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as intimidated as Joss seemed at the moment, but then, Nat knew him well enough to know that though his anger might look horrifying, it didn’t mean it actually was.
    “Finish your dinner, and then come out to the car.” He turned his focus on Joss then. “Can I speak to you outside, please?” She nodded but said nothing.
    He didn’t wait for her to stand before he turned and walked away. Her chair legs screeched across the old worn wooden floors. When he reached the door, he paused, keeping his eyes forward as he held the door open behind him. The weight of the door shifted as she reached for it, and then he kept walking, still refusing to look back at her.
    “Isaiah—”
    He rounded on her before she could say anything further. “Who do you think you are interfering in my daughter’s life?”
    “Excuse me?” She looked and sounded incredulous. “I was only trying—”
    “To be nosy as hell. I know exactly what you’re doing.”
    “I was trying to help!”
    “Well, don’t! She doesn’t need your help.”
    “What?”
    “You’re nothing to her. Do you understand me? You’re not her friend. You’re not some concerned parent! Don’t try to be something to her you’re not. She doesn’t need it. It doesn’t help her.” His voice was inappropriately loud, and he instantly crossed his arms as he clamped his mouth shut to stifle his voice.
    “I am a concerned parent! And what the hell is wrong with that?” Joss simply looked at him in shock.
    He couldn’t say he wasn’t shocked at his own behavior too. Why the fuck was he so mad at her? Did he actually think she’d done something wrong? Isaiah raked his hands through his hair in frustration as she stared on, watching him, seemingly powerless to understand where he was coming from.
    “Where is Natalie’s mother?”
    Whatever regret he’d been feeling for how he was treating her disappeared as he looked at her. “Damn nosy aren’t you?”
    He studied her, and she looked right back. She was definitely no longer intimidated. If he was guessing, he’d pushed her hard enough her defenses had snapped into place. She could be defensive with the best of them. He’d seen it in the principal’s office the first time he’d met her. Could he say he was any different?
    “Butt the fuck out of our lives. Got it?” As he turned from her to his car, he heard the door open behind him. Natalie told Joss “bye” as they passed one another.
    He stared at his steering wheel as Natalie climbed in. The moment he heard her seatbelt click, he put his car in reverse and backed out.
    “Dad, they were being nice—even Harper. You didn’t have to be rude.”
    He glanced at her for a moment. She wasn’t happy with him. He couldn’t say he was happy with himself either.
    “Sorry. I’m just not sure what to think of them.”
    “Well, I’ll tell you what I think.”
    He pulled up to a red light, and he cocked his head to the side as he watched her.
    “I think your job’s made you paranoid. Mom used to say it all the time.”
    He chuckled, but it died quickly in his throat at the painful memories that brought up. “Not paranoid enough, though. I missed a lot of things I should have seen.”
    Nat sighed. “I wanna be happy here.”
    He watched her for a moment longer. A car behind them honked, making it clear they didn’t appreciate the fact that the light was now green, and he was sitting there unmoving. He let off the brake, continuing on. If she could be happy, hell if she could even want to be happy, didn’t he owe it to her to share that optimism?

Chapter Five
    “Hey. Got time for a walk-in?” Steph’s voice echoed through the phone receiver from the front desk of Bristol Realty. “Thought you might kill me if I asked Randall first.” Steph laughed for a moment. Joss would definitely kill Steph for such a thing.
    “I’ll take it. God knows I need the commission after losing the last one to that asswipe—”
    “You’re on speaker.” Little