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"Oh, so is that why you have ‘I Will Survive’ playing on repeat on your office computer?"
He scowled "Hey, that’s my private office--"
"Or why you deht days until she finally blocked your cell?"
"I didn’t--"
"She called et you She orried about you"
Donald turned away "I wanted to make sure she was okay, that’s all"
"She’s fine She’s out of toith Thomas Pines"
"Pines Ranch Thomas Pines? Her boss? Christ What is he, twelve?"
"Dad" Holly dropped to her knees beside him "This is what happens when you date woer than you"
"H his arms over his barrel chest
A Reid standoff
Adam knew they had a cantankerous affection for each other He also knew that Donald would move heaven and earth to make his children happy, but he wanted the to his specs He set boundaries and brooded when those boundaries were breached He was stubborn and driven and…stubborn
Grif and Holly were two peas in a pod that way
"I can’t believe you came all this way to look for me," Donald said
"We came a lot farther than you even know," Holly said "First ent to Diale And--"
"Both of those places suck and have ever since Huntingtheo there anymore"
"Did not know that," Holly muttered "And Kaniksu Caves?"
Donald slid a look in Adam’s direction "The caves?"
Jesus Seemed he’d hid his neurosis from exactly no one
"We orried," Holly reiterated
"Yeah, well, you shouldn’t have coht be hurt!"
Donald sighed "Look, it’s nice that you worried Really And I’o out all the time and you’ve never said a word So what’s this really about?"
Holly sucked in a breath, looking shaken Like maybe she wasn’t exactly sure For the first ti, she looked lost, and Adam felt his heart squeeze for her
"It’s about the fact that you can’t just vanish any--"
"Careful," he said, pointing at her
"Older"
Donald stood up and Ada to stop theot out of hand between hiine it getting to that point between the Reids--they probably fought with a lot more class and used their words instead--but no sense in testing things He pinched the bridge of his nose before turning to Holly "Nice job on the staying, by the way"
Holly crossed her arms "Did you know about this?"
"Do you really think I’d have dragged you all over hell and back if I had?"
"Right Of course not," she said "You wouldn’t have spent an extra minute in my presence unless absolutely necessary, is that it?"
"No" Jesus How did this beco heavily from her walk up here Actually, she’d had to have hauled ass to arrive as fast as she had She one on, and then run like hell after hi
He’d have done the same Which made her a wo order
And yet it had worked just fine last night…
No, that had been a different part of his body entirely Yeah, that was bad Really bad And daht he’d been doing None Zero Nada A point proved by Donald’s next words
"Have to adether" Donald divided a long, questioning look between thelad to see you finally got over your silly crush and can be friends with him"
"Dad"
"What?" Donald said "It’s not like it’s a secret Hell, how could it have been with the way you used to rin
Holly hts, andher hands out over the flah her ears looked very hot
And if he looked very carefully, there was also stea out of them
Adam knew better than to stir a wo, but once it was lit, it went off like a firecracker Still, he couldn’t help himself "You used to moon over me?" he asked
Fifteen
At the low, sexy voice in her ear, Holly closed her eyes but not before she gave hiut Then she huddled closer to the fire, staring into the flames
Adam flashed her a rare two-hundred-watt s her some room Not, she was quite certain, because she’d actually hurt the big oaf but because he wanted tohe didn’t want to do
And just like that, unbidden, caht Or rather, who he’d wanted to do
Her
She shivered before relegating the erotic ies to the back of her mind, where she could pull theht now her dad atching her carefully, a senerally clueless to the workings of a wo a vibe fro bad had happened to hed "It could have"