Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Dakota
“This is getting ri-goddamn-diculous. I’m not an invalid.” My father’s booming voice carried from his room and halfway down the hall as I walked in that direction. “I don’t need a babysitter, for Christ’s sake. I can take care of myself.”
I reached the threshold to his room and had to curl my lips between my teeth to keep from laughing at the scene before me. As Ezra continued to bluster, the nurse checking his vitals couldn’t have looked more at ease. Which only seemed to agitate Ezra more.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I quirked a brow and spoke. “Yeah, you’re really proving how mature you can be by throwing a temper tantrum that would embarrass a toddler.”
The nurse’s gaze swung to me and she shot me a quick wink before returning to the business at hand.
Ezra’s pinched features automatically softened at the sight of me, the corners of his mouth hooking up into a grin that reminded me of just how handsome my father really was.
For the first time since I returned to Ashland, he looked more like the man I remembered than the drawn-faced, pale man who’d been lying in his hospital bed.
His color had returned, and those blue eyes he’d handed down to me were glimmering today, the dull haze of pain and medicine finally having cleared.
He was, once again, his larger than life self, and if it wasn’t for the steel gray that had completely wiped out all the dark hair he once had and the reading glasses perched on his nose, I would have thought he hadn’t aged a day in the past sixteen years.
He tried to cover his happiness at seeing me with a fake scowl. “I’m a grown ass man. I don’t thrown temper tantrums.”
I snorted, moving into the room and dropping down into the chair beside his bed. “I’m sure everyone down the hallway would beg to differ.” I pointed my finger at his face. “See? You’re pouting right now.”
Ezra crossed his long arms over his chest, his biceps straining impressively, especially for a man in his mid-sixties “I don’t pout, either,” he grumbled, causing his pout to deepen.
“He’s just a getting a little stir-crazy, is all,” the polite nurse offered, turning to give his shoulder a pat despite his surliness.
Anyone else would have most definitely been intimidated by a man Ezra Riley’s size, but I had a feeling this woman had seen her fair share of stuff as a nurse, and one cranky, cantankerous old man wasn’t going to faze her.
The woman had my respect, that was for damn sure.
Clearly, she was one of the people who’d found her calling if she could keep her cool in the face of a grumpy biker throwing his attitude around.
“That’s ’cause they’re tryin’ to kill me here.
All this so-called healthy food”—he used air quotes around the last two words, saying them like they left a vulgar taste in his mouth—“would starve a goddamn rabbit. I need real food. But Nurse Ratched here kicks out everyone who tries bringing me some decent grub.”
I shot my father an admonishing look, but the one coming from the nurse was much more threatening.
“Mr. Riley, you just underwent serious surgery to repair your heart. A double bacon cheeseburger”—she curled her top lip much like Ezra did while mentioning health food—“and a large chili cheese fry will do nothing but clog up those arteries the doctor just cleared.”
I pulled in an affronted gasp and cut my eyes at my father. “Seriously? You tried to get someone to bring you in all that fried, greasy slop?”
He hiked his chin up. “Didn’t try, darlin’. I was damn successful, or would have been if it weren’t for this ball buster here.” He hiked his thumb in the nurse’s direction.
I harrumphed and narrowed my eyelids. “Apologize to the kind nurse for being a pain in her ass. She deserves a raise for having to put up with you.”
“From your lips to the goddess’ ears,” she said with a chuckle before heading out of the room to check on her other patients.
“You know, you really should be nicer,” I said in a scolding tone. “This is a thankless enough job as it is. She doesn’t need you making it harder.”
He waved me off, pursing his lips and blowing out a raspberry. “Please. She likes it. Keeps things from getting stale and boring.”
I tried to hold my glare, but the affection swirling in my father’s bright blue eyes was such a relief to witness after how bad he looked when I first got to town, that I couldn’t help but smile in return.
“You look better,” I stated, letting my eyes track his face for the millionth time in the last several days.
The worry that had been sitting like a boulder on my chest for nearly two weeks finally lightened, and it felt like I was taking my first real, full breath in a very long time.
I hadn’t realized just how worried I’d been about Ezra until just then.
I blew out a breath, the tension that had been knotting my shoulders since the hospital called loosening its grip. “A lot better. It’s good to see.”
My father’s big hand lifted off the mattress and wrapped around one of my own, giving it a gentle squeeze to match his tender expression. “I feel a lot better. And they’re finally letting me out of this hell hole tomorrow.”
“Good,” I said on a sigh. “That’s really good.
” The tension might have escaped the room, but there was a new discomfort clogging the air now that I knew Ezra was officially on the mend.
Now that the fear he’d be gone forever was no longer sitting like a weight between the two of us.
It was the glaring reminder of what was still being left unsaid.
The reason our relationship, up to this point, was non-existent.
I could have sworn he felt it too, and when he spoke my name, pulling my attention back to him, I thought for a moment that he was going to be the one to finally address it.
