Chapter Twenty

Daniel felt the knife twist in his gut as Story and her ex-fiancé disappeared into the elevator that would take her farther away from him. Somehow, in the last ten minutes he’d fallen from the highest high to the dark pit he currently resided in and he still wasn’t quite sure how it happened. She’d been on the verge of telling Jack about them. He still couldn’t quite believe it. With a smile on her face, she’d stood next to him as though she couldn’t be more proud to reintroduce him to her father. This time as her boyfriend.

For that brief moment, he’d been the luckiest man on the planet. He’d thought, hell, if she believed he was good enough for her, maybe he’d start to believe it after a while. I’ll learn how to make her happy. How to be a boyfriend. How to handle the fact that he’d fallen in love.

He couldn’t deny it any longer. Now that he knew what it felt like to watch her walk away, he knew for sure. God, he wished he’d realized it before now. Wished he’d told her. In his entire life, he’d never uttered those words to anyone else, and now they threatened to burst from his chest. If he’d told her how he felt, maybe she wouldn’t be doubting him now.

Swallowing his desire to sprint down the stairs after her, he went back into the room to face Jack alone. The older man sat propped up in the bed, staring out the window of his room.

Daniel fell into a chair by the door and leaned forward, hands clasped between his knees. They were silent for long moments while Daniel gathered his thoughts. “You must not have very much confidence in me,” he finally said. “Telling me to stay away from your daughter, all the while knowing I couldn’t. Knowing I would fail.”

Jack turned to him, surprise evident on his face. “You still haven’t grasped the point, have you? I have every confidence in you. You didn’t fail.”

“I’ve about had it with mind games for the day. Just be clear.”

“Very well, spoilsport.” Daniel sent him an exasperated look that he ignored. “What I said before earlier is true. I wanted Story happy and secure in case I knocked off early.”

He snorted. “And that involved blackmailing her doctor fiancé to break their engagement, then sending her my way. Who, as you put it, has a fucked-up track record with women?”

“Ah, you were listening.” Jack shifted on the bed. “I might have gotten a little carried away with that last part. You know how I get when I’m on a roll.”

Daniel gave a quick shake of his head. “I’m sorry. I still don’t get it. You can’t actually want her with me.” Daniel searched for the right words. “Story…lights everything up. Where I come from, the things I’ve seen and done…took something out of me. I don’t know how to be good like her.” He stood and paced to the window, looking out over the river.

“You just made my point for me,” Jack said quietly. “Danny, you’re the only one with that ridiculously low opinion of yourself. I saw the way she looked at you before that little fucker came in and ruined everything. She sees something more in you.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I…see something more in you.”

Daniel turned away before Jack could see how his words affected him. No one, especially his mentor, had ever paid him such a high compliment. For so damn long, he’d looked in the mirror and seen someone broken. Someone who couldn’t be fixed. Was it really possible that others saw an entirely different man? Yes, he thought tentatively. If Jack and Story, the two people whose opinions counted the most, thought he could be salvaged, then he had to believe it, too. He wanted to believe it. Some of the pain he carried inside him withered and died, to be replaced with something that felt like hope. “Why the reverse psychology, then? You had to know from the first day it wasn’t necessary. I asked her out before we even walked into this room.”

“Because,” he stressed, “If I’d come right out and told you I couldn’t think of a better man for my daughter, you would never have believed me. You had to realize it yourself. She had to make you realize it.”

Jack was right. A week ago, he wouldn’t have thought himself capable of coming this far. She’d done it. Pulled him out of the darkness where he’d been living for so long. He couldn’t lose her now. Once again resisting the urge to chase her down, he questioned Jack. “So what was your plan? Break up the wedding and have a heart attack to get us together? Seems pretty risky even for you.”

Jack chuckled. “I had a hunch if I got you two in the same room, the rest would take care of itself. And the second you walked in, I knew I was right.” He gestured toward the beeping heart monitor. “I didn’t realize the meeting would happen quite so soon. The heart attack was fortuitous.”

“And you just referred to a heart attack as fortuitous.” His eyes narrowed on the older man. “You sent those flowers, didn’t you? And forcing Story to give me Hayden’s number…?”

“Nice touch, right? I’m sure it came in handy, too.” Jack stuck a pillow behind his head. “Now why the hell did you let her leave with that whelp?”

“I didn’t exactly have a choice, thanks to you.” Daniel ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “After she found out she’d been moved around like a pawn on a chessboard all week, me telling her what to do wouldn’t have ended pretty.”

Jack shrugged, but Daniel could see his self-satisfaction beginning to slip. “You met the kid, can you blame me for what I did?”

“That’s not the issue here. She’s upset because you went behind her back, didn’t give her a chance to come to the right conclusion about him.” He pegged the older man with a look. “And you didn’t give her enough credit to draw her own conclusions about me, either. Now she’s doubting her own judgment. So your plan backfired, didn’t it? You’re an expert negotiator, but you’re obviously not an expert on your daughter.”

“Oh, and you’ve somehow become an expert on her in a week?”

Daniel held up a hand. He wasn’t going anywhere near that question. “Look. If she’ll have me, our relationship will be ours. No interference from you. I won’t let you use me to control her. Or vice versa.” His hand came to rest on his chest. “You chose me for Story, and don’t get me wrong, I owe you a huge debt for bringing us together. But now you have to back off. Or we could both lose her.”

The older man scowled. “Is it too late to change my mind about you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then,” Jack snorted. “What the hell are you doing here still talking to me? Go get her.”