“It’s going to be fine. I think he got his anger out on me.”
She turned and stared at me with a look of fear in her eyes. “Don’t leave me.”
My heart felt like someone was squeezing it. “Never, Em. I swear to you I will never leave you again.”
Chewing on her lip, she finally broke the nervous silence. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Let me get your door.”
I jumped out of the car and took a deep breath in as I jogged around to her. The smell of the ranch filled my nose and instantly made me feel happier. Hay. Manure. Leather. All of it swirled into one hell of a great feeling. We were home.
We hadn’t even walked up the steps yet and the door flew open. Mario and Kim walked out first. I could see the relief on Kim’s face, but Mario looked pissed as hell, and I had only ever seen that man lose his shit a few times in my life. Once directed at me and I’d never want to have that happen again.
He took a few steps forward and stopped. “¿Lo que pensaban que ir con un desconodido?”
“He’s really pissed if he is talking in Spanish!” I whispered as Emylie gripped my hand.
Mario looked at me, then back to Emylie. “Mi preciosa, answer me.”
Since I could remember he had called Emylie “mi preciosa,” which meant my precious in Spanish.
“Um …”
I leaned in closer. “I heard stranger in there somewhere.”
She turned to look at me and shot me a glaring expression. “Yes, I heard. He asked what I was thinking going off with a stranger.”
“Smart man,” I whispered while giving her a wink.
“Papá, he wasn’t a stranger. He was a friend of Jamie and Jax’s, and I wasn’t really thinking.”
Mario went to rattle something else in Spanish when Kim hit him in the chest. “Stop yelling at her in Spanish. I have no clue what you’re saying!”
Mario gently kissed his wife on the cheek. “I’m sorry, mi preciosa.”
“Holden, thank you for bringing her home to us. You’re a good man for seeing to her safety.”
With a smile, I went to reply but Emylie turned to face me with her hands on her hips. With a tilt of her head and a look that should drop me on the spot, I knew she was wondering how I went from the asshole who left his daughter to the man who swooped in and rescued her.
Kim motioned for us to walk up the steps. “All right, let’s go in and talk. Sam and Debbie have some dinner cooked up for you both if you’re hungry.”
I waited for Emylie to start heading in first before I followed behind her. One reason was it was the gentlemanly thing to do, the other was I wouldn’t put it past her to trip me going up the steps. Peering back at me over her shoulder, she sneered, “I think we can safely say he is no longer mad at you.”
With a fist pump, I whispered, “Yes!”
She groaned and headed into the house. My mother and father greeted us both with hugs and kisses.
“I’m so sorry I up and left like that, Debbie. I didn’t know what else to do.”
My mother peeked over to me then back to Emylie. “I’m going to guess by the color on your cheeks, you two made up?”
Emylie blushed and kissed my mother on the cheek before making her way over to her father and mother who had gone into the kitchen.
Walking up to my mother, I shook my head. “Mom, seriously? I just got Mario back on my good side!”
With a wave of her hand, she brushed off my concern. “Nonsense. That man was so upset when he found out his daughter ran off with a strange man.”