But instead, we were interrupted by a ball of glittery energy that came rushing into the room in the shape of the cutest little girl I’d ever seen.
I wasn’t great with guessing ages, but I would have put the little girl somewhere between seven and nine-years-old.
Her long, almost black hair hung down to the middle of her back in a mixed twist of glittery braids and the kind of tangles that only came from being active.
The only word I could think of to describe her outfit was…
eclectic. The sparkly purple tutu and the glitter spray making her braids glint in the overhead lights gave you the mistaken impression that she was a girly girl.
But the Harley tee that I didn’t even know they made in such small sizes, the well-used, muddy little girl biker boots, and the extra small riding goggles tangled in her hair said otherwise.
And somehow, the juxtaposition of the two sides of this tiny person worked. In a really big way.
“Poppy, I’m here!” the little girl declared like it was the greatest news anyone could possibly hear. “I’ve missed you so much,” she exclaimed, genuine sincerity shining behind her eyes. “Have you missed me too, Poppy?”
Ezra smiled in way I had never witnessed before Two rows of perfect white teeth gleaming as the little girl hopped up onto the bed and bounced closer to him.
“Of course I missed you, baby doll. Life’s just plain borin’ without my little sparkle running around. Where’s your daddy at, huh? Or are you big enough to drive a motorcycle all by yourself already?”
The girl giggled like that was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “I think so, but Daddy said ‘over my cold, dead body,’ she mimicked, lowering her voice to sound like a man.
Ezra chuckled. “Sounds like something he’d say.”
“He got stopped by the nurse for bringin’ you no-no food. She got all mad at him like my teacher gets when we aren’t followin’ the class rules.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially. “He might have to sit in the time out spot for a while.”
Watching them together, something shot through my chest, an unpleasant pain ricocheting like a bolt of lightning that bounced off of my ribs.
The sheer adoration carved into my father’s face as he scooped the little girl into his arms and tucked her close to his side like it was the most natural thing in the world, like he hadn’t just had major open heart surgery days earlier.
like he hadn’t just used the endearment he’d given me all those years ago on a different girl, ripped through my insides like a bullet, leaving destruction in its wake.
I hated what I was feeling in that moment, the ugly, nasty jealousy I felt toward an adorable little girl who certainly hadn’t done anything to deserve my ire.
But I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen that look on my father’s face before.
Not even when I was little and Remy and I still held his heart in our hands.
But whoever this little girl was, there was no doubt in my mind just how important she was to the man who had a hand in creating me.
I didn’t realize I’ve been staring so hard, my bottom lip clamped tightly between my teeth as I fought back the burn in my eyes, but then the shade of dark blue I’d only ever seen on one other person locked on me, and the little girl smiled in the way I felt in my chest for a whole other reason.
“Hi,” she chirped brightly. “Who are you? Are you a friend of my Poppy’s?”
“Your poppy?” I asked uncertainty making my voice waver and my tone huskier than normal. I didn’t miss the way Ezra’s face shot up to mine, wariness creating shadows that dance across his features. His brows pinched together, creating two deep divots between his eyes.
“It means, like, grandpa. But I don’t call him grandpa. I call him Poppy.”
Oh god.
“Dakota?” I could hear the pleading tone in my father’s voice at that one word, but my head was too busy spinning to focus on him.
Remy and me aside, there was only one other person on the face of this planet that Ezra was so close with his child would be considered a grandchild.
“I’m Cassi,” the beautiful little girl stated, oblivious to the fact there suddenly wasn’t enough air in the room.
I gave her the best smile I could muster, hoping it didn’t come off as a grimace and scare the poor girl. “That’s a very pretty name,” I croaked, my throat growing uncomfortably tight.
“Thanks!” she grinned big, showing off a couple missing teeth. “I’m named after my daddy’s favorite con-see-lation.”
“Uh, it’s constellation, sweetheart,” Ezra corrected, but I barely heard him over the blood suddenly whooshing through my ears. It had been a long time since I had a panic attack, and I could one brewing just beneath the surface, threatening to pull me under.
“Uh, e-excuse me. I just need—”
“Hate to break it to you Pops, but the burger nazi out there caught me,” a familiar voice spoke a second before the man I’d tried my hardest to forget all about over the past two days stepped into the room.
“Told you I wouldn’t get it past her. She’s like a bomb sniffing dog or some—” Roe’s sentence trailed off as he lifted his head and locked eyes on me.
The flash of those navy eyes was my breaking point.
I had to get the hell out of there before I completely crumbled in front of the two men on the face of the Earth that didn’t deserve to see it.
I lowered my head, dropping my gaze to my feet as I skuttled to the door, refusing to look at anyone. “I’m sorry. Excuse me, I’m sorry” I mumbled, as I moved quickly, nearly running into Roe, then the wall in my haste to get the hell out of there without making eye contact with anyone.
I hadn’t cried in years, but the damn was about to burst, and I was terrified that, once I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop.