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it went to voice mail, he didn’t hang up. “Hey, Nat. I’m likely going to run a bit late getting there to pick you up. I’m stuck on the mainland, and they’re doing some repair to the ferry. Sorry, babe. Maybe hang out in the library and get a jump on your homework? Call me or text me when you get this. See you soon.”
    He settled into one of the benches near his SUV to wait. He was unsettled. He didn’t like that Nat was there alone. It sounded stupid when he acknowledged it to himself, but it was true. He didn’t want to see her as helpless, but she was. She’d said the last week had been better. She’d even said Harper seemed to be distracting Lena and Jen whenever Nat was around, but would she tell him the truth?
    He often thought she was trying to protect him as much he tried to protect her. She was a smart girl, and she was emotional. She knew damn well the past couple years had been just as hard on him as her. But it didn’t mean he wanted her worry. She was good at worrying. He saw it on her face a lot, and she was too young for it. It was why they’d left their life in Chicago behind and run away to an island in the middle of nowhere. Too bad the worry had followed them.
    When his cell phone vibrated against his hip thirty minutes later, he snatched it up. It was a text from Natalie.
    Going to dinner with Harper and her mom at the Landing Bar and Grill!
    He dialed her instantly, and her phone went straight to voice mail. When he cursed under his breath, a nearby elderly gentleman scowled at him. He dialed again. Nothing. Her phone was off, and he was guessing she’d done it on purpose. She knew he didn’t trust Harper or her mother or that he would appreciate this as a good idea.
    He spent the next thirty minutes pacing at the bow of the ferry, staring at Bristol Island in the distance. She was there alone with a girl who’d made her life hell for the past few weeks, and Nat was too vulnerable and trusting to understand the threat. The exclamation point at the end of her text said it clearly enough. When the ferry captain finally announced they were underway and pulled away from the dock, he returned to his car. He sat in the driver’s seat watching Bristol grow in front of him as they got closer and closer.
    He tried to reach her again without success. It was a waste of time, as he knew it would be. She was a child after all, and she could be petulant with the best of them. He watched Bristol through his windshield, and when they were finally there, the cars in front of him started to move. He gritted his teeth and pulled forward too. The Landing Bar and Grill wasn’t far, hence the name, and he likely could have walked from the ferry as quickly as it took him to wait for the cars in front of him to move out of his way. Once he was finally on the road, it was only thirty seconds before he was pulling up in front of the dockside restaurant.
    He saw the same white Subaru Forester Joss had been in the week before parked outside the restaurant. As he stepped from his larger Toyota Land Cruiser, he slammed the door closed, pausing to take a deep breath before he went inside. He was angry. He couldn’t even say for sure why, or perhaps there were too many whys to isolate it, but he couldn’t seem to rein in the fury as he stalked toward the restaurant.
    She had no right. No right to interfere with his daughter’s life. She hadn’t earned the right to involve herself in his daughter’s life. As he pushed through the entrance door, he scanned the small dining room, searching for them. When his eyes lit on Joss, she bit her lower lip and then smiled. It fell quickly from her mouth as she took in his less than friendly expression. He walked deliberately slowly over to them. He stopped at the edge of the table, taking a deep breath. Joss wasn’t even trying to smile at him at that point.
    Nat looked sheepishly up to him. “Hey, Dad.” She waited patiently for him to say something. She wasn’t nearly