Getting Lucky (34 page)

“Do you know where Peyton is?”

TJ pushed himself up in the bed. “Dan?”

That got Hope’s full attention, and she shifted to sit next to him, pulling the sheet up over her breasts.

“Yes. We had an argument and she left. It’s been almost an hour and she’s not answering her phone. Scott hasn’t seen her, but he said she was with your girlfriend tonight. Do you know where she is?”

TJ glanced at Hope. “No, I haven’t seen her since we left the bar.”

Hope frowned. “Who?” she mouthed.

“Peyton.”

Her expression went from annoyed to concerned in an instant.

Hope scooted to the edge of the bed, taking the sheet with her. “Let me check my phone.”

Which was downstairs, either in her shorts that were somewhere on his living room floor, or in her bag in his truck outside.

“Hope, wait—”

“I’m good. I’ll be right back.”

“I don’t know where else to look,” Dan said.

“I’m sure Scott’s checking on her,” TJ said. He was
sure
Scott was checking on her. In addition to being the town cop, TJ knew the other man was intrigued by the troublemaker. “And Hope will try to get a hold of her.”

“This Hope girl,” Dan said. “Are you sure she’s okay? Okay to be hanging out with Peyton?”

TJ bit his tongue. For one, Dan was hardly in a position to judge other people’s positive or negative influence on his daughter. For another, Hope had a special reason for being connected to and concerned about Peyton. One that TJ couldn’t share with Dan. Yet.

He’d seen Hope with Peyton though. He knew she was feeling a bond, and he loved it. She had been insisting that she could keep her distance, meet them without telling them who she was, but now that she had gotten to know Peyton, she was feeling attached. Already. Yeah, he loved that a lot.

“Dan, Hope is really good for Peyton, actually,” TJ said. “You’ll see…they’re going to be good friends.”

“I thought you just met her yourself,” Dan said.

“Yes, but—”

“I’m coming over.”

“No, you don’t have—” But the line was already dead.

Dammit
.

If Peyton and Dan had argued tonight, then Dan was riled up. He always put his wife first, and TJ knew that he felt guilty about that. So he overcompensated when Peyton was in trouble by acting the concerned, protective father.

TJ got out of bed and pulled on his clothes as well. He should at least warn Hope they were about to have company so she could get dressed.

“Hope?” he called as he descended the steps.

She wasn’t in the living room and her shorts still were, so he assumed she’d had to go out to the truck. He headed for the door and pulled it open.

To find his porch filled with people.

Including Hope. Still wrapped in a sheet.

“No, she didn’t say anything to me,” Hope was telling Delaney.

“What the fuck are you all doing here?” TJ demanded.

Travis and Lauren were there, along with Phoebe and Joe and Tucker and Delaney.

“Dan called us worried about Peyton,” Travis said.

“Who’s with your kids?” TJ asked Tucker.

“Kate,” Tucker said.

“So you got Kate and Levi out of bed to come babysit so you could come over
here
?” TJ asked.

“Everyone was at our house,” Delaney said. “We were just hanging out. Tucker was showing Levi how to wire a ceiling fan and we were talking,” she glanced between him and Hope, “about you guys.”

TJ sighed. Just his luck they’d all be here together when Dan called.

“We were making a German chocolate cake for you,” Lauren said with a grin.

TJ frowned at her. “No, you weren’t.” Lauren, Delaney and Kate didn’t bake. But Phoebe did. German chocolate cake was a tradition of TJ’s mother’s. She made them for engagements and anniversaries in Sapphire Falls. It had been the first cake she’d made for Thomas and had won his heart—or so the story went.

The story also went that she frosted the cakes extra thick and that recipients found fun, sticky uses for the extra frosting.

In their family, a German chocolate cake meant a love match had been made.

“German chocolate?” Hope asked. She looked up at TJ. “You just asked me about that earlier. That’s strange, isn’t it?”

Travis chuckled. “Not really all that strange.”

Hope was obviously confused, but further conversation was interrupted by Dan’s arrival.

“
No one
knows where she is?” he asked, approaching the porch steps. “How is that possible?”

“Dan, settle down,” Tucker said. “Phoebe and Joe confirmed she was still at the Come Again when all of them left.”

“Well, she’s not there now.” Dan’s attention zeroed in on Hope. “You’re Hope?”

She nodded. “I am. Nice to meet you.”

TJ stepped closer to her, taking in her look of surprise and excitement and trepidation.

He had never seen Hope look unsure, and he was certain it was a rare thing for her to feel.

“What did you say to my daughter?” Dan asked, frowning at her.

TJ moved in front of her. “This isn’t Hope’s fault, Dan. Peyton does shit like this all the time.”

“But we can always
find
her. Where the hell could she be tonight?”

He looked at Hope again, who had, of course, stepped out from behind TJ.

“What did you say to her?”

“We talked about a lot of things,” Hope said. “She shared with me about her mother’s mental illness and her desire for more of your attention, and I told her she needed to make her own happiness and not to worry about the choices
you’ve
made.”

TJ felt everyone suck in their breath at the same time. JoEllen’s bipolar disorder was one of those things that people knew about but never mentioned out loud. And
never
to Dan. If they referred to it at all, people talked about her being sick. Like she had the flu or something.

Dan’s eyes widened in surprise. “She told you about her mother?”

Hope nodded. “And you. And how it all makes her feel.”

Of course Hope wouldn’t tiptoe around Dan. Sure, she’d been willing to hold back and not head directly over to introduce herself after she understood their situation. But now that it was front and center, TJ realized that she was going to meet this head-on.

She wasn’t addressing Dan as her long-lost father. She was addressing him as the father of a girl she cared about.

