Her head down, she got to her feet. The old man did the same, standing in front of the exit. “Is this your father, Bree?”
She nodded.
“No need to get upset,” the old guy said with a jovial, we’re-all-buddies-here grin. “We were just discussing our favorite books.” He laid his hand on Bree’s shoulder. “You have a very bright girl here.”
Neil stepped forward, linked his fingers through the fence and held the old man’s gaze. “If you don’t get your hand off my daughter,” he warned softly, dangerously, “I’ll break your goddamn fingers.”
The old man raised his eyebrows and slowly lifted his hand. “Maybe it’d be best if I was on my way.” He stepped onto the field, stopping a few feet in front of Neil. “I meant no harm.”
Didn’t matter whether he had or not, Neil thought as the other man walked toward the basketball courts. Sometimes, even the best intentions had the worst results. He’d tried to be a good father. Had busted his ass to provide for his daughter, to give her a stable life, to ensure her childhood was as different from his own as it could be.
What did he get in return? Bree glaring at him as if she hadn’t scared the hell out of him by disappearing. As if he was the one in the wrong.
He was out of his depth, out of his element and out of patience. How was he supposed to act? What was he supposed to do? He wanted to yell, to let loose the worry and anger inside of him. Wanted to shake her until she realized what she’d done was wrong.
He wanted to grab her and hold her close, just to reassure himself she really was all right, that nothing and no one had touched her. Had hurt her.
He jammed his hands into his pockets, kept his voice even. “Come on.”
As soon as she stepped out of the dugout, Neil started walking toward the parking lot. He glanced back. She was, as usual, dragging her feet.
“Either you keep up with me on your own,” he snapped, “or I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here.”
She ran to catch up to him, kept running to keep his pace. At his car, he tossed his bag into the trunk, only mildly surprised it was still where he’d left it.
“Where are we going?” Bree asked in a small voice from where she was huddled in the passenger seat.
There was only one person who knew what to do with her. How to handle this situation and get Bree to see what she did was wrong. Dangerous.
He started the engine and slammed the car into gear. “I’m taking you to your mother.”
* * *
“MOMMY!” BREE WAILED as she burst through Bradford House’s front door.
Maddie jumped—which was not a good idea seeing as how she was ten feet up a ladder. Grabbing ahold of the top rung, her heart racing, she glared at Bree. “You’d better be on fire,” she warned, only to be smacked with a sharp dose of Mom’s Guilt seeing the tears on her daughter’s face.
That guilt amped up when James, on a second ladder farther along the hall from her, climbed down and crouched in front of Bree, all concerned and compassionate. “What happened?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
Bree nodded, somehow managing to look brave and sullen despite the wetness on her cheeks.
It was that sullenness—and the anger in Bree’s eyes—that had Maddie breathing normally again. She climbed down the ladder, set her hammer and chisel aside—removing one-hundred-and-thirty-year-old plaster molding was a bitch—and tugged off her work gloves. “What’s up? Where’s your dad?”
“Right here.”
Maddie stiffened then forced her shoulders to relax as she turned to find him standing on the porch. It drove her nuts how the mere sound of his voice could make her all tingly. She hated even more how often she’d thought of him in the past two days.
James straightened, his hand on Bree’s shoulder, his stance aggressive, his expression dark. “What the hell did you do to her?”
Neil flicked him a glance so cold, she was surprised icicles didn’t shoot out his nose. “This doesn’t concern you.”
But James was in full superhero-protector mode, his hands fisted on his hips, his expression fierce. “You’d damn well better believe it concerns me. If you so much as touched one hair on her head—”
“He didn’t.” She felt Neil’s surprise, but she kept her eyes on James,