something. I couldn’t be too careful. I mean, we were going to hire her as an accountant, someone who would have access to our financial records. That’s not something I can afford to take lightly.”

“I can understand that,” he said, nodding. “But that doesn’t explain why you had Ronan followed.”

“Alana told me about him. I didn’t like what I heard.”

“There’s more to the story than that.”

Grayson knew Kent was too shrewd to accept half-truths. “She called me the day she was due to arrive in Arlington. She was upset because Ronan was hassling her. I was already starting to develop feelings for her, and I was concerned about her safety.”

“So you weren’t checking out the competition?”

“What do you mean?”

“Alana thought you suspected she and Ronan still had something going. She thought you didn’t trust her, so you wanted to know for sure.”

“It was nothing like that,” Grayson said, frustrated that he had to have that conversation with Kent instead of his daughter. “I was thinking of her and her safety. I knew she was done with her ex.”

Seeming satisfied with his response, Kent chuckled. “I couldn’t believe it when she told us you bought her apartment building behind her back. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that your daughter deserved a decent place to live.” Annoyance washed over him all over again. He was having the dump renovated, not that it mattered to him anymore after Alana moved out. “I offered to rent her a little house I own, but she was too damn stubborn to even look at it. She was determined to do it all on her own, with no help from me or anyone else.”

“Grayson, she grew up with bossy, opinionated men who thought they knew it all. Me and her brothers love her and want to protect her, but sometimes I fear we may have gone a little overboard.” He cleared his throat, looking angry all over again. “Then she married that man. He didn’t just want to protect her—he wanted to own her.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“And that contract you asked her to sign… What the hell were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t.” The morning after they’d made love, he told Cal and his partners that he was willing to accept the fallout if Alana ever sued for damages. He trusted her. Too bad she would never know the lengths he’d gone to to make their relationship work.

“It’s a little like asking a girl to sign a pre-nup right before the wedding, isn’t it?” Kent asked. “Not the brightest decision.”

“No, it wasn’t. But she didn’t object to signing the papers, because she said she didn’t want anything from me. I knew that was true, so for me, there was no risk. That’s why I instructed my lawyer to forget the whole thing.”

“Is that right?” Kent stroked his jaw. “Interesting. Does Alana know that?”

“I never had the chance to tell her. She left town. Not that I think it would have mattered. By the time she found out about the building and the investigator’s reports, the damage was already done. There was no going back.”

“Then why are you here now?”

“Hoping to move forward with her. I guess that’s not gonna happen now.” He stood, wiping his palms on his jeans. “Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, Kent. If nothing else, it’s helped give me closure.”

“Closure?” His bushy white eyebrows came together. “You’re telling me you’re giving up? Huh, I wouldn’t have pegged you for a quitter.”

“You said she’s moved on, that she’s happy.”

“That doesn’t mean she couldn’t be happier with you.” He held up a hand. “Don’t get me wrong. This fella she’s seeing is nice enough. A cop, in fact.”

“Really?” Grayson didn’t care if the guy dressed up as a clown and performed at birthday parties. The only thing that mattered was how Alana felt about him.

“Yeah, but…”

Grayson’s heart kicked into overdrive. His instincts told him Kent was about to say something that could change everything. “But?”

“I’d say she’s in like, not love.”

“So you think I still have a chance with her?”

“That’s for her to decide.”

“Then you’ll tell me where to find her?”

Kent stood up, looking Grayson in the eye. “Since you came all this way, I guess that’s the least I can do.”

***

Alana listened to her friend ramble about the new man in her life and tried to muster some enthusiasm. “He sounds great, Kari. I’m glad you’re putting yourself out there again.”