TJ realized that he was falling for her in that moment.

She was being protective of her own monkey.

TJ also became aware that she was still wrapped in only a bedsheet. Her hair was tousled and she had whisker burns along her left collarbone. And he felt a primal streak of possessiveness seeing her like that. Part of him wanted to parade her around town so everyone would know she was
his
.

Another slightly larger part of him wanted her covered up and away from any other male eyes immediately. She needed clothes on. Now.

“Hope, maybe you should—”

“Mind your own fucking business,” Dan said.

TJ felt his spine go rigid. His brothers and Joe stepped back slightly, widening the space around TJ. He turned slowly to face the man who had been like a second father to him.

“Dan, you need to be careful,” TJ said firmly.

“She needs to stay out of it,” Dan said, glaring at Hope. “This is between my daughter and me.”

“Stop it!” Suddenly Peyton appeared from around the corner of the house. “She didn’t do anything wrong.”

Everyone swung to face her.

“Where did you come from?” Travis asked. “Are you all right?”

Peyton nodded and then looked sheepishly at Hope. “I needed to get out. Like you said. I saw your car and camper were still at the bar so I…brought them out here for you. I was just going to sleep in the camper for the night.”

“I have my keys,” Hope said. “How did you start it?”

Peyton glanced at her dad, then back to Hope. “I can hotwire cars.”

“Jesus,” TJ muttered.

“It’s okay,” Hope assured her. “As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters.”

“That is
not
all that matters,” Dan declared. “You told her she needed to get out?” Dan asked Hope.

“If being around you makes her unhappy, yes,” Hope said. “She deserves to be happy and she needs to figure out how to make that happen without depending on someone else.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Dan asked.

“She’s my
friend
, Dad,” Peyton said. “She cares about me.”

“You just met her and you think she cares about you more than your own father? You don’t even know her!”

“I
feel
like I do know her! She
listens
to me. She wants me to be stronger.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Dan yelled. “You just met!”

“Sometimes people connect,” Hope interjected. “Sometimes…there are…reasons…that people feel drawn to one another.”

Was she working up to telling him who she was? TJ watched the scene before him, torn. He wanted to jump in and protect Hope from Dan’s anger and whatever stupid thing he was about to say—TJ knew Dan well. He
was
going to say something stupid. But if this pushed Hope to confess who she was, TJ was all for it. She deserved to have a family, to have a sister who would bring out her protective instincts, who she could be there for, who would look up to her. God knew, Peyton needed Hope. And with her mother gone, Hope needed a place to belong, and a father who… Okay, Dan didn’t have a lot to give. But Hope was a healer. Maybe she could heal Dan a little too.

Dan turned to Hope with wide eyes, clearly dumbfounded. “Drawn to one another? Are you kidding me with this crap?”

TJ glanced at Hope and his chest tightened at the wounded look on her face. “Dan, watch yourself,” he said, warningly.

“You just pulled into town, and within a day, you’re my daughter’s new best friend?” Dan went on. “That seems really creepy, you know that?”

TJ flinched at that. So did Hope.

Her father was calling her creepy because she was trying to take care of her sister. Dan didn’t know who she was, but Hope knew who
he
was. Rationally, she would understand that he was a concerned father looking out for his daughter who was being suddenly influenced by a complete stranger. But TJ knew better than anyone that being rational was hard when the heart was involved.

And no matter how tough and independent she tried to be, Hope’s heart was involved here.

“Hope is
my
friend,” TJ said. “You can trust her.”

“She’s your
friend
, TJ?” Dan said, his gaze going to Hope again. “You wouldn’t be biased where she’s concerned, would you?”

TJ didn’t want to throw Dan off of his property. But he fucking would. “Okay Dan, you need to go.”

“I’m not going anywhere without Peyton.”

“Peyton’s fine,” TJ said. “She can stay here tonight. But you need to go. Now. Don’t make me
make
you leave.”

“No,” Hope protested to TJ. “Don’t do that.” She turned to Peyton. “You decide. You need to choose what you do. You can stay here or you can go with your dad or you can take my camper and go someone else entirely. But it’s
your
call.”

“Hope—” TJ started.

“Peyton, no—” Dan said at the same time.

But Peyton talked over them both. “I don’t want to go home, Dad. I don’t want to fight anymore. And I can’t keep trying to get your attention. It’s just hurting me. And I know you don’t want me to be hurt.

“Goddamit!” Dan roared. He turned on Hope. “Why do you care? What business is this of yours? Leave my daughter alone. She’s nothing to you.”

“Dan!” TJ said sharply. “Stop. Hope cares about Peyton. You don’t understand. You should be
glad
.”

“That some strange woman showed up and started brainwashing my daughter against me?”

“She’s your daughter too!”

Everyone froze.

Including TJ.

Oh…
fuck
.

“TJ!”

He looked down at Hope. She was clearly shocked.

“I’m sorry, Hope.” TJ wanted to reach for her, but she stepped back before he could, as if reading his mind.

“I can’t…you shouldn’t have told him.” She cast a glance at Dan. “Not like this.”

“It’s…fine,” he said, praying to God it would be fine.

She frowned at him. “It’s not fine. That wasn’t your secret to tell.”

“I’m so sorry,” he told her sincerely. He shouldn’t have blurted it out but listening to Dan raging against her had been too much. “But maybe it’s better this way.” For all of them. The secret was out. Now they could work through their issues and maybe even be a family.

“Better for
who
?” Hope asked, gesturing toward a completely stunned Dan and Peyton.

Dan moved to sit on the steps and put his head in his hands. “She’s…” He took a deep breath. “She’s Melody’s daughter,” he said quietly.