Chapter Sixteen

 

 

J.T. wished it was that simple. But Kelly had gotten the gist of the process right. They enjoyed a lunch in the food court, the four of them. Emma was cuddled up against his side, right where she belonged.

She ate half his French fries, but he didn’t mind. It was good to see her laughing and cutting up, rather than frightened of a faceless threat.

And it was obvious she enjoyed being in her sister and Josh’s company. That made things simpler for him, too. Josh was his best friend, and he spent a lot of his spare time with the other guy. Like Emma spent a lot of her spare time with Kelly.

After she was settled into the second final exam, with him sitting in the corner working on his tablet thanks to a more sympathetic female professor, it occurred to him the direction his thoughts had taken him.

He was already planning out how they’d spend their free time together.

Did that make him weird? Or was he just thinking positive? Thinking that he could so easily build a real relationship with Emma? A future?

It did feel right.

And for a strange reason that idea didn’t terrify him.

 

***

 

“I did it!” Emma saw J.T. standing in the hallway next to her dad. She jumped into J.T.’s arms and he caught her, like she knew he would.

She kissed him, quickly but enthusiastically. Then she wiggled out of his hold and hugged her dad. She jumped up and down and repeated it. “I did it!”

“Jumping the gun? You might have bombed…” J.T. said.

“I know I passed. I can only think of one or two questions that I wasn’t entirely certain of. Let’s go celebrate!” She turned to the other important man in her life. “Daddy? Want to go get a drink at Smokey’s?”

Her dad was looking at her and J.T. and it hit Emma what she’d done. In front of him.

“You two go ahead. I have a few people I’m going to talk to here on campus. Enjoy yourselves.” He looked at J.T. “I’ll call you with anything I find. We’ll talk, then, son.”

 

***

 

J.T. knew what that conversation would be about and he forced himself not to feel nervous. Whatever happened between him and Emma, it had nothing to do with her father. And he’d made his choice.

She’d made hers, too.

In the meantime, he’d take her somewhere to forget the threat against her, and let her father find the guy responsible.

He’d protect, her father would defend. That would work for all of them.

J.T. had parked as close to the building as he possibly could, for the added security bonus. Cars under streetlights were statistically better protected.

“J.T., your car…” Her hand tightened on his arm. His free hand dropped to the gun he wore at his hip. He saw it, easily.

His windshield had been busted out, and the word bitch had been scratched it the surface over the passenger side door. “Back inside. We’ll let your dad deal with this once I know you are safe.”

“Why is someone doing this?”

“Because they’re sick in the head.” He kept her close at his side until he got her back inside the building they’d just left.

The one the stalker was most likely still in. “Call your dad, tell him to get here now